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Book Review of The Song of Mavin Manyshaped

The Song of Mavin Manyshaped
reviewed on + 1442 more book reviews


Song of Mavin brings smile after smile to readers throughout this novel. Like others, I discovered that I love the light hearted writing and the whimsical characters. This, I thought, is what a fantasy should be. It's true fantasy and so much fun.

So, who is Mavin Manyshaped? She's a shape shifter, one of only two females who lives in a shape shifter community. When she can change the shape of her toes she practices in secret because she wants to impress others with what she can do. She experiments for hours to become various objects - trees, animals, even people which she is not supposed do. She tells only her older sister urging secrecy. Mavin begins to observe her sister, finding sadness surrounding her. Learning the cause she urges her sister to change into the bird she dreamed of becoming. Fly somewhere to find a piece of herself and follow her dream. Mavin, too, wants to fly where she can follow her dreams and travel the world. When her sister leaves, Mavin takes her form to disguise the leaving. Then she take her young brother and leaves, too.

What's special about this read? Mavin herself, of course, who becomes a true individual as she develops her talent like simply by practicing endless hours. She realizes that her sister was held from her dreams because the community expected only more shape shifters. This discovery stimulates Mavin to reach for her own and the adventures begin, not the least of which leads to a magician whose attraction frightens her while it stirs her heart and a ghoul who spreads plague.