Jaclyn Moriarty’s A Corner of White, the first book in the Colors of Madeleine series, begins in Cambridge, a world that most readers know. The Kingdom of Cello on the other hand is a fantastical world where colors are dangerous and a lake is filled with spells. It’s simply magical.
Though Moriarty’s world is beautiful and filled with whimsy and fun, it does take quite some time for the world to be built. But it does happen through nuanced details that appear at just the right time.
It is this beautiful nuance that I wish existed throughout the entire book. But if that were the case, I’m not sure I would be as enthralled. I think I would be too much like Madeleine if all of those colorful descriptions existed in every page. And I’m sure Elliot would yell at me the same way he does Madeleine when he writes to her. In my favorite letter he says:
"You gotta spend some time rolling rosemary and sage into the lid of your pastry pies! You gotta stand on the tractor seat now and then! Scrape toffee from the apples in the trees! You’ve got your lava and your chestnuts and the tree falls in the forest, and the violin IS red, if it’s waiting to be red, if it’s ready to be red, then it’s RED, it’s just better at hiding than most—and you know what? YOU’RE THE ONE WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED!"
Elliot’s letter perfectly describes the kind of world he lives in. And at this point in the book, Moriarty has built up a world that is just as crazy and beautiful and whimsical as the things he is telling Madeleine here.
Cracks in the Kingdom is a wonderful transition into the sequel to the Colors of Madeleine series. Having already built two exquisite worlds, Moriarty chooses to contain most of this book in the Kingdom of Cello. It seems this choice has to do with furthering her world-building. I can’t say I disagree with this choice. From the beginning of the series, I wondered what the Lake of Spells looked like and I wasn’t disappointed by the time and space she used to describe it.
By this point in the series, I feel like Moriarty has built up a world that is brilliant and beautiful. And when the Turquoise Rain falls in Jagged Edge I wanted to fold myself into the book and live there with Elliot. Reading that “the Turquoise Rain fell for only a few minutes,” made me see how beautiful and fleeting is was. And like so many of Moriarty’s fleeting descriptions, I appreciated this one so much more because it is real and beautiful and true. And the fact that the “blue was electric, the green emerald, and now and then they mingled to form flares of deep bright turquoise,” made me feel like I was trapped inside a gemstone. I loved every minute of this description.
Finishing the two books in this series was somewhat of a whirlwind adventure. While there are some parts that didn’t exactly ring true for me, the world-building made up for any flaws. Seeing how the Kingdom of Cello built itself in my mind I know how I can build my own fantasy world for my readers. I look forward to giving them descriptions like the Butterfly Child, the Lake of Spells, and the Turquoise Rain because they were beautiful and felt more real than my own backyard.
xoxo
K.K.