Review: innocent and fun
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 8, 2012
Brunswick put me in the mind of The Never Ending Story or maybe a modernized Narnia. I'm fairly sure I'm not the first person to make the comparison, but that just further supports the similarities. Jonathan and his family are about as ideal as you can imagine, everyone loves each-other and is comfortable expressing it. So it isn't surprising that Jon's overriding desire is initially to get home. But because he comes from a strong, loving family that has taught him to do the right thing he can't turn a blind eye to the suffering around him. It is easy to see the influence of his home-life in the decisions he makes, and this serves to make his emotional transition believable.He meets a whole host of interesting characters in the new land of Brunswick. This is my favorite aspect of the book. Haines really lets her imagination go wild. The variety of species is a lot of fun. That they are initially reluctant to combine their resources serves as an allegory for the manner in which racial or cultural segregation weakens a society or cause.The story does tend to leap periodically. I would have liked for it to have progressed a little more smoothly, but I didn't find this so jarring that it put me off in any manner. If you are looking for a story with a contagious innocence that reminds you of what is good in the world, this is probably the one for you.