This book has been given way too much attention. Is this Twelve Hawks person twelve years old? This book certainly reads like it. Seriously. The author tries to tap into an ambitious plot of bildungsroman / hero quest which is based on a simple formula set forth by Joseph Cambell, but this story falls wayyy short due to a lack of writing skills and imagination. This is not a unique story but rather a patchwork of former imaginative works. This is reading material for young adults, if anyone.