A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

I found the beginning to be an absolute joy but I moved quickly into ‘lets get to the end'. This book is serious YOUNG Adult, which is not my taste.

This book is the polar opposite to other ‘young adult' books like the Hunger Games which is strangely classified as YA but has a heck of alot of dark and adult subjects that I wouldn't suggest a young adult read.

It does deal with alot of death but is presented more as a child would look at and think about things, not as a book about young adults.

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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If you have ever prepared for a siege in two days, then you know what the next few days were like. If you haven't, then you probably don't. Well...a big formal wedding is about the same (and because we do cakes, I've been on the periphery of a few), except that if things go wrong in a siege you'll all die horribly, and in formal weddings, the stakes are much higher.

A WIZARD'S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING

The very best thing about being a baker is watching somebody bite into a blueberry muffin or a fresh slice of sourdough dripping with butter and seeing them close their eyes and savor the taste. You're making their lives better, just a little tiny bit.

A WIZARD'S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING

really

A Wizard's Guide

A great book. parts a little unbelievable within the story but nothing i'd choose to hold against it. I was very impressed with the knowledge about bread/breakmaking and the Magic system in general.

The characters were good and likeable, Spindle felt older than 10 after a few pages

CAWPILE SCORE
C-7
A-7
W-8
P-7
I-8
L-8
E-9
TOTAL-7.71/10

4.5 stars! I thoroughly enjoyed this lighthearted little adventure that just had so much creativity behind it. I was honestly shocked to read in the Acknowledgments that the author had had issues finding a publisher who would publish it, saying it was “too dark” for a children's book. I can't say much about children at large but I think I would absolutely love something like this back when I was a kid.

It's about a young 14 year old wizard and baker's apprentice. Mona whose only magical talent had to do with bread of all things. She can only manipulate bread and only by trying to persuade it to do things, like not burn in the oven. The book opens engagingly when Mona trips over a dead body in her bakery, which then leads her against her will into the heart of a treacherous plot. At some point, she really gets into some very serious defensive baking. You might expect that she has a stale gingerbread man sidekick, but what I particularly liked was her familiar: a feisty carnivorous sourdough starter named Bob. Isn't that just amazing?!

The world in this one is reminiscent of Diana Wynne Jones - whimsical, sparkling with wit, a child-like black and white perspective on people that's still sprinkled with touches of harsh reality. It's perfect for its target middle grade audience who are just starting on that tough transition from the overly ideal world of children's fairy tales to the jaded adult world.

Mona is herself a relatable protagonist. She's just a 14 year old girl who just wanted to do the right thing but then continued to find herself being pulled into more and more complex plots agaisnt her will just to make up for the incompetence or malignancies of adults. She isn't a Mary Sue or finding a deeper true purpose or calling. She just does what needed to be done because there was no one else to, and so that she could keep her loved ones safe.

I also never thought I would feel any kind of empathy for gingerbread men or a bucket of sourdough starter in my life, but here we are.

For fans of light fantasy with humour, Diana Wynne Jones, and/or baking, this is a must read.

I agree with another review I saw that this is quite cozy yet still realistic in terms of the cost of war, politics, and the like on your average citizen. It was really good but dragged a little bit around the 3/4 mark for me. I definitely enjoyed the writing style though and am interested to try more from this author.

**
Additional star for the narrator: Patricia Santomasso


“When you're different, even just a little different, even in a way that people can't see, you like to know that people in power won't judge you for it.”

What a wonderful light read keeps you hooked and puts a smile on your face.

I needed this after yellowface

This book was such a fun and quick read! A fantasy novel in which the primary mode of magic use (at least by our protagonist) is through baking?? Weaponized sourdough starter?!? A gingerbread man familiar?!! I mean, has a book ever been more made for me? This book read much more YA than the other book I have read by this author (T. Kingfisher is a pseudonym for children's author Ursula Vernon), but I don't see that as a bad thing at all. I'm also certain that non-bakers would enjoy this book as well - but if you too have a personal relationship with a sourdough starter, you should probably check this one out!

A new favourite. A fun, funny rollicking good time, but more than that too, definitely some tears with the laughter. Some sharp truths among the fluff.
Ugliness of war and politics, what it tends to do to the soldiers as well as the regular populace, the nature, making and tragedy of heroes.
Beautifully paced, hilarious, moving writing.
There are moments of inspiration for young people at the cusp of discovering their abilities while weltering in teenage insecurity,  and yet somehow the narrative manages to be completely free of that contemporary young adult fussing about peer pressure/aesthetic or social group expectations or hormones/budding romantic relationships for which I, as an adult reader, am profoundly grateful.
Got a smidgen of Tiffany Aching vibes, especially with the sentient sourdough starter, reminding me of Aching's sentient cheese. I LOVE Bob. Not sure what it says that the animate gingerbread seems to be less personable (in fact kind of bitchy) while the sourdough starter seems to have such endearing, if occasionally raging and ravenous, character.
Spindle is a rascally TREASURE. 
I would happily read another book set in this world, and will definitely be looking up other works by this author. 
⚠️ Death; There's a fair amount of reference to human waste disposal facilities of yore and their contents, just in general more mention of bodily fluids than I expected, emitophobics beware.