Magonia

by Maria Dahvana Headley Narrated by Therese Plummer, Michael Crouch

Overview

“Maria Dahvana Headley is a firecracker: she's whip smart with a heart, and she writes like a dream.” -Neil Gaiman, bestselling author of The Graveyard Book and Coraline

Aza Ray Boyle is drowning in thin air. Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak-to live.

So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.

Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who's always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world-and found, by another. Magonia.

Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power-but as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war between Magonia and Earth is coming. In Aza's hands lies fate of the whole of humanity-including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

Neil Gaiman's Stardust meets John Green's The Fault in Our Stars in this New York Times bestselling story about a girl caught between two worlds, two races, and two destinies.

Don't miss Aerie, the stunning, highly anticipated sequel!

Editorial Reviews

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The sweeping, lyrical language in both parts of the book is captivating, with haunting scenes woven from carefully chosen, sharply evocative descriptions.

Django Wexler

Magonia hooked me from the first page. It has an amazing voice, brutal and hopeful both at once, and a beautiful, unique mythology. Wonderful.

Booklist

With lush writing, memorable world building, and an array of peculiar characters, this is sure to thrill readers looking for a distinctive, imaginative tale in the vein of Laini Taylor and Neil Gaiman.

Victoria Aveyard

Magonia is magical. A high-flying, refreshing, and literally out-of-the-blue fantasy with great characters, emotional depth, and a unique fantasy world that I never saw coming.

Neil Gaiman

Maria Dahvana Headley is a firecracker: she’s whip smart with a heart, and she writes like a dream.

Kirkus Reviews

2015-02-03
A girl with a rare fatal disease discovers a magical secret about herself. Aza Ray Boyle, nearly 16, is sentenced to death by a breathing disorder medical science calls Azaray syndrome (though Aza herself thinks it should be called "Clive" or maybe "the Jackass"). Somehow she keeps surviving: hating the hospital, snarking at her teachers, loving her batty family, and completely relying on her anti-social best friend, Jason. When the worst happens, Aza's shocked at how unprepared she really is. She's even less prepared to wake up on an airship, surrounded by blue-skinned sailors and giant bird people who call her Aza Ray Quel. Aza, it seems, is the lost savior of the sky people of Magonia, stolen away and hidden on land. Politicking and conspiracies confuse Aza (and set up a sequel). She really ought to relish being special as she masters her newfound powers of singing and working with a bird familiar (shaky worldbuilding leaves the magical structure somewhat hand-wavy). The painful, sarcastic beauty of Aza's interactions down below in the everyday world begs comparisons to John Green's The Fault in Our Stars (2012), yet passive savior Aza of Magonia is a pale shadow of her nonmagical self. Striking an uneven balance between gorgeous realism and banal fantasy, this requires readers tolerant of books with split personalities. (Fantasy. 13-15)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170353415
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/28/2015
Series:	Magonia Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged

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