The Search for WondLa, by Tony DiTerlizzi

Eva Nine had never seen the actual sun before, or walked outdoors. In fact, she had never even seen another living person in all twelve years of her life. That changes when a marauding huntsman destroys her underground home and sends her fleeing for her life. She is desperate to find someone else who is like her, and a single clue gives her hope: a crumbling picture of a girl, a robot, an adult, and the word "WondLa." 

I'd just like to say one thing about this book, in case you decide you don't want to read this review after all: GIANT TELEPATHIC TARDIGRADES.

That's all. You can go away now if you want.

I was drawn to this book by the (SHINY) font, and by the unusual title. When I took it off the shelf and saw the cover, I knew I had to read it.

Eva Nine lives underground, in a place called the Sanctuary. She has lessons in what to do on the surface, but she's never been there. She's never seen another human. She's been raised by a robot called Muthr, which stands for "Multi-Utility Task Help Robot."

Then a hunstman comes through her home, and she is forced to run for her life. But nothing on the surface is anything like anything she's been taught about. The creatures she meets talk to her, but they don't speak the same language. But she manages to escape from the huntsman, Besteel, with the help of two creatures. One is Rovender Kitt, a vaguely humanoid fellow who has a - thing, I can't remember what it's called, that lets them communicate. I love Rovender. He is certifiedly awesome.

The other, named Otto by Eva, is a GIANT TELEPATHIC TARDIGRADE.

A tardigrade is a microscopic creature, also called a water bear. For reference, it looks like this:

Image Source

Otto looks like this:

Image Source

And Otto is awesome.

That picture is also a good representation of the awesomeness of the illustrations in this book. There's lots of them, and I like them A WHOLE LOT. I don't read many books with pictures in, but I liked these pictures.

I also liked Muthr. Eva was probably the least interesting of the lot, but she was all right as well. I enjoyed the plot, and I loved the world.

The writing did drag a bit from time to time, I must admit, and in places - especially right after she meets Rovender, but before they can communicate - it was a bit confusing and hard to get through.

One other thing - apparently there's something fancy you can do with this book and your computer by going to the website or putting the book in front of your webcam or somesuch. I haven't done this, partly because I don't have a webcam, and I'm not entirely sure what it is I'd get to look at.

So, yeah. For a great story, a great world, great illustrations, and great characters, but writing that was confusing and draggy in places, and a rather dull MC - four stars. (It's occured to me that my rating system might be confusing to people who aren't me. I'll explain in depth in a future post, but four stars means it was great but had some things wrong with it. Basically.)