The Wren Hunt

Starred review from October 1, 2018

Gr 7 Up-Wren, an orphan raised in a community of augurs by her grandfather, is encouraged to stop the yearly wren hunt. But she doesn't. Readers live through the excruciating hunt with Wren as she hides in the ruin of a cottage once inhabited by Arabella de Courcy, an artist who had fallen in love with a tree man and is eventually killed by him. Epigraphs, perhaps from de Courcy's diary, are interwoven into Wren's story in such a subtle way that one doesn't immediately realize their significance. After the bloodshed of the hunt, Wren goes home in time to be chosen to spy on the Harkness Foundation, the epicenter of the judges, who are apparently bent on destroying the augurs. A slow-moving story at first, the novel picks up the pace with the introduction of Tarc, the head of security for the judges, and his forbidden and mutual attraction to Wren. What will happen when he discovers Wren's true mission and identity? Among increasingly blurry allegiances, the ending is a shocker and entirely satisfying. The fantastical work is reminiscent of Maggie Stiefvater's "Raven Cycle," with its search for a Welsh king in a Latin-speaking forest, and Susan Cooper's "The Dark Is Rising" series. Watson brings a deep and visceral voice to old stories as well as an authentic and modern urban sensibility, making this a highly stylized read. VERDICT Give this title a prominent place in YA collections. Highly recommend.-Janet Gross, Cushing Academy, Ashburnham, MAHigh School

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2018
Augurs scry prophecies from patterns, but 17-year-old Wren Silke is uncertain about her own future.Raised by her gruff grandfather Smith, Wren distrusts her own dark powers of apophenia but yearns to protect her "grove" of fellow augurs in Kilshamble, Ireland. To help the augurs in their secret war against the fearsome, violent judges, Wren reluctantly goes undercover, intending to find the Daragishka Knot and restore the augurs' power sources. Interning at the judge stronghold of Harkness House, Wren must deflect the avid attention of Calista Harkness; avoid Calista's nephew, predatory bully David; and struggle with her crush on brooding bruiser Tarc. Wren's visible differences--she is half-white, half-other, dark-haired and brown-skinned, courtesy of an absent, perhaps Indian father--are less about ethnic identity and more symbolic. Wren suffers from "Chosen One" syndrome--i.e., inexplicable allure, checklistlike prophecy, pivotal role in mythic battle--but is oddly passive; after Wren experiences Betrayal and Sacrifice, Surrender (the third element of the story surrounding the Knot) seems like an inevitability rather than a choice. Watson (The Cutting Room, 2013, etc.) excels at the quotidian details, but the fantastic elements are ill-explained and impressionistic: The Knot is a confusing MacGuffin, the magical terminology clunky, and the mythology contradictory.Lush, if meandering and muddled; good for fans of Maggie Stiefvater and Holly Black. (Fantasy. 14-18)

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