Rosa Mandolini knows in her heart that her family are the greatest painters of magical illuminations in the city. But the eccentric Studio Mandolini has fallen on hard times, and the future is no longer certain.
While trying to help her family, Rosa discovers a strange magical box protected by a painted crow. But when she finds a way to open the box, she accidentally releases the Scarling, a vicious monster determined to destroy the Mandolini family at any cost.
With the aid of her former best friend and a painted crow named Payne, it’s up to Rosa to stop the Scarling before it unmakes the magical paintings that keep the city running and hopefully save her family in the process!
Quite the imaginative fantasy setting.
Let me give you a quick summary about Illuminations. An illumination is a painting that carries a magical charm. For example:
- A painting of radishes with wings ward off sickness
- A painting of a cheerful little pig surrounded by flames wards off nightmares.
- A painting of two peppermills crossed like swords prevents indigestion, queasiness, and upset stomach.
- A painting of a blue-eyed cat keeps mice away.
Illuminations are very specific. If you change the painting in any way, the magic won’t work. I’d like to know how the author developed all the different painting concepts. I’m guessing she did a lot of art history research.
I love crows. I don’t know why I love them so much. I think it’s the funny way they hop around on the ground. The only thing better than a crow is a talking crow. Introducing Payne, the talking living painting crow. Payne is Rosa’s only source of information about the Scarling. Unfortunately, he keeps withholding details and getting distracted by shiny objects. There is one part of the story where the author does a fantastic job painting out Payne’s tragic backstory.
I spent most of the story wondering what the point of the confusing calendar dates at the beginning of each chapter was. The dates weren’t like “March 3, 1663, Thursday.” They were “Wheat Day. Messidor, the Month of Harvest.” I later learned in the Acknowledgments that the odd dates were derived from the French Revolutionary Calendar, a very peculiar calendar created in the aftermath of the French Revolution. It didn’t last long, and it wasn’t a good calendar. The author liked the absurd days like “Turnip Day” and “Compost Day” and wanted to use the concept in a story. So, she did. After learning about the French Revolutionary Calendar, I’m grateful for our current calendar.
I highly recommend this book to artists and fantasy lovers. If you enjoyed T. Kingfisher’s “A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking” and Jessica Khoury’s “The Mystwick School of Musicraft,” you’ll love this story.