Caroline and Mordecai the Gand- Book Review

Caroline and Mordecai the Gand by Jeff Gunhus

Genre: Magic Realism, Middle Grade, Fantasy
4.5 Stars

*Trigger warning: Parental death and grief* 

Caroline is a sad thirteen-year-old grieving the loss of her beloved dad. Her mother and her friend, Abby, are doing their best, but Caroline can’t find a way out of their grief weighing her down.

Then one day, she spies something like a window in her favorite lake and climbs the old tree on the bank. Her curiosity gets better, and she slips and falls through the window. The new world is different. It’s a neverending forest with magic and mystic.

She meets Mordecai the Gand, who agrees to help her get back home. As they travel through the mysterious land, Caroline must decide what home is and how she wants to live her life. She sees things in a different light even as she battles with the grief she wants to avoid.

Caroline understands that she needs to help the people she meets on the journey. Helping them is a way to help herself. She has to choose between being brave or retreating into her shell. Her decisions can change her life and others.

What does Caroline do? How does this adventure help her?

The book starts with a forty-year-old Caroline writing a letter to her young son. She has learned of her illness and needs to share the news with him. She’s afraid of what her absence would do to her son and writes about her adventure in her childhood to help him.

The story is beautiful! It is filled with doubts, vulnerabilities, uncertainties that give way to courage, realization, acceptance, and hope. The narration is smooth and flows like a river. The imagery is so vivid, I could see myself traveling with Caroline and the Gand.

I was teary-eyed more than once. The ending goes straight to the heart, and it’s easy to see why. The author wrote this story when he was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. He wanted to leave something for his five children to help them sustain the grief if anything happened to him.

I’m so, so happy for the author that he has celebrated this fifth cancer-free year. I wish him and his family the best of health and loads of happiness.

I’m also glad that those who read the story urged the author to publish it. This is a book that deserves to be read by everyone. It has the right balance of emotions and pace.

To sum up, Caroline and Mordecai the Gand is a must-read irrespective of what one’s age is or whether or not we’ve lost a loved one. It's a small book but has much to give to the readers.

I received an ARC from BookSirens, Seven Guns Press, and author Jeff Gunhus.