Blue Window

A good book, but one that misses out on great because of a variety of structural, pacing, and plot issues.

The basic plot is straightforward. Five children from "our" world fall through a magic window into another universe, where they discovered that they are prophecied saviors destined to save the world. So far, so good; this may be a story that adults have seen many times, but for young readers, this may be their introduction to this story shape, and a good retelling of that story is always welcome.

Gewirtz does something that not a lot of YA authors manage to do, which is to make children who act believably as children. This is her greatest strength, and a reason to keep reading. Each of the five young protagonists is distinct and show more interesting.

Unfortunately, the structure of the story does them a disservice. The book is divided into five separate 3rd person limited POV sections, one for each child in descending order of age. The early portions of the story are associated with the older kids, while as the story goes on, the protagonists get younger. The result is awkward -- just as you would want your characters to take on greater agency and a more direct role in the advancement of the story, the POV character has less agency due to their youth. The last child's section, representing the climax of the story, felt like it was all happening utterly without her control and influence, save for a deus ex machina ending. The result was muddled and confusing, and not at all satisfying.

In fact, the author found constant recourse to a sixth POV, a character we don't even meet until late in the novel. Early on, that POV speaks in riddles so mysterious that they mean nothing to the reader, and were an effort to read. By the end, this POV becomes the only way for the reader to see certain things happen, but again, they do so without the POV character's agency.

As well drawn as the characters were, the structure of the story did no favors to their development. Susan's story petered out halfway through. Max had an interesting journey, but one that happened entirely in the background, once his POV passage was over. Nell did not seem to learn much of anything. Kate's POV section developed her nicely, but in a way that had not been hinted before her section, and which was abandoned afterwards. Jean's POV section did her a disservice; a few interesting themes were brought up, but these were lost in the confusion of the climax.

In short, problems with pacing and structure hampered what could have been a truly remarkable book. Young readers may enjoy it, especially those that see themselves reflected in the protagonists, but it has too many issues to appeal to a wide cross section of the public. show less

I found this book horrible. I passed it on to a colleague of mine, and she was much more amenable to it, but even she found it not very well written, and not a great book for the age group it is aimed toward, which is elementary school age children. The characters are teeth-grindingly horrible from the first paragraph. Susan and Max are the oldest (twins). Susan has no backbone. Max is an insufferable know it all. Nell is the middle child, and the only character who is somewhat interesting, but she reads like a stuffy, bossy, little old lady for most of the book. Kate and Jean are the youngest, and are both interchangeable, although I think Kate is supposed to be older than Jean. Both are vapid, whiny, spoiled brats. All five obnoxious show more brats fall through a magic blue window one evening, and find themselves stumbling through a new world.

This book has been compared to both The Wizard of Oz and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, both books I enjoyed. It's possible that my cynical adult self would hate those books if I read them today, but when I remember what I like about those books it is the new friends that the children find in their new worlds. I liked the beavers in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Dorothy's ragtag group of friends in The Wizard of Oz. The children in The Blue Window don't make friends with anyone in the new world. The people they interact with have very short parts in the narrative, and most of these characters aren't very pleasant. We are in the heads of all five children throughout the book, and these kids are really annoying. The other thing I hated about this book was that we get very little of the world they find themselves in. The history of the land is doled out very, very slowly, and it was so boring to read about that I think I missed crucial pieces of it because the end of the book seemed very anti-climatic. This is the problem with not having your characters interact with people in the new world. I want a Hagrid character, or a Tumnus character to sit down and explain everything about this new place to me. I want a history lesson upfront, not given out piece by excruciating piece over a 570 page book. Also, WHY WHY WHY were these particular, bratty children chosen for their task? Were they the "annoying family that lived"?
I also didn't understand why the characters were so anxious to get home. I got no sense of the home they left behind, and their parents are mentioned so rarely that I don't know if they were divorced, together, gay, straight, mean, or nice. So why were these kids always complaining?

I can't see myself recommending this book to any child, unless she was someone who had read the entire Chronicles of Narnia in a week, and couldn't stop talking about them. And even then I would think she would be disappointed by the lack of a cohesive story, or a sense of this made up world. Someone who really really likes long, heavy, boring books with lots of silly characters might enjoy this. However, people who enjoy that sort of book tend to be adults, and I don't think many adults would have the patience for this book. show less

Five siblings fall through a portal into a magical world. In searching for a way to get home, they discover that all is not well in this new place. Will they be able to survive and stay together long enough to figure out how to get back home?

I enjoyed this book while reading it -- it's a portal fantasy, and I generally like those. However, I found it one of the darkest children's portal fantasies I have ever read. The world into which the children fall is incredibly bleak and dangerous, and none of the characters they meet are entirely friendly. I also think that the pacing lags a bit, and the halfhearted attempt near the end to drag in the Children of Prophecy trope was unnecessary. However, the concept is sound and the world is show more interesting enough, if rather depressing. I'd say that this is guardedly recommended to readers who enjoy children's fantasy with a dark streak. show less

While I doubt that this book will be winning any major awards for stunning originality (shades of Narnia and The Magicians), if you enjoy world-crossing fantasy of the Young Adult variety, this is definitely an enjoyable read.

The basic premise is interesting, if not exactly original. Five siblings from (presumably) our world cross over through a temporary portal (a window, in this case) into a world of magic (although 'psychic ability' might be a more appropriate description in this case) that has seen far better days. You could even describe the world as post-apocalyptic, where the apocalypse is set off by magic. The coming of these five children has apparently been foretold as the salvation of the world. Of course (slight spoiler), show more this ends up being the case, everything is set right, and our four heroines and one hero return home, with no one the wiser back on Earth.

There were some interesting parallels to be drawn between the world these children visit and our own -- probably deliberately created. The alternate world was bleakly chauvinist, and that chauvinism had much to do with their destruction -- and the reversal of this chauvinism had much to do with their salvation.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, and wouldn't hesitate to hand it off to my young teen (or my almost not a teen anymore, although she would breeze through it in a day). show less

This book reminded me of The Knife of Never Letting Go series by Patrick Ness, but didn’t do as good of job of creating a believable world. Caught between Narnia and Wrinkle in Time five children are prophesied to save a world in another dimension. I loved the five siblings and their very realistic interactions with each other, but no one else’s motives seemed clear. In addition there was a very dark side to this story and unfortunately as a whole I did not enjoy it from the beginning and sadly did not completely finish it.

"Soon, an ancient prophecy leads them into battle..." Um...soon being a relative term here, because I got a third of the way in and nothing had happened. Good god. I tried so hard to finish this book, but reading for pleasure should not take this much effort. The five siblings fall through the window pretty early on in the book, and then.........nada. No plot development, no answers to wtf is going on, hell, not even really any character development. I couldn't do it. I hate not finishing books, but good lord. There are too many fantastic books in the world to slog through one that drags as much as this one did.

Hmm. Mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, Blue Window was a really neat idea about five siblings who fall through a window and end up in a strange world where they have to find their way home and also not get destroyed by the strange looking humanoid inhabitants of that world. It was a fun ride with nuances of The Chronicles of Narnia and A Wrinkle in Time.

On the other hand, this book was almost 600 pages long, and told the story in each of the childrens' POVs. I actually love multiple POVs, but with this book, the formatting was odd. I like multiple POVs when they switch comfortably between characters. This means we would fall into the most interesting perspective. Yes please! In Blue Window, 1/5 of the book is told by each of show more the children, starting with the oldest and working to the youngest. This was a bummer at times because by the time Max (for example) was doing interesting things, we've already left his perspective and oh well that ship has sailed.

I had a really hard time getting through this one. Not because of the characters - they were good. And the world building was good. But, my goodness, the pacing was really, really slow.Gewirtz took great pains not to skip by the mundane parts like learning and traveling. The problem with this is that all the real action happens in the last 60 pages because we've spent so long watching each child - one at a time - learn how to do the magic of this world. After 480 pages of this, the ending felt very anti-climatic. In some books, I like that vibe. In Blue Window, I was bored.

Overall, it's an interesting book. I think it would have been lovely as a more Narnia-esque drawn out story with fewer mundane scenes and several smaller novels. This will appeal to folks who like sibling stories, magical worlds, and finding strength in yourself. There's also a bit of a dystopia vibe, as this world has fallen to ruin. show less