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City of Masks
(Stravaganza #1)
by
Lucien is seriously ill but his life is transformed when an old Italian notebook gives him the power to become a stravagante, a time traveller with access to 16th century Italy. He wakes up in Bellezza (Venice) during carnival time and meets Arianna, a girl his own age who is disguised as a boy in the hope of being selected as one of the Duchessa's mandoliers. Arianna give
...more
Paperback, 345 pages
Published
September 9th 2004
by Bloomsbury
(first published December 8th 2002)
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Start your review of City of Masks (Stravaganza, #1)

Cute. That a the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this book. Cute and mostly harmless. Adorable and sweet, but unfortunately just not too memorable. Like a decent fast food meal, it's satisfying but not too nutritious.
This is a story of a teenage boy dying from cancer in contemporary England, who accidentally discovers a way to travel to an alternate reality that closely resembles medieval Venice. He makes friends with a powerful scientist-magician and a perky tomboy-girl, foils a ...more
This is a story of a teenage boy dying from cancer in contemporary England, who accidentally discovers a way to travel to an alternate reality that closely resembles medieval Venice. He makes friends with a powerful scientist-magician and a perky tomboy-girl, foils a ...more

Unfortunately, this is another example of a great concept ruined by bad storytelling. Our 'protagonist' (and I use that lightly) is Lucian, a boy with cancer who discovers he can travel to a different world (a pseudo-Venice as it were) through the acquisition of a magical notebook. However, this ability is never really the foundation of the plot; instead, Miss Hoffman tends to write where the wind takes her, forming a mix-match of elements that are never deeply explored, into a plot sequence whi
...more

7.5 out of 10
Ревью в моем блоге/This review on my blog
Living A Thousand Lives (please use Chrome/Yandex browser or Android/IOS to see the page; otherwise, spoiler-tags I use to make my post compact may not work)
Short-Soundtrack:
Nilda Fernandez – L'invitation à Venise
Paul Cardall – The Traveler
Lucas Vidal – New Found Life
Genre: AU, historical-fantasy, teen-ish YA
Stuff: time-travels, AU-Italy, 16th century, cancer
WOW: world-building
POV: 3rd-person, multi
Love-Geometry: none and romance is quit ...more


This year I'm doing a Reading Challenge; so I have 26 books with specific subjects that I need to read.
Book 24: A book set somewhere you really want to visit
It's been long since a dream for me to visit Venice. As a little girl I was always mesmerized by the beauty of its watery streets, colorful city scape and mosaics. This wanderlust have not since diminish.
City of Masks gave me an opportunity to visit not only Venice(Italy) but also its counter part - Bellezza(Talia).
The country of Talia i...more

This is a book from my childhood (circa age 11) that I am so happy to have picked up again now! I'm not even really that interested in Italy, but I certainly dig the idea of inter-dimensional space and time travel! I'm re-reading all of the books in the Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman in accordance to the release of the newest sequel, "City of Sercrets". So far, I've read City of Masks and I started City of Stars last night. This is, as I recall, the best book in the series as of yet. Lucien/
...more

Jan 25, 2014
Faye, la Patata
marked it as did-not-finish
DNF at 22%
I was very excited to start this one because one of my all-time favorite concepts is TIME TRAVEL. There's nothing better than the fascination one gets when they find themselves in another place, in another time, be it in the future or in the past. I love that sense of awe and wonder characters get in such books. I think it's related to my love for both history and traveling, so you really can't blame me for the major excitement I had prior to reading this book. And I guess that's why m ...more
I was very excited to start this one because one of my all-time favorite concepts is TIME TRAVEL. There's nothing better than the fascination one gets when they find themselves in another place, in another time, be it in the future or in the past. I love that sense of awe and wonder characters get in such books. I think it's related to my love for both history and traveling, so you really can't blame me for the major excitement I had prior to reading this book. And I guess that's why m ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Summary
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In modern-day London, Lucien Mulholland undergoes chemotherapy treatments due to the cancer plaguing his body, but when he falls asleep clutching a mysterious book his father has given him, he is transported, or "stravagated," to an enchanting 16th-century Venice-like city called Bellezza, in the country Talia.
Lucien can return only if he can get hold of the book again while thinking of Belleza. In this colorful other world, rich with court intrigues and magic, he feels vibrantly alive, as oppos ...more
Lucien can return only if he can get hold of the book again while thinking of Belleza. In this colorful other world, rich with court intrigues and magic, he feels vibrantly alive, as oppos ...more

Love. So much love. STRAVAGANZA: CITY OF MASKS was such a surprise. I read the summary, and was like “yea, it sounds good”, but oh man…it was so much more than good. This book had me trapped in its story from the first word and I was so content by the end of the epilogue. Happy little sigh and clutching the book to my chest? Yupp, that was me.
Basically, our main character Lucien is bedridden from chemo treatments to try and cure his brain cancer. His father gives him a book, and suddenly when he ...more
Basically, our main character Lucien is bedridden from chemo treatments to try and cure his brain cancer. His father gives him a book, and suddenly when he ...more

Jan 02, 2009
Shawne
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
fantasy fans
Recommended to Shawne by:
Jet
Shelves:
fiction
A heady blend of historical and science fiction, magic and mayhem, City Of Masks is the first in a very promising series about time travellers known as Stravanganti who can travel from our world to Talia, a country much like our own Italy and yet with its own completely different history and traditions. For all that this is essentially fantasy for kids and teenagers, Hoffman has created a fantastic blend of court intrigue (the Duchessa who helms the water-bound state of Bellezza is a delightfull
...more

Feb 06, 2015
The Book Queen
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
EVERYONE
Shelves:
favourites,
my-precious
Like all the others, this is one is beautiful, but I think this one affected me more emotionally than some of the others. I nearly cried several times and I love it just as much now as I did when I first read it about two years and a half years ago.

City of Masks is a wonderful story which intricately weaves the present world with a parallel fantasical historical world. This is every bit my favourite type of story and it was a delight to read.
Lucien lives in modern day England but his life is marked by his illness. He has cancer and at the beginning of the story he is undergoing chemotherapy to treat the tumour. Arianna lives in Talia, a parallel universe for want of a better description, which has a feel of 16th century Italy but has its o ...more
Lucien lives in modern day England but his life is marked by his illness. He has cancer and at the beginning of the story he is undergoing chemotherapy to treat the tumour. Arianna lives in Talia, a parallel universe for want of a better description, which has a feel of 16th century Italy but has its o ...more

The book has a beautiful setting (something like an unspecifically "historicised" version of Venice), likable enough characters, and not even a bad plot as such. So why did it only receive two stars?
Because it was boring and extremely predictable to me (and rather too soppy in the end). Which is what I give two stars for.
The problem is that it adhered to basically all the unwritten rules of how YA fantasy fiction works while not having a storyline or characters quite "new"/intriguing enough to c ...more
Because it was boring and extremely predictable to me (and rather too soppy in the end). Which is what I give two stars for.
The problem is that it adhered to basically all the unwritten rules of how YA fantasy fiction works while not having a storyline or characters quite "new"/intriguing enough to c ...more

The Stravaganza series is based on a really interesting fantasy concept: a select few people can travel between two worlds, the world as we know it and an alternate version of Renaissance Italy. The action takes place in another Venice, called Bellezza. This is the stravagation the series title refers to. It's a great idea, but it really could have used a bit more development. The whole book, in fact, could have used a bit more development.
The book mainly follows two main characters, Lucien and ...more
The book mainly follows two main characters, Lucien and ...more

Masked delights:
Take some teenage fiction and add mystery, masks and a spot of time travel and you get Mary Hoffman’s ‘City of Masks’. Don’t be put off by the fact that this is technically teenage fiction, as, like I am sure most of you are aware, this catalogue has dramatically increased in recent years, with books appealing to adults alike. And this novel is no exception.
Following Lucien through his adventure is gripping and at the same time quite emotional. The present day story is such a con ...more
Take some teenage fiction and add mystery, masks and a spot of time travel and you get Mary Hoffman’s ‘City of Masks’. Don’t be put off by the fact that this is technically teenage fiction, as, like I am sure most of you are aware, this catalogue has dramatically increased in recent years, with books appealing to adults alike. And this novel is no exception.
Following Lucien through his adventure is gripping and at the same time quite emotional. The present day story is such a con ...more

This book was an excellent and gripping read with great characters and a new and original story. I have loved reading this book and it is a new favourite but I'm trying to be way less liberal with my five star reviews so it only gets four.
The main characters are Arianna and Lucien; Arianna is a girl who lives near to the city of Masks (Bellezza), sick of the rules imposed against her gender and breaks the rules entering the City of Masks on a day when she isn't supposed to. There she meets Luci ...more
The main characters are Arianna and Lucien; Arianna is a girl who lives near to the city of Masks (Bellezza), sick of the rules imposed against her gender and breaks the rules entering the City of Masks on a day when she isn't supposed to. There she meets Luci ...more

I love this series!

As good as this book was (intriguing plot, interesting characters, etc.), there were a few things that irked me.
1. To show that one particular character spoke with an accent, all of the words he spoke were in this awful old, stilted, misspelled English. It RUINED the flow of the story for me. I recall one of my best English profs in university saying that good writing has no need to misspell words to convey how a person speaks. Writing misspelled words tells the reader how they should interpret ...more
1. To show that one particular character spoke with an accent, all of the words he spoke were in this awful old, stilted, misspelled English. It RUINED the flow of the story for me. I recall one of my best English profs in university saying that good writing has no need to misspell words to convey how a person speaks. Writing misspelled words tells the reader how they should interpret ...more

This was my favourite book as child, and it still holds up as a good read. I found it initially difficult to get into because the language is very simple, and jarring after reading more adult novels, but I quickly became accustomed to it.
The plot can be predictable at times, but more in a good way, than bad. Each scene is interesting and adds to the story, and there are different levels of clues that can be found for younger and older readers.
I like that Bellezza is based on Venice and a certain ...more
The plot can be predictable at times, but more in a good way, than bad. Each scene is interesting and adds to the story, and there are different levels of clues that can be found for younger and older readers.
I like that Bellezza is based on Venice and a certain ...more

The descriptions were REALLY vivid, which I loved, but I still had a difficult time getting through this one. Maybe because I read the sequel first and already knew what was going to happen. But I'm sort of glad I started with book 2 because I don't think book 1 on its own would have been enough to keep me going and by now I'm half-way through book 3 and rather enjoying it, so...
...more

I loved this book when I was a kid. The writing was quick and easy, which makes it the perfect read for children. The story was exciting and quick paced, so getting lost in this story was a given. Very nice book and I will always recommend it to kids who'd like to go on an adventure.
...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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What's the Name o...: SOLVED. YA Fiction- Boy who can travel to Venice in another dimension maybe? [s] | 9 | 30 | Aug 23, 2020 06:28PM | |
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. YA, fantasy, girl who goes to another world by sleeping. [s] | 9 | 68 | May 15, 2018 09:19AM | |
Order of Talia (S...: Fancasts? | 3 | 16 | Aug 23, 2014 10:15AM | |
Order of Talia (S...: which book was your favorite? | 6 | 17 | Aug 23, 2014 08:44AM | |
Sha Tin College: ...: City of Masks: Do you think the writer wants the reader to learn anything from reading the book? If so, what? | 1 | 1 | Jan 19, 2014 10:52PM | |
Stravaganza Movie actors/actresses. | 2 | 43 | Oct 22, 2013 05:30AM | |
Who thinks Mary Hoffman (author of Stravaganza series), should continue the Stravaganza series? | 3 | 15 | Oct 19, 2013 12:24PM |
See also works published under Mary Lassiter
Mary Hoffman is a bestselling British author and reviewer, born in 1945. She is a true enthusiast of Italy and spends a lot of her time there, which shows in her Stravaganza novels: a series currently in publication. In total, she has written over 80 books, including the aforementioned Stravaganza series and the bestselling picture book, Amazing Grace. M ...more
Mary Hoffman is a bestselling British author and reviewer, born in 1945. She is a true enthusiast of Italy and spends a lot of her time there, which shows in her Stravaganza novels: a series currently in publication. In total, she has written over 80 books, including the aforementioned Stravaganza series and the bestselling picture book, Amazing Grace. M ...more
Other books in the series
Stravaganza
(6 books)
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