The Prince of Nowhere
Rochelle Hassan
HarperCollins
Published May 3, 2022
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About The Prince of Nowhere
Roda isn’t afraid of the monsters that roam the wilds of the Aerlands. She’s safe in her small town, surrounded by a wall of freezing, enchanted mist that keeps the beasts away. So when Roda rescues an injured crow on the instruction of her secret pen pal, Anonymous – whose letters arrive without warning and correctly predict the future – she’s surprised to learn she’s brought one of the so-called monsters home. Because her crow is really a shape-shifting boy named Ignis.
Ignis doesn’t remember where he was going before he crashed. But Anonymous brought him and Roda together for a reason – and the only way to find out what Anonymous wants is to follow the trail of baffling clues in Roda’s letters. Their perilous journey leads them into the mist and beyond, to a mysterious place called Nowhere. But Ignis has secrets, and the farther they get, the more Roda doubts she can trust him.
As a nefarious force closes in, they’ll have to put aside their differences and work together. For they might be each other’s only defense against an enemy who threatens their past, present, and future.
My Review
One of the things I’ve been really interested in finding are books that bridge the transition between middle grade and young adult books. Every reader is different, and some leap forward into YA without looking back. Others take longer to make that transition, even though they may feel like middle grade books become too young for them. At any rate, I feel like this book is exactly the kind of thing I have been looking for in terms of still having some middle grade themes, but written in a more mature way that I think will appeal to older readers.
I loved both Ignis and Roda. Most of the story is in Roda’s point of view. She’s smart and determined and I couldn’t get enough of her. She and Ignis tend to bicker a bit, but it feels like the way you argue with a best friend or sibling, so I found it endearing.
The plot kept me turning pages and reading chapter after chapter. I really didn’t want to put it down. I read the whole book in less than 24 hours. Some of the things that happened were things I’d been hoping for– other things took me completely by surprise.
It looks like Rochelle Hassan’s next book (which comes out next year and is titled THE BURIED AND BOUND) will be a young adult novel. I definitely want to read that, but I hope she writes more middle grade, too.
Readers who enjoyed THE STORM KEEPER’S ISLAND by Catherine Doyle or SKANDAR AND THE UNICORN THIEF by A. F. Steadman definitely need to put this one on their reading lists!
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.
Representation
Roda has pale skin. Ignis’s skin is gray.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
None.
Spiritual Content
Ignis can shapeshift into a crow. Other characters have the ability to use magic.
Violent Content
Situations of peril. Brief battle scenes causing injury. Not graphically described.
Drug Content
A woman is apparently poisoned and unconscious.
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