Spoilers Ahead: 

We follow Mal and Michael as their separate journies turn into one. 

Mal was given a special coat, that made her have the ability to fly. She would spend her days soaring about in the Archipelagos, the land where humans couldn’t get to and where the mythical creatures lived. There are 14 different islands (I think?), each one with a different species living on it. 

One day, Mal is at home with her great-aunt and she hears a scream. Someone is coming after her with a knife, and her great-aunt gets struck down. She has a tiny friend, Gelaphin the Griffin (god, spelling this was an absolute shit-show) and they both had to escape, but they ended up losing each other when they had to jump off a cliff to escape the killer. 

Michael finds out that he is actually a Guardian of the Archipelagos, where Mal is from. and so he follows Mal back there, trying to save her and help her figure out what’s going on. 

Their whole journey is very long and very eventful, so I’ll give little snippets of what happens. They gain a crew, thanks to having to jump off a cliff to avoid the killer (who springs on them, after killing Mal’s great-aunt the second they arrived back at Mal’s house from the human world) and Nighthound introduces his crew to them. He doesn’t want much to do with them at first, but they grow on him. They figure out that someone is killing the creatures in the Archipelagos, and that is because someone has been able to infiltrate the Archipelagos. They make some new friends along the way, and they have to befriend some of the creatures to get what they need. They eventually find the infiltrator, and take him down, but there are some losses along the way, and others are touch-and-go too… 

This book was so beautiful to me. All the creatures, all the descriptions, the absolutely gorgeous friendship between Mal and Michael. I think showing friendship, pure friendship, between a young boy and a young girl is so important, especially these days when there’s often a lot of romanticisation of children’s relationships with each other. When Mal’s little Griffin died, I think part of me died too. I wasn’t expecting it, and it broke my heart. And the message behind Mal being gone but her spirit lives on, and she will find him again?? ABSOLUTELY BAWLING! 

I can’t lie to you, I was so disappointed with the villain. I had all my money set on it being Michael’s dad, I have no idea why I had that thought in my head. I’m still a little miffed it was someone we didn’t know, it would make perfect sense him being mentioned but us not actually seeing him, and then BOOM, he’s the villain. It would be brilliant, and I think I would have probably given this book 5 stars. 

Nighthound was one of the best things about this book, no questions asked. His humour is so dry and I love it, and he has an unexpected (but definitely expected in my knowledgeful writer mind). He just made things so funny, it was definitely childish humour, but it worked so well. And him and Iryan? Yes please! In fact, all of the characters are very real and very beautiful and lovely to read about. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone, definitely read it!!