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Eskalys is a mischievous young boy who loves nothing more than conspiring with his best friends; Firnaël, an elf and Gugnir, a dwarf with an adorable lisp. When he see’s a messenger flying high over head, he’s struck by the idea to pull their most epic prank yet; cover everyone at the annual warm season Ball in horse manure from a great height. Unfortunately for Eskalys, his parents were not so impressed.
Now grounded, Eskalys is bored, and instead of occupying himself with tidying his bedroom, he starts to pelt fruit at passers by from his bedroom window. Exasperated, his mother and father (who once, was also somewhat mischievous and the bane of his teacher’s lessons), the archmage is summoned to start Eskalys’ initiation into becoming a mage.
Meanwhile, Firnaël and Gugnir are devastated that their human friend is to be sent away. So, the night before Eskalys is due to leave, the mischievous trio set about drinking Eskalys’ father’s liquor. To disastrous consequences.
Now, as charming as the characters are, especially Gugnir’s lisp, there were some problems with Juvenile Tribulations, the narrative becoming confused and somewhat garbled at times. Gugnir’s lisp was intermittent, with him being able to pronounce one a word in one sentence, but in the next, the same word would be lisped. That was one continuity issue, making me unsure on whether it was Gugnir speaking or another character. Another issue was with Eskalys. There’s many points within the main narrative where Eskalys is referred to as her:
The interested party who was passing by her son at that very moment mentioned to him… tidying his room would be a healthy occupation.
At Uwpon Castle, Eskalys had found a healthy occupation, other than tidying her room, much to her mother’s displeasure… “Eskalys, stop throwing fruit at the windows!”…. “Yes mother!” the offender screamed as he ran off down the corridor pursued by the soft scream of his mother.
Other issues with Juvenile Tribulations were that Latrev would skip through perspectives without any form of chapter break. Many books within the fantasy trope have multiple narrative perspectives; it’s a great tool to tell the story from other character’s point’s of view, and can work incredibly well. But only when there’s some indication that you’re moving from one character’s narrative to another. There’s no such indication in Juvenile Tribulations. Indeed, a chapter will swing from one end of the content to another several times, leaving the reader dizzy as they attempt to get their bearings.
It’s a great shame, as this has the potential to be a great, fun book. The characters are adorable and engaging and have witty and fun dialogues. It’s just not executed well at the moment.
S. A
This book was reviewed as part of the Reedsy Discovery Reviewer Program. You can read the original review here
You can buy Juvenile Tribulations on Amazon, or read it as part of Kindle Unlimited.