Thomas Wildus and The Book of Sorrows

by J M Bergen

• ISBN10: 1732457808
• ISBN13: 9781732457805
• Publish Date: 2 February 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Elandrian Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 364
• Language: English

Reviews

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

~*Check out all of my reviews over at The Bent Bookworm!*~

“Magic is real, Thomas. No matter what happens, always remember that magic is real.”

Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows feels like the start of something big. While there’s not a TRUE cliffhanger ending, there is so much unfinished business – I was happy to see this is supposed to be the first of five books!

Thomas is an ordinary kid, obsessed with comic books and having doodle wars with his best friend, Enrique. His dad disappeared years ago and his mom is an insanely busy professor, but he’s mostly pretty happy and knows he has a good life. Then weird things start to happen, weird things involving a book with a changing cover, and strange people appearing and seeming to stalk him. So yes…this book falls into the “chosen one” trope…but tropes only become tropes because people love them. We all just have our favorites. 😉

The first half of the book was setup. Which was…slightly off-putting. I was convinced this was going to be a 3 star read until I was over halfway through, but the last parts of the story bumped it up to a solid 4 stars! The writing during the first half is at times kind of clunky and awkward, not unlike the middle school audience the book is aimed at but hopefully not enough to put them off.

THEN, the action starts. And I was intrigued by the puzzles and the magic and the intrigue. It was really cool and I just kept finding more things to be curious about. This is also where all those loose ends start to appear, which obviously are leading into a huge epic adventure for the series. Thomas is kind of pulled in two directions here, as he’s uncertain who to trust – and who wouldn’t be, with all the things he thought he knew about himself and the world in general, suddenly appearing to be lies – and wants to both be loyal to his family and friends, and save the world. *wink wink* He’s an incredibly likable character, as (so far) he has stayed humble and true to himself even with the discovery of his special abilities.

The bad guy, who stays in the background for most of the book, appears only in about the last quarter. And then, what do you know! Is he REALLY a bad guy? Oh boy. Who is Thomas supposed to believe? I love that this presents a somewhat (only somewhat) morally gray appearing character in a story for this age group.

Obviously, there is a lot more to come in this story, and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll definitely be reading the sequel, Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria. Also, I’m totally on board with the galaxy-ish looking covers for these books.

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[Baroness Book Trove]

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Magic is real!? Yeah right.

Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows by JM Bergen has that Harry Potter vibe to it but its completely different. Thomas has gone on quite the adventure in this book. He finds out what happened with his dad and about magic.

What I liked

• The book has a modern take for a middle-grade fantasy book about magic. It’s pretty neat to read and has problems that any young person has to learn to handle.


• Thomas knows Kung Fu. I like this because it’s good to see a main character who has more than just magic or something to defend themselves. It also lets the kids’ reading the book know that they can do it.


• Thomas eventually stood up against the bully.


• I loved the comic books that Thomas reads since those are pretty funny and showed that he is a twelve-year-old boy.


• The lead up to everything for Thomas was marvelous. The magic, the book, and the bad guy were well thought out and fabulous.

What I didn’t like

I didn't like that the author did some time jumps in the book and I wasn’t sure where we were at first, but then it became clear for most of them. Also, how Thomas’ mom dealt with not talking about his dad for the last seven years, wasn't a good way to handle this situation. Granted there were somethings she couldn’t tell Thomas yet about his dad, but she could have done a bit more.

Five Stars

Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows by JM Bergen is the first book in a new series, and I am thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Thomas grows a lot in this book, and it’s just the first one. He also learns a lot about his family history, and about himself. This book is impressively entertaining, and I couldn’t put it down for anything. I highly recommend this book to those who love middle-grade fantasy books.

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This review was originally posted on Baroness' Book Trove