One of my biggest pet peeves in "modern" fantasy is when characters from the "normal" world are faced with some sort of fantasy weirdness and have either little or no reaction to it. Although this volume had a lot of this weirdness, Kibuishi very gracefully evades the trap keeping Emily and Navin's reactions believable and at times funny ("lets hope that tree was bad at math").

Overall this was a great volume and it made me like the story even more. It gives more detail about the history of the land Emily and Navin have stumbled into and what their role in it is assumed to be. I really like how the story is being set up with conflicting goals of some of the characters. I feel like the introduction to the characters and world is now over and the main story, though already set in motion, is now going to take center stage.

Can't remember where I saw this series mentioned first, but after picking it up from the library my oldest daughter exclaimed "Ooooohhh! You got Amulet?!?". Needless to say, she had read it before and really liked it. I ended up liking it too.

So far it's a great adventure style story starring a young girl that kicks butt. Kibuishi does a great job creating likeable and realistic characters and so far their reactions to the situation they're in have been believable.

I was a little surprised at how dark the story could be at times and really appreciate some of the messages the book seems to be sending, especially being written for a younger audience. There are strong hints that what is considered "good" and "bad" are going to get pretty screwed up in the future. At the same time, the dark is contrasted with a lot of comical scenes. I thought the balance between the two was good for the audience the book is aimed towards.

This volume made for a very quick read as there's so much action without dialogue. The art and layout is excellent throughout though and I had fun reading it. Looking forward to the rest of the series.