JK Rowling started writing this book a long time ago and wrote it for a long time, but the pandemic helped to finish it and publish it. Posting freely one chapter at a time on the Internet for the entertainment of bored children was a gesture of goodwill by the writer.
I won’t tell you the plot, since it develops in a rather non-trivial way throughout the book - I’m afraid I’ll accidentally blurt out too much and ruin everything for those who want to read it (and I think that adults will also want to read this book).
What then can we say about this fairy tale? First of all, this is NOT Harry Potter, this is NOT Harry Potter in every sense. Potter fans should not look for consolation in it: it will not help to soothe the longing for the world of Hogwarts and there will definitely never be a new fantasy universe.
Secondly, this book will appeal to fans of dark fairy tales. If you are not one of them, calmly skip it, you will not lose anything. An orphanage, swamp fogs, poverty and hunger, dungeons with political prisoners languishing in them, an infantile king and the intrigues of the courtiers - does this atmosphere excite? If yes, read: the plot is interesting, the characters are bright, it is well written. However, there is a lot of death, cruelty, injustice, so read only if you are over 10 years old.
Thirdly, the book has obvious political overtones (this is also not to everyone’s taste). It seems to me unlikely that the author had a specific state in mind or copied the characters from real politicians. Rather, she speaks about world evil in general: tyrant rulers, manipulation of public consciousness, corruption, cowardice and incompetence at the highest levels.
In general, the text is quite complex, the book is large in volume, it is not to say that it is read in one breath - you need to tune in to such reading.
An interesting solution with illustrations: “The Ickabog” does not have an official illustrator; in each country it has unique pictures, namely drawings by local children. This decision is not accidental: after all, according to the plot, no one knows not only what the Ickabog looks like, but also whether he really exists, so his image is a figment of popular imagination. In the Russian-language edition, these are drawings by children of different ages from all over Russia. There are very interesting interpretations, which also encourage the reader to fantasize: how would I illustrate this or that episode? You won’t seem to be able to compete with a professional artist, but with someone your own age you can very well enter into a one-sided discussion.
And one more important advantage of this book by JK Rowling: it was translated into Russian by a good translator, not Spivak.
Unusual, complex, contradictory - “The Ickabog” he is like that.
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