Book Review: The Two Tails

Mamma Bear Book Review

*A bear trundles in with a book under one, fuzzy arm*

 I received these books in exchange for an honest review. 
The Impeccable Petunia books, Parts I and II follow the misadventures of an open minded, spunky, and loyal Wyandotte hen as she deals with flock politics, discrimination, and a series of disasters that both elevate her and ostracize her from the other chickens.

The story is charming, sweet, heartwarming and at times, tragic. It's a gentle read and has obviously been lovingly created. The protagonist is admirable and easy to root for and her menagerie of friends are well developed, diverse and entertaining.

There were, however a few things that tripped me up about the stories, and most of them can be ferreted down to a sense of confusion. First, structurally. I'm not certain why the story is in two parts, nor did part one feel like it could stand alone as a story. It's much shorter than part two and has no real ending or resolution. I feel like splitting the book apart was an odd decision and you really must read both to understand what's going on. Part one, just sort of stops 'en media res' and picks up on page one of part two.

Secondly, Conceptually.... I felt like the Impeccable Petunia books couldn't quite decide if they were middle grade or adult fiction. The story and characters are very simple, with basic needs, thoughts and motivation that you would expect from children's literature (not a bad thing, I enjoy children's literature.) There were places where the level of suspension of disbelief also felt like a  middle grade read, but all throughout the language and writing reads like adult fiction, to the point of being pointedly wordy or using diction and vocabulary that would be out of place in a middle grade read. A little bit of a waffle between the two that pulled me out of fully embedding in the story. I felt a bit like a fish out of water trying to sort out what sort of place I'd landed in.

Last, Technically. There were some places in the story where the action became confusing. I had trouble sorting out what was actually happening on the page, and in a few places felt like there might actually be text missing. One scene in part one ends in the middle of a conversation as if the rest of the scene might have been accidentally deleted. I couldn't be certain of this, but then in part two I found a sentence that was only half there, as if the rest had been lost in edits. My guess is that formatting might have eaten a word here and there or even possibly a paragraph or two and that made it tricky to suss out what was going on a few times.

Overall, the stories are fun and super heartwarming, and Impeccable Petunia gets three claws up, and if the omissions were accidental and repaired, that would certainly be modified accordingly.

Character: 
Petunia and her friends were delightfully portrayed. The flock of chickens got a little confusing, as there were so many individuals and they somewhat blurred together and were hard to keep track of. I definitely enjoyed Petunia's portions better than the flock scenes.

World Building:
The exploration of flock dynamics was fun and unique. If it had been clearer and less confusing/garbled in places I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

Pacing:  
The story moved and built tension very well. I felt like the flock scenes got a little repetitive, and the primary action centered around Petunia and her journey.

 Shiny:
The heartstrings. I like a warm fuzzy read about animal friends, and Petunia definitely delivered that. Very nice feels and a a sweet story.

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