The Land of Roar has been on my to read list since it came out. I remember walking into my local Waterstones and seeing a massive banner of it behind the till. I asked what the book was about and the bookseller was so excited about the book so I brought it to see what they hype was about.
Themes: Siblings, magic, dragons
Arthur and Rose are twins. Whilst Arthur still believes in magic and likes to play make believe, Rose is far too cool to even humour him. They're spending a summer with their Grandad and Arthur starts to remember a game they used to play called Roar—a magical land that they invented. Rose isn't interested but when Grandad accidentally ends up in Roar and is kidnapped, the twins go back to Roar to find him. But Roar is different and is now ruled by Crowky and all the things they loved about Roar has disappeared.
The first thing I thought when I read the book was that it reminded me of Jumanji and who doesn't love Jumanji? Roar is filled with mermaids, creepy scarecrows, the Lost Girls which reminded me of the Lost Boys in Jumanji and dragons. Because Arthur and Rose invented Roar, they can control it but now they have to defeat Crowky the Scarecrow to take Roar back. Win is hilarious! He says the most random, pointless things that just made me laugh out loud. I love that Rose has this fearless energy about her and can control the scariest dragons but deep down she's just as scared as Arthur and throughout the book you can see her vulnerability.
I love the dynamic between the twins. Roar is a fast paced, action packed book. I like that the twins are Black but it's not a big deal that they are. They're just two twins on an adventure and I need more books like that. There's a lot of talk on whether white authors can write about Black characters. Personally it doesn't bother me especially with a book like this where race isn't part of the storyline. I can definitely see why everyone loves this book and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
5/5
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