As part of World’s Without End’s ‘Women in Genre’ challenge I am reading a sci-fi or fantasy novel each month from an author I have never read before. For more information on the challenge visit Worlds Without End.

If you like Neil Gaiman’s novels like ‘Coraline’ and ‘The Graveyard Book’ then ‘Half World’ should be next on your list of books to read. In it, Hiromi Goto creates two full, interesting worlds: the living, human world where Melanie lives with her mother and is harassed by bullies, and then the Half World, a warped cartoony limbo that is half-Bosch half-Warhol.When Melanie’s mother is kidnapped, she must venture into Half World to rescue her.

The highlight of the book is the villain, Mr. Glueskin, a repulsive soul who has managed to become the de facto king of Half World. As sinister and gross as he is, it just made it all the more satisfying when Melanie defeats him. I was especially impressed with how Ms. Goto handled the final conflict between them. Instead of the usual ‘Hero kills the villain, everyone else lives happily ever after,’ we get something more complex here. To say more would be treading into spoiler territory, but I’ll just say it’s nice to see a different type of resolution.

This was a quick read, mainly because it is aimed at a younger audience. My only complaint is that the writing felt a bit slight at times to me (I wanted to linger in places and learn more details) though even in quick strokes Ms. Goto does a good job of quickly sketching out people and places.