Patricia C. Wrede - Thirteenth Child

When I was younger, I absolutely loved Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles. It had snarky female king dragons, one particularly badass Princess, and crazy hijinks galore. Add to that the fact that the humorous covers were done by the amazing Peter de Seve, and you had a series that was well nigh unbeatable against the undefended mind of mini Mikki.

It's been ages since I picked up any of her books, so when I came across Thirteenth Child and read the synopsis, I figured I was in for yet another rollicking good time (yes! Rollicking! Action and adventure aplenty!)

So what if it's probably been a decade since I last read her? I am quite a bit older, but I haven't grown up that much (some might even replace "much" with "at all," but I feel like that's not necessarily a good thing).

PLOT
So Eff is our resident thirteenth child, right? Yes, that's right, thirteen kids.

Because apparently people in this world procreate like rabbits, but given the time period (American frontier days in some alternate universe) I suppose that was like insurance. The more kids you have, the bigger your chances that some of them will survive to adulthood and end up wiping the drool from your wizened fruit of a mouth.

It's apparently awful bad luck to be born the thirteenth child, but she's one half of a set of twins and her brother is the fourteenth child -- double the sevens, double the luck. Double-seventh kids are supposed to be chock full of magic and good fortune. Lucky him.

They ought to balance things out nicely, but poor ickle Eff is still set upon by all the neighborhood bullies and nasty relatives for being the harbinger of bad luck. Her family eventually moves to the wilds of the Frontier, where the only thing keeping the saber cats and wooly mammoths from rampaging through the town is the magical barrier.

Stuff then happens. Sort of.

( Thirteenth Child )

So I was definitely glad when I found out that this appears to be the first in a series. I don't want to give up on Eff just yet, so here's hoping Wrede doesn't let me down again!