Bumba Queen Weave

by Electra Nanou

A short dark tale about memory, destiny, and love. A child and its toy dragon live in the woods with a witch. One day, an eerie urge to find something they lost drives the duo deeper through the trees, defying the dreaded Bumba Queen and her minions who hounds them. And the intricate truth about their strange story unravels...

27 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2020

About the author

Electra Nanou is an author of fantasy and fiction, as well as a reviewer and beta reader. After completing a BA in English Literature at the University of East Anglia, she never left Norwich, UK, where she continues to nurture her passion for the written word.

Reviews

[Iman Danial Hakim]

Bumba Queen Weave oleh Electra Nanou adalah sebuah novella tentang seorang budak, seekor naga dan seorang nenek kebayan yang tinggal bersama di dalam hutan. Pada mulanya aku menyangka novella ini akan bermula dan berakhir sebagai sebuah naskhah fantasi: tetapi tidak.

Sempadan antara fantasi & realiti yang kabur (dan agak mengelirukan) pada awal cerita perlahan-lahan menjadi jelas. Aku suka dengan permainan simbol yang digunakan: tentang memori dan nasib.

Penggemar genre "fantasi-bertembung-realiti-apa-sebenarnya-yang-berlaku-ni", mungkin sudah boleh menebak twist yang cuba dimasukkan oleh penulis. (banyak dah spoiler aku bagi ni sebenarnya). Apa pun ia masih sebuah karya yang menarik & berbaloi untuk dibaca, percuma pula tu.

Terima kasih kepada Booktasters & Electra Nanou untuk naskhah percuma ini!

***

ENGLISH REVIEW

Bumba Queen Weave by Electra Nanou is a novella about a boy, a dragon and a witch (or Nenek Kebayan in my native language: Bahasa Melayu) living together in the forest. At first I thought this novella would start and end as a fantasy: but surprisingly no.

The memory and fate of the character are intertwined: The boundary between fantasy & reality is somewhat confusing, and it unravels slowly as the story moving towards the end.

Fans of the "fantasy-slash-reality-what-actually-is-happening" type of stories, might already be able to guess the plot twist that the author is trying to incorporate. However, this novella is still as interesting as ever & worth reading.

Thanks to Booktasters & Electra Nanou for this free copy!

[Pinky N.A]

I never thought the title is funny yet amazing before I read it in the story. Unexpected, and feels magical.

It's short and interesting. I understand the story, but I couldn't understand the ending. What ... on earth is happening? Maybe I should reread it again someday. But alright, I like this book.

[Sara Santos]

Thank you Booktasters and Electra Nanou for the e-copy of this short story.

A short story about a child and it's toy dragon live in the woods with a witch,his quest to find the Queen Bee (Bumba Queen) and what happens during this Adventure.
I thought it was an interesting story but I couldn't fully appreciate properly as a non fantasy fan.
All in all it was an imaginative story, full of magic and fantasy and I recommend.

[El mundo de Adri TV]

Review in English
a story that perfectly reflects the thoughts and feelings of a child with respect to the world around him, which in a few pages manages to captivate the reader and keep him completely caught up in the story. I can say without a doubt that reading this story was a unique experience that leads you to understand a new perspective on life through different eyes. I can certainly say that it has completely fascinated me, I loved it

Review in spanish
una historia que refleja a la perfección el pensamiento y el sentir de un niño con respecto al mundo que lo rodea, que en pocas páginas logra cautivar al lector y mantenerle atrapado a la historia por completo. puedo decir sin duda que leer esta historia fue una experiencia única que te lleva a entender una nueva perspectiva de la vida a través de otros ojos. sin duda puedo decir que me ha fascinado por completo, me encantó

[Nesbertt Zengeni]

Bumba Queen Weave by Electra Nanou
WILD is the first word to grace my mind when I started reading this book. ‘Wild story,’ I thought. I wished to be Luca, so that in anyway, I would be part and parcel of the story. The amazing story of Dragons, witches, dogman, magic, etc. It’s a marvel story to go with. Electra Nanou is the force to be reckoned. Very tough, artistic, imaginative, creative and super talented. I salute. Although the author’s favourite game was to annoy Lady Shriv, as she noted, this book’s main job is to entertain us. It did well. The story is amazingly crafted, grippingly entertaining, very flowing, and massive page turning episode. Electra Nanou is such a good story teller. You could see that through how she describes her surroundings, detail by detail, sending imaginary visual into the reader’s membrane. There is a certain way that Electra Nanou tells her story. It is like a marketing personnel selling stories of adventures and fantasies. No matter how good the story was told, it is far from reality, while resonating high quality of creativity. An ancient boon, I cannot believe all this happened in a same day. Very interesting.
The scene that explains things that were in the room; ‘on the shelves on the walls were bottles and tins of oils, herbs, seeds, spices, and lots of other weird things—fisheyes, bones, snake venom. Bunches of plants and flowers hung from hooks and strings from the ceiling. All the smells became one,’ reminds me of the native Africa, long back when we used to make our own medicine, and witchdoctors used to make these medicines do magic in disappearing people’s pain and nightmares. The story is indeed, an African story. One thing I loved about the story was its love for nature. The statement, ‘each kind of plant had its own room,’ shows how much Electra Nanou loves and understand nature’s significance in our lives. As someone who is not a fan of adventures and fantasies, this story blew me away, it grabs me, and could not let me go before reaching the last page.
The book is recommended for children and teens, they might find this story fascinating and frivolous. A child based story, I ca testify, full of crippling childhood fantasies and adventures. It is the kids who might find this story amazing and funny too as they believe in what they see in those cartoons, believing that magic can be real, and witches can be friendly and dragons being good friends. Bumba Queen Weave is a child rating, and a child story. Only when one is a lover of child stories, this story is interesting.
My rating is 4 out 5

Reviewed by:
Nesbert Zengeni
(+263) 777 919283
nesberttz@gmail.com

[Marina Elias]

Thank you to Booktasters and the author for sending me this copy.

This is a short story about A kid and Luca(his dragon friend) who live with the witch Shriv. After getting red spots on his body, Luca and the kid start their journey into the forest to find the Bumba Queen. They face many creatures and with the author’s skill, when I was reading these parts you really feel like you’re actually there witnessing it all happen in front of you.

I like Shriv the witch and how she is portrayed. It’s not the stereotypical witch, she was rather loveable. Her relationship with the kid is cute and unique. I thoroughly enjoyed the description of her hut and the ingredients and stuff that she uses.

My favorite part was when the moths came about, the imagery is vivid and very well written. It was very whimsical.
The part when Luca was left behind with the bees was so sad, you can feel how alone the kid feels after not having Luca around.

Halfway through the story, I started to lose track of the plot and characters. A lot of characters appeared and we didn’t get a back story of who they are.

All in all, if you like to imagine things and scenes from a book while you’re reading a book, this will be a treat for you, because of the way of writing. Bonus if you like fantasy books too!

[Jude Kimpton]

Fantasy is a wonderful thing. It enables the reader to see things just a tad differently. Quite literally everything is possible and this leaves the reader with a lot of choices as to which reality the author decided to go with. Perhaps that is what made me want to finish this as soon as possible. Sephy had my undivided attention. I simply needed to know what was going on.

The author does a wonderful job at setting a scene, meticulously crafting it out so that you almost feel as though you’re walking in that same forest. I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of a first person narrative, but found that this was cleverly used to make the main character so very unique, so very... real and tangible. For example, like any other kid would, Seph uses words to sound like a big boy but does not always succeed in getting the correct word (bumba bee/bumble bee, cactopony/cacophony). It’s a small thing perhaps, but when it comes to characterisation, it’s the small details that do the trick (at the very least according to my autistic brain)

The only thing I didn’t like was when it was over, but fortunately that problem can be solved by opening the book once more :)

[Spinds❤]

Bumba Queen Weave is a children's fantasy book about a child who lives in the woods with his dragon toy and a witch. He journeys into the woods on an adventure to find this Bumba Queen who is a queen bee. I thought it was a really great book and it's definitely something I would recommend to kids who are interested in this genre especially because alot of what's out is much of the same thing and this is different and that's what I like about it. It's not the keeper of the lost city or Harry Potter which are similar, so Bumba Queen Weave is something different to what I'm Normally used to. I just personally struggled to really connect with the book and the characters (I think I've been distracted and overwhelmed with life ) so I wasn't able to fully immerse myself into this book, but the book was really great and I will give it a read again In future so I can enjoy it better.

Thank you so much as always to book Tasters and the author Electra Nanou for giving me this copy in exchange for an honest review. Forever grateful ❤️😄

[Guddi]

Bumba Queen Weave is a short story about a girl living in a forest with her pet and a witch, and what happens during her adventurous journey written by a Electra Nonau. 

It's a well-written short story even though the plot gets a bit confusing at the end. The witch, her magic and the interaction with the girl is lovable. The descriptions are on point, and gives us glimpse, a good picture of the fantasy world. It was intriguing from the very start to the end. To be honest, I wish it was a bit longer and more developed in the later parts. I thought it was an interesting fantasy story but I couldn't able to properly enjoy it.

I would recommend "Bumba Queen Weave" for a quick read to any younger fantasy fan who loves magic . It was a pleasant read. 

[Domik]

"Bumba Queen Weave" is a short story about a child living in a forest with a witch, written by a Greek author, Electra Nonau.

It's a well-written short story, even though the plot gets a bit confusing at the end. The witch and her magic are lovable, as well as the main character. The descriptions are on point, and painted a good picture of the world. It was intriguing from the very start to the ending. To be perfectly honest, I wish it was a bit longer and more developed in the later parts.

To sum it up, I would recommend "Bumba Queen Weave" for a quick read to any younger fantasy fan who doesn't mind seeing magic from a different perspective. It was a rather pleasant read.

[Adolfo Neto]

This is a short book recommended for older kids and young teens (8-12), I believe. It is about a girl that lives with a witch and a dragon. Why is she there? She seems to be lost in that part of the world. What must she do to go back to her part of the world? To do that, whe must face her fears. But she is a dragon too (figuratively).

We follow our hero ("Kid", in Lady Shriv's words) in her journey. And then there is a plot twist. But, OK, I can tell much here.

One thing I didn't like much about this book is that I wanted more dialogues. And one thing that I liked is that it is full of content although very short.

[Dana]

I actually chose this book depending on the title, i dont know what i was expecting but its actually was not a bad surprise, the story it self was kind of a mix of fantasy and non exciting creatures with reality.
I must say the author did a great job describing and giving the slightest details to help with imagining the places and the situations. I loved the unusual pet she choose for the story , the little cute dragon was a nice character.
Overall i liked the story but at some points it was a bit confusing for me. So i recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy with a bit of mystery.

[Kez Booth]

This is short story of a child and his dragon who live with a witch in the woods. The story is intriguing form the beginning and follows their adventures on the road to finding the Queen Bee. The story is short but manages to pack quite a bit into it. The writing is well done and descriptive. There are a lot of characters despite the short length of the book but the titular characters and well developed and likeable. Overall a good read for those who love fantasy and magic genre and short stories.

[Sharan]

Thank you Electra Nanou and Booktasters for the free e-copy of this short story.

The story is very interesting. It involves a girl(The author herself told me it was a girl) and her dragon who live with a witch. The boy leaves the witch with her dragon and ventures into the forest where the dreaded Bumba Queen bee lives. I couldn't fully appreciate the story because I couldn't understand it. After reading it twice I now like this story. I definitely recommend this book.

[Terrytracy Watts]

I started reading this book out of curiosity, but soon discovered it to great child story. It reminds me of a Hansel and Gretel. The plot is good , simple and easy to follow. Character development is good. I have to say I can see myself reading this book to my nephews. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read books like this to children.

[Zia]

This book is almost as if a refreshing read after a long day. It’s perfect when you just want to have that easy thrill and a quick read (for example if you’re rushing a reading goal)! Thank you so much Book taster for this and for the nice author who gave me a free copy of this book!

Go ahead and read it!

[Caribbean Didi]

Thank you book tasters for recommending me the two dazzling books for this wonderful author.
Very engaging and full of adventures and lessons.
You get to be surprised and full of imagination.
You get to put yourself in the child's place and sense all the different feelings, very good.
I do recommend this very well-written book.

[EmioÑa Hammam]

Interesting fantasy telling of a story, you get surprised how the plot develops and the characters.
I was puzzled and confused about what was happening to the main character. Yet I enjoyed it.
Thank you Booktasters!

[francessy]

*Received a copy of this book through the author via Booktasters in exchange for an honest review*

With all honesty I never expected to read a short story with such detail. The storyline was dreamlike and you wouldn't realize the plot twist in the end.

[Duckchoo]

It was a fun read! The writing style helps you really get immersed into the story. It's a lovely story and it's pretty short so I recommend it.

[Smriti Gautam]

This book is an adventure, physical and emotional, through the woods and into the mind of a child, not knowing what the future holds for her. Her only friend in the lonely journey, Luca, is also lost on the way. The witch who has brought her up is also left behind, for the journey she has chosen is to be travelled on her own. The writer, Electra Nanou, has undoubtedly filled the journey, the entire book with imagination and creativity. The description is really well written. The characters are portrayed in a way visualizing them becomes interesting and their image is so set in our mind. It was quite a fascinating journey to go through with the character.