Title:

Illuminations

Author:

T. Kingfisher

Category:

Fantasy / Science Fiction

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

October 25, 2023

lluminations is Kingfisher's third Young Adult (YA) novel, following the excellent A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and the successful Minor Mage. I enjoyed those two novels, but Illuminations failed to impress me with the same high level of inventiveness, world building and characters. This is not to imply that Illuminations is a bad book, I just feel it failed to meet the high standards set by the previous two Kingfisher YA novels.

Illuminations is the story of eleven-year old Rosalita Mandolini, who's parents died in a fire, and now she is raised by her relatives - a cast of eccentric aunts and uncles and a no-nonsense Grandma who rules the entire Mandolini Studio. Wise, kindly Uncle Alfonso is the best character, he is understanding and supportive of a young girl trying to grow up. The Mandolini are artists, they are the best in the city at painting magic spells. There is an entire Codex describing the effects a properly painted can bring - for example, a painting of a cat with blue eyes will keep mice out of the house. Rosa expects that one day she will learn to follow in the footsteps of her relatives and paint spells, but for now she is just an preteen who in bored and looking for something to do.

The Mandolini Studio occupies a large house, each aunt and uncle has their own painting bay. Beneath the house is a huge basement that is loaded with props that the artists look at as they work on their creations. Right now, Uncle Alfonso needs the stuffed armadillo to use as a model, is it possible that Rosalita could find it amongst all the costumes, artifacts, weapons and unorganized paraphernalia in the cellar? As Rosa is searching, she comes upon a box and gets the strong compulsion to stay away. Intrigued, Rosa tries to pick up the box, but again gets the feeling she should go the other way. Her curiosity is aroused - is there something magical about the box? Rosa finds she cannot even look at it.

Rosa finds a way to open the box. She immediately regrets her action.

Rosa has released a scarling - a sentient, animated vegetable (yes, really) - that is out for revenge after being locked in the box for 200 years. The scarling is a mandrake root (which often vaguely resemble human forms, which is superstitious societies thought mandrakes had magical properties), and a skilled painter has placed a magical illumination upon it to make it come alive. The mandrake is armed with a stick of charcoal - and armed with this drawing tool, the scarling rampages through the Mandolini studio, drawing on the carefully painted images and ruining their magical properties.

Rosa is in big trouble. But opening the box has also released the guardian crow, which for 200 years held the scarling in the box. The crow can talk, it's name is Payne (after the color Payne's grey) and it joins Rosa in a desperate struggle to stop the scarling before the Mandolinis are ruined.

Illuminations certainly has some clever ideas, but the threat posed by a sneaky mandrake root didn't seem real enough to me. Rosalita is a sympathetic character, but for whatever reason, I didn't warm to her as much as I did for many of the characters in Kingfisher's other books (for example, Toadling in Thornhenge is immensely likeable).

There is still a big backlog of Kingfisher books that I have yet to read, and at her publishing rate, there is bound to be several books coming out in the upcoming year. I think only the most devoted Kingfisher fan should seek out Illuminations.