In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan | Review

4 Stars

“What’s your name?”

“Serene.”

“Serena?” Elliot asked.

“Serene,” said Serene. “My full name is Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle.”

Elliot’s mouth fell open. “That is badass.”

The Borderlands aren’t like anywhere else. Don’t try to smuggle a phone or any other piece of technology over the wall that marks the Border—unless you enjoy a fireworks display in your backpack. (Ballpoint pens are okay.) There are elves, harpies, and—best of all as far as Elliot is concerned—mermaids.

Elliot? Who’s Elliot? Elliot is thirteen years old. He’s smart and just a tiny bit obnoxious. Sometimes more than a tiny bit. When his class goes on a field trip and he can see a wall that no one else can see, he is given the chance to go to school in the Borderlands.

It turns out that on the other side of the wall, classes involve a lot more weaponry and fitness training and fewer mermaids than he expected. On the other hand, there’s Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle, an elven warrior who is more beautiful than anyone Elliot has ever seen, and then there’s her human friend Luke: sunny, blond, and annoyingly likeable. There are lots of interesting books. There’s even the chance Elliot might be able to change the world. 

Man, it’s been a while since I read this book (and by a while I mean maybe three weeks), so I’ve had a sufficient amount of processing time to decide how much I liked this book. Let’s get started!

In Other Lands is essentially a version of Harry Potter where Harry, or Elliot, in this case, goes through five years of magic schooling in the course of one book. The story essentially follows Elliot’s journey into the Borderlands and his discovery of the world while making friends and discovering himself.

Now, if I were you, I would have raised an eyebrow immediately at five years of Hogwarts in one book. I mean, if J.K Rowling needed seven books (plus eight movies and a play and an amusement park and five more prequel movies but that’s beside the point), how could Brennan possibly pull it off? Well, dear reader, to that I say you’re right… except in this case.

This book is not really about the Borderlands. It’s honestly not even about magic or schooling, considering how little time the characters spend in actual classes. This is a book about Elliot Schafer, muggle-born wiseass and possibly one of my favorite characters of all time. Elliot’s character is basically what you would act like if you found out about a magical world existing under your nose. He detests quills and parchment and promptly spreads the word about ballpoint pens, laments the lack of technological revolutions, and best of all, is completely against violence and fighting for the sake of being warrior-like. (Normally this alone would make me write him off as preachy but his pacifism shapes his character in really meaningful ways)

In a magic world, (and in our real world where book characters apparently have to learn how to fight no matter what they do) it’s thoroughly and enticingly refreshing to see a character who objects to violence on moral grounds so strongly that they use diplomacy to change the world. That’s right, obnoxious, sassy little Elliot spends most of this book focusing on treaties and peaceful solutions even while surrounded by a whole bunch of people who “punch first, ask questions later.” He’s a complete bookworm, but isn’t the least bit quiet or demure, and makes his opinions (very loudly) well known. His dialogue is very often laugh-out-loud funny, and I fell him love with him so much as he grew up over the five years this book takes place over.

Elliot is such an amazing character that 3.5 of the 4 stars I’ve awarded this book go entirely to him, because the rest of the book is lackluster – it’s obvious that Brennan tried to do too much in this average-sized book that some quality did suffer. The world-building, for one. I can tell a lot of thought was put into the relationships between the harpies, trolls, elves, and humans, but the politics got muddled and dry. I love Elliot for going to treaties instead of weapons, but when he deep-dove into politics was when I found myself skipping pages.

The side characters were rather weak as well, including Elliot’s best friends. Luke is a typical golden boy until the endish (when his perfect life finally becomes less perfect) and Serene’s personality was fun, but ultimately not extremely likable. Elliot’s infatuation with Serene for most of the book made little sense to me, even though she did have one thing going for her: she’s from a culture that’s deeply matriarchal, so every line of Serene’s where she goes “men are too soft to be in battle so they should pick up knitting instead” was hilarious perfection. I also appreciate the LGBT rep overall, as always, although the romances always felt like they came out of nowhere (even though there wasn’t instalove).

Overall, I recommend this book, despite all of these flaws, for a refreshing read on the “magic school” genre. The main character is absolutely marvelous because other than being extremely entertaining, is the reason the point of the book gets across. His thoughts on technology, progressivism, diplomacy, feminism, and non-violence really contribute to the book and make it completely worth your while. And I bet you’ll fall in love with Elliot as I did.

~Aliza