Changes

ó Guilín jumps straight into his narrative - there's no messing about - and I was hooked from the very first chapter, in which Stopmouth is betrayed by his charismatic but ultimately flawed brother. From then on, I was rooting for the hero like there was no tomorrow and I was desperate to find out what happened next. There's a whole world here to be explained, but because the plot really is a mix of mystery thriller and picaresque, there's no tiresome world-building, no lengthy expositions - you simply see things as Stopmouth sees them, but as you follow him, you gradually pick up the little clues that he does not. It's brilliantly done. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but enough is resolved to feel satisfied. I hate cliffhangers, but I wasn't annoyed by ''The Inferior'' at all. If I had one criticism to make, it would be about length. ''The Inferior'' is 450 pages long. In my (shorter) book, that's too many pages for anyone, let alone younger readers. We could have lost a species fight or two and been none the less impressed. I blame Jo Rowling for all these pages everywhere - if someone at Bloomsbury had got their red pen out on some Harry Potter volumes, then I think perhaps we'd have some tighter books being published. But really, this is just a nit pick. I like short, tight books, but I absolutely loved ''The Inferior''. And I can't wait for the second in the trilogy.

[[:Category:Catherine Fisher|Catherine Fisher's]] [[Incarceron]] takes a less visceral, but equally disturbing, look at future retribution.