Mary: Hello and welcome back to YA Book Club! Today we’re discussing The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu. You might remember Marie Lu from another little book we read, Warcross. However, The Kingdom of Back is a completely different sort of story, focusing on historical fiction and fantasy rather than science fiction. In the novel, the young Mozart siblings (yes, THOSE Mozarts) journey back and forth between Europe and The Kingdom of Back, a fantastical fairy land inhabited by the fey-like Hyacinth. As the novel progresses, Nannerl begins to question her role as a sibling and as a woman, all as she fights to save her brother.

Emily: Welcome back to the club! Welcome back to the blog!

Mary: We are happy to welcome everyone back!!

Emily: Where to begin with this one?

Mary: Well, it was a weird one for me, if I’m being honest. I wanted to like it more than I did. The Kingdom of Back itself isn’t that well fleshed out to me.

Emily: Oh so we're getting right into the negatives ok. Let’s start with a bang.

Mary: But I still like Marie Lu’s voice and think she particularly shows character development well.

A good and a bad!

Emily: Okay I'll do a good and a bad too. I agree with your good and bad. But also here are mine.

I liked that this book was based on a lot of real-life details about the Mozart siblings. But it was very slow.

Mary: Yes, definitely.

Emily: Can we also talk about how similar this book is to Pan's Labyrinth?

Mary: Ooooh yeah that’s true. Girl escapes to a fairy tale world.

Emily: And hear me out... she started writing this 13 years ago...

Mary: Uh oh.

Emily: Which is right around when Pan's Labyrinth came out.

Mary: Welcome to our Ted Talk.

Emily: Girl escapes to fairy tale world. She has to complete three tasks to get what she wants. Her guide is maybe good maybe evil.

Mary: It’s very similar.

Emily: Something bad could happen to her brother. She ends up sacrificing herself in the end to protect her brother basically

Mary: Coincidence??

Emily: So... yeah...

I was like...

I saw this movie.

Mary: I think you’re right that the Mozarts make it interesting. Apparently, these two real life siblings actually invented a Kingdom of Back as a game to pass the time. I’m not sure that we have any evidence of what their kingdom was like though, or how they felt about it as adults. I do love the trope of taking something with a historical root and saying, OK but what if all that was rEaL?!

Emily: Yes. I also think it's a lot of fun to say "here's a historical figure we don't really know that much about. let's write a book about her.” Which is why I LOVE THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL

More books about famous people's random sisters, I say

Mary: Yes, yes! Honestly, I didn’t know Mozart had a sister.

Emily: Me neither.

Mary: Really, I felt most compelled by Nannerl’s realization that she was going to be held back as a woman, and that her brother was the one that had a shot at a career in music.

Emily: When her dad published her music under her brother's name.

Ouch.

Mary: It was like she was pulled between wanting all those girl-things, like getting married and checking out boys and stuff, but she also really wanted to write and be famous. Yeah, big ouch. It was a bad dad move.

Emily: And let's be real. That's still a dilemma women face. Family or career. Not something men ever have to choose between. They get to have both if they want.

Mary: Definitely. It’s unfortunate and I do hate it. And it was good to have the novel highlight that and reach through history and slap us a little.

Emily:Meanwhile, I'm over here choosing a cat family and no career. The opposite of "why not both?"

Mary: Cats don’t have to go to college.

Emily: SO true. Not only do they not have to, they don't want to.

Mary: They’d rather not. It’s scary.

Emily: Lots of people NOT WEARING MASKS

But anyway.

Mary: UGH. Your negative is really big for me in the book, too. It’s slow for sure.

Emily: It was really slow. I hate to skim because I like to savor every word of a book.

But I skimmed. Because I just got to the point where I was reading it so slowly.

Mary: Me too. I skimmed and then slowed down for character interaction. Yes, we know Papa is planning another trip to somewhere in Europe. But what should we be caring about??

I hate saying this because I really like Marie Lu and this is clearly a passion project for her. I’m glad she got to write it.

Emily: Yes, and I can see some people really digging this. I didn't hate it. It was a medium reading experience for me. I think part of the problem, for me, was that Marie Lu tried to make the language very old and proper-sounding. And it made it feel kinda... Labored

Mary: I agree—the language was a lot. Then again I’m a huge fan of irreverent history like The Great and Marie Antoinette.

Emily: I am too, but the language in those two examples doesn't seem like it's trying too hard to be old-sounding. And it's also only dialogue. Not long descriptions of travel.

Mary: Yes—I NEVER like travel descriptions. Not here, not in D&D, not in Lord of the Rings.

Emily: It was a lot of: “We traveled. Then Woferl got sick. Then we traveled. Then sick."

Small pox.

VIenna.

Small pox.

Mary: Clavier. Lol.

Mary: How do we feel about this book in comparison to Warcross? Is that fair? I kept thinking about Warcross because it’s also by Marie Lu.

Emily: I remember feeling kind of middle of the road about Warcross too. For different reasons.

Historical fantasy is probably more my wheelhouse than sci-fi, honestly. At least when it comes to YA. I think this genre was much more my kind of thing.

Mary: While I’m the opposite! It wasn’t a bad middle of the road. But it also wasn’t good. Which is, I guess, the definition.

I would’ve liked to see Nannerl and Johann’s relationship explored more, but I’m also aware that wasn’t the main point of the novel.

Emily: I agree though. I was kind of expecting more about that at the end. Especially because Nannerl's dad was like "Nope, not this guy."

Mary: But it just sort of fizzled out.

Emily: Right, and he sent letters and everything.

Mary: We also get a weird jump to old Nannerl thinking about things. But not enough for me to get a sense of her life beyond where we leave her.

Emily: I guess that was to point out that her brother still died young?

Mary: I guess so. I had a phase where I watched the movie Amadeus a lot, so I was like, well of course he did!

Emily: Haha that's a good movie!!

Mary: But also I cannot remember him having a sister for the life of me on that movie. It’s good, though.

Emily: He was too busy partying it up.

Mary: It was kind of a different time in his life.

Emily: I was reading about this and some historical accounts say that he didn't speak to his sister much when they were older

MAYBE because she tried to sell him to an evil elf idk idk

Mary: Rude of him, but maybe!

I wanted to know more about Hyacinth, too. I love an evil elf.

But IDK if there was more to know there.

Emily: Yeah he just seemed like a bad dude?

Mary: Pretty much.

Emily: I wish more had been made of the fact that this music was inspired by another world. I don't know. I just wanted it to feel more magical if we were going to go there.

Mary: Yes—it wasn’t magical and wasn’t not magical. I need a stance on magic

Emily: I think we needed either more history or more magic, if that makes sense? Like neither were developed enough for me.

I also read a review that was talking about how the passage of time was a little unclear, which I also agree with. We're going through their whole childhood here, and sometimes it's a little unclear how long they've been traveling or when there's a big skip ahead.

For a book that moved really slowly, there are still so many details I'm fuzzy on

Mary: Yes yes—but I also don’t want to be unfair on that because I was skimming those long descriptions of travel.

Emily: That's true too. That's why I wanted to say someone else pointed it out too. So it wasn't just because we were skimming.

Unless everyone who read this book was skimming.

Mary: I’d give this a 3/5!

Emily: I gave this book 3 stars which is I think what I gave Warcross.

It's a solid 3 for me.

Mary: Yes, same!

It’s good to be back in YA book club!

What’s up next for us?

Emily: Okay our next book is The Circus Rose by Betsey Cornwell. It's a retelling of the fairy tale "Snow White and Rose Red" but at a circus.

And like Snow White and Rose Red, THERE IS A BEAR