We’ll start with my seven year old’s assessment (after some prompting from me. Well, not actually some. More like a lot.): It was like Spirited Away. I liked it. My favourite part was the object spirit town.
And that was all I got from her.
In any case, The Night Parade by Kathryn Tanquary is a middle-grade novel taking place in Japan during the Obon Festival. It’s a somewhat cute, predictable story that didn’t really hold my attention. I kept drifting off in my head while reading it aloud to Tesfa and missing plot points. Tesfa was right though: The Night Parade is similar to Spirited Away with a girl, Saki in this case instead of Chichiro, being drawn into the spirit world. But The Night Parade lacks what made Spirited Away so magical, which comes down to, I’m pretty sure, the pictures. The Night Parade needs pictures, intricately drawn, beautiful, colourful, amazing pictures to really make the story come to life. The writing, on its own, just isn’t enough to elevate the story. It’s one of these stories that’s too long and not long enough at the same time. I want more of the spirit world. I want explanations for why those specific animals were the spirit guides. I want less of the real world, less of Saki’s brother. I want the grandmother to have known something. Basically, I want all the first-novel jitters to vanish, less background, more in the moment stuff.
Still, it’s a perfectly passable middle-grade novel. Just not transcendent. Probably the most damning of all, Tesfa didn’t ask if there was a sequel, the way she does with books she truly loves.
A decent book if you like Japanese folklore. Maybe think of it as a gateway to further explorations in Japanese culture.
The Night Parade by Kathryn Tanquary went on sale January 1, 2016.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.