A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

Book Synopsis:

Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance.

But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…

My Review:

5/5 stars. Early on, I was a bit unsure about this book. I loved the narrator from the start, and enjoyed the concept, but there was some sort of gross elements and vibe I wasn't the biggest fan of. However, it soon got much better. The story was action packed and engaging. It was equal parts dark and hilarious, with a lot of bad stuff seen through the lens of a witty 14-year-old. I loved all the characters, even the side characters. The book also had great themes/messages.

This book was so funny. I highlighted so many lines that made me laugh out loud, both in dialogue and Mona's matter-of-fact narration. Mona wasn't the only funny one; many of the characters, like Spindle, Aunt Tabitha, and even the Duchess, added lots of humor. Despite the dark themes and content, I had a fun reading experience.

Part of the humor came from the general concept of most wizards only being able to control a small type of thing—bread, in Mona's case. It was funny but also cool to see her learning to use her magic in different ways, especially with how it all came into play in the climax. It was very different from the typical magic systems in fantasy novels.

There were a lot of great themes running through this story. The biggest ones were that little people can still do big things and be heroes, and that authorities can be imperfect and fail. I really enjoyed those threads, and it never felt super heavy-handed. The characters talked about them directly often, but it made sense because those were real questions and concerns Mona had.

I would love to see a movie adaptation of this book. There were so many parts that would be so fun and interesting to see on screen, especially in the end.

Content:

Language: a**, God's name taken in vain, h*ll, d*mn

Sexual Content: none

Violence/Gore: blood, death, dead bodies (human and animal), wounds but nothing gory, a mention of cannibalism, a mention of kids getting left for dead, attempted murder

Drugs/Alcohol: a mention of sneaking out and drinking wine

Other: Mona mentions wanting to get her period once