🤷‍♂️Vanya and the Wild Hunt (2025)

By Sangu Mandanna

4Rbooks                                3/6                grades         6-8

Amazon                                 4.6/5             reading age     8-12

Goodreads                             4.21/5          

Common Sense Media            Not yet reviewed

277 pages

Synopsis

             11-year-old Vanya knows she is different.  She’s Indian in British town. Her ADHD makes school difficult and making friends even harder. Books are her friends, and not just because she loves to read them, but because she can talk to them, and they talk back to her.

            She doesn’t realize how different she is until she finds her mother and father battling with a monster in their book shoppe and she helps to defeat it. Her parents, and their friend Jasper, decide it is time to tell Vanya about Auramere, a magical land in Asia where her family is from, and where she needs to go and learn the magic she will need to keep her safe from the monsters who roam the world

            Jasper transports her to the castle and school where she will be staying. She loves the classes; they are so interesting it keeps her ADHD under control.  She makes new friends, some who are different, as she is. Kasha, a goose who thinks it’s a swan, chooses to be her familiar, an animal guide and protector. She even becomes friends with a patrallka. Her new world is shattered when an evil monster, The Wild Hunt, comes to Auramere and threatens to destroy it all, including her family.  

Parental Guidelines:    low

Vanya has ADHD and has been ostracized and bullied at school.

Monsters are in the world and commit horrible acts against humans.

Amare’s family was completely destroyed by a monster that she was unable to control.  She is still haunted by this disaster.

Jasper has a dagger thrust into his back.

Vanya’s mother, and then Vanya, allow themselves to be joined to a monster called The Wild Hunt.

Vanya’s guardians in Auramere are a homosexual married couple. There is also a lesbian couple mentioned in the school and community.

Recommendation

            The similarities between this book and Harry Potter are hard to ignore. An 11-year-old who doesn’t know her true identity or family lineage. A magical school in a land that can only be accessed by unique transportation. Strange school lessons and teachers. Magical beasts with unique powers and every student bonds with one. A fortified prison tower for captured monsters. The special child is the only one who can seemingly save everyone but is connected to the evil.

            There were parts to this story I truly enjoyed reading, but overall, I just can’t highly recommend it. There was a distinct “been there, done that” feeling as it is so similar to other stories from the same genre with little to make it stand out. Good to excellent readers should have no problems, struggling readers will probably find this difficult to follow and understand. I'm not sure it works as a classroom read.

            The characters represent a wide variety of ethnicities, two of the children are neuro-divergent (ADHD and autism), and there are two gay married couples; one, homosexual men, the other, lesbians.

            It is obvious from the ending that this is meant to be a series. The ending leaves the reader hanging, wondering what is coming next and it will be a long wait. Book two isn’t expected until 2027.