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City of Masks

(Stravaganza #1)

Mary Hoffman

3.91 · Rating details · 15,106 ratings · 624 reviews

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 ...more

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Paperback, 345 pages

Published September 9th 2004 by Bloomsbury (first published December 8th 2002)

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· 15,106 ratings · 624 reviews

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Feb 09, 2014 Nataliya rated it liked it

Shelves: 2014-reads, first-in-a-series

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 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 few political intrigues and, as his life ebbs away in the real world, realizes that this alternate reality quickly is becoming more real than 'real' world.

It's a book that seems to be aimed at quite young readers, perhaps age 9 or 10. It's gentle and sweet, with simple plot and easy-to-follow hints of the predictable plot twists, with never-too-real dangers, relatively harmless villains and generally happy resolutions to conflicts. The depths that could have been explored - in characters as well as the plot - were left uncharted.

There were a few points where it could all have been taken to the next level, to the place that can arouse strong conflicting emotions and create necessary tension- but they were sweetly glossed over (for instance, Lucien's experience of loss and dying, addressing the pain of grief, the difficult choices Silvia makes, the introduction of some ambiguity into the events - there were such opportunities for making the shades of moral grayness more prominent and more memorable!). Alas, any possibility of moral upheaval and emotional effect were softened and made sweet and cute and very easily palatable, which I thought was a real missed opportunity.

It's overall a feel-good book, probably unlikely to cause deep discussions between children and their parents, probably unlikely to change any kid's perception of the world, probably a lovely read on the cold rainy day when kids have to stay inside (however, I'm probably thinking of those long-away days of my own childhood when there were no video games and TV programs were quite limited, and library books were the perfect go-to entertainment).

It's a lovely book to help pass some time before moving on to better, more challenging literature. It has no teeth, it doesn't bite, and that may be a good or a band thing, depending where you stand on the idea of literature in lives of young readers. At least it does pass for a decent bedtime story.

Not a bad read, but you may find it hard to remember much of it a few days later. Interesting enough to finish reading it, but not captivating enough to pick up the sequels. 3 stars. ...more

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Aug 17, 2016 Katerina Kondrenko rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 07-out-of-10, atmospheric-much, spellbinding-from-the-start, from-the-3rd-p-pov, likable-minor-characters, read-in-english, young-adult, touching-moments, au, bromance

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 quite ...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Alice Radwell rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: the-dreaded-1-star, fantasy, contemporary

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 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 which never links together. The idea of Stravagation is lost two or three chapters in, and it takes any intrigue with it.

The plot isn't terrible, just unrefined and unfocused. The main problem that had me struggling to continue, was the lack of good pacing and tension. Nothing binds this novel to a climax, the story just flits from moment to moment - Lucian is taken as a 'mondolier', and then becomes an apprentice to a 'scientist', for no real reason - regardless of the need for consistency, and forgets ideas as it runs. Hoffman doesn't linger on anything and consequently, her characters are dull, her world is contradictory and her climax ineffective. Characterisation is poor; Lucian's illness acts as a cheap tactic to draw sympathy from the audience, and it doesn't work. I never cared for any of the characters. Their plights seemed childish, and without conditioning or backdrop, and they carry no depth or humanity. Dialogue is forced and often only two or three lines long, so inter-relations between characters is stagnant, and nearly always told as oppose to shown. Lucian and Arianna are supposed to be in their mid teens, but I thought they were nine based on how they conversed.

P.O.V switches every couple of pages, sometimes three times in one spread, to characters I had forgotten existed and who held no real ground in the story at all. Again, Hoffman seems to take the story on a whim, just going where she wants to write about, and not bothering to fill the spaces left behind. I never had a solid grounding on where I was, or who I was with. It's a case of too many characters spoiling the broth - some individuals only appeared twice in the whole plot, and yet I was supposed to empathize with their mind-set. I simply couldn't.

Personally, the book bored me. Nothing really happens. Conflicts are almost always resolved a few pages after they appear, and no antagonist is involved. We hear about the dreadful di Chimicii, but all they seem to want is a treaty signed which would unite Talia with a perfectly functioning republic. I couldn't see anything sinister behind their actions. Questions asked, like 'Why is Stravagation important, what's it's purpose?' are never answered. I don't understand why Hoffman created a parallel world and didn't just use Renascence Italy for Lucian's escape. There is a scene in which Lucian goes to the real modern day Italy and alludes to the differences between Bellazza and Venice, which I couldn't see. Apart from butchering Italian words, nothing is really altered. I feel the scene would have been more affective if the protagonist had been contrasting contemporary and historical Italy, rather than an almost exact replica of it. I suppose the author alludes to magic a couple of times, but again, she never explores what it is and how it is influential to her created world. Talia is boring and childish, and contains no realism or logic.

I think Hoffman underestimated her intended audience, is all. Like I have said, the story isn't terrible, just misguided and too quick to get to it's end. This is not a Y.A novel. This is a children's book. I could honestly see children between the ages of 9-12 enjoying the contents. It's an easy read, designed for settling kids at bedtime, but anyone above that age-group would probably be disappointed. I certainly was. Who knows, perhaps the realm is explored better as the series progresses, but I'm not sure I'll ever find out. ...more

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Sep 07, 2013 Marnie (Enchanted Bibliophile) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, fiction, books-i-own, speculative-fiction

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 is

...more

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Jun 19, 2009 Snoobles Mcgee rated it it was amazing

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. ...more

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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 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 my disappointment was huge as well. I couldn't even get past 25% of this novel.

There's nothing wrong with the plot per se. Lucien is a teenager stricken with cancer. He can barely move and eat, and he has to have his dad read to him. One day, his father gave him a rather peculiar book, with the instructions to write anything on it. Then when he goes to sleep, he wakes up and finds himself in a strange place, and later finds out he traveled to a parallel universe akin to 15th-16th century Venice. Could have been a really great story with lots of "star-crossed lovers" potential, know what I mean?

Unfortunately, the writing really ruined it for me. You know, I would let third person omniscient pass as long as it does it right. I wouldn't mind as long as there is good pacing, but man, this was the most disjointed novel I've ever read. There was absolutely no build-up and pacing. We're given the POV of this character, then two paragraphs later, we jump to another character's POV from OUT OF NOWHERE, and then we jump back to another POV with an ongoing dialogue with no context given whatsoever. It was bugging the hell out of me, but when it started having THREE POV changes in ONE PAGE, I lost it. I can understand the POV of side characters, but random ones that don't contribute to the overall story, people whose existences I would forget later on? Come the fuck on.

The writing is very important to me. It encourages me to read on. It can have a tragic plot, and maybe even a ridiculous one, but if the writing is splendid, I would ALWAYS give it a chance and read it through. But this? Ugh... If I were a cellphone and you opened an app called City of Masks, I'd be drained out of battery in no time. That's how much this book demotivated me. ...more

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Sep 30, 2017 Renee Godding rated it really liked it

Shelves: series, all-time-favorites

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (maybe even 3.5)

Wait, what?!? Quite a low rating to be on an all-time-favourites list, I know.
I won’t lie: objectively this series may not be the best ever written. Frankly, I am not even sure I am capable of judging them in that aspect.
I read these books together with my mother when I was probably 11. My mother was already very sick and the memories we spent taking turns reading pages to eachother are ones that I will treasure for life now that she is no longer with ...more

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Sep 26, 2010 Krystal109 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Summary
(view spoiler) Summary
(view spoiler)

Review
I bought this book on whim. The cover just sort of popped out and said, “Buy Me.” It didn’t take me long to get caught up in the world of Bellezza, Talia. Talia, based on our own Venice, Italy during the Renaissance, is a captivating place. There is something so beautiful about the cities of Italy, which is why tourists still travel there, and this book manages to harness that wonder within its pages.

The first thing that drew me in was the tangibleness of the protagonist, Lucien. While I’ve never had to live through the horrible life of living with a tumor, I understand what it’s like to feel helpless and utterly incapable of controlling your own future. Lucien is the epitome of this, he can’t even get out of bed. Luckily for him, the book his father gives him transports to Bellezza. But with it comes its own dangers, thrusting him (and the reader) into a world of adventure.

Now, if you know anything about history, you know that all states, countries, and kingdoms have had to fight to conquer or maintain what they were. In the world of Talia it is no different. In a world where political intrigue, assassination attempts, and ancient laws were at the height of the citizen’s life, the reader learns everything as it is revealed through Lucien’s eyes. In fact, despite the multiple viewpoints that the book is written from, Lucien is the reader’s window to the world.

Now if the adventure or beauty isn’t enough to peak your interest, there is a tangled web of love and betrayal that weaves its way throughout the story. Every character has their own motives and desires and is willing to do anything for them. An example you say?

(view spoiler)

So, despite being labeled as ‘young adult’, I think there is enough here to make the books enjoyable for all ages. ...more

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Apr 29, 2009 PurplyCookie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, 1st-in-a-series, young-adult, book-series

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 ...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Arielle Walker rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy-unusual

recently re-read this series for the hundredth (or so) time, and once again the story did not fail to draw me in. Original, fascinating, exciting - love it.

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Jul 11, 2011 Cait rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews, books-i-own, young-adult

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 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 sleeps, he finds himself in an alternate Italy (called Talia) in a different time period. When he sleeps in Talia, he’s back in his own modern England. In Talia, Lucien is swept up in court intrigue – politics, murder plots, long buried secrets and kidnappings. The stuff adventures are made out of.

While I’m still not quite 100% sure I understand exactly how the Stravagation (moving back and forth in place and time) in the book is supposed to work, I don’t even care. The exact science is not needed when it is a part of a story that encompasses so much detail, emotion and wonderful characterization. The Talia that our main character Lucien Stravagates too is so alive – I felt like I knew its canals, its islands, buildings and peoples. I could picture the fireworks, see the outfits and masks, the bright colours and the architecture – such amazing worldbuilding. I was emotionally invested in this place and the people. The Duchessa who loves her city and will do anything for it, Arianna who wants only to be a mandolier (rows the boats in the canals) but finds so much more waiting for her in the city of Bellezza, and Rodolfo who takes in, cares for and teaches our main character Lucien, unwittingly signing up for more adventure than he could ever want.

I loved Lucien. I wanted to just hug him and tell him everything is going to be ok. He is so strong. Not only is he dealing with cancer in his own world and time, he fully immerses himself in Talia and does everything he can to help out his friends there. By the epic climax, my heart was breaking for him. Lucien has his choice taken away from him, and it’s just…I was so sad for him, and yet so happy at the same time. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain without giving it all away.

STRAVAGANZA: CITY OF MASKS is full to the brim of the stuff that good stories are made out of – mystery, intrigue, royals, a hero, dimension hopping, alternate worlds, characters you can fall in love with and ones you want to be best friends with, amazing detail in the world-building and writing that just pulls you in and wrenches every emotion it can out of you. Though it’s the first book in a series, it stands so well on its own and the ending was just – everything I could have hoped for. Highly recommended!

Originally posted: Escape Through the Pages ...more

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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 ...more

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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.

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Aug 04, 2008 Lucie P rated it did not like it

This book was a disappointment. The story is childish and unrealistic – in the bad way. The main idea is not very original, the characters don’t read like actual, complex people, the plot is quite predictable. I finished the book, but it was boring, even annoying towards the end.

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Jul 30, 2017 Ann rated it really liked it

My eight year old self loved this book and series.

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Feb 17, 2011 Becky rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-picks

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 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 own vivid natural beauty and is populated by a cast of eccentric characters.

Lucien unwittingly comes across a talisman which transports him from his world to Arianna’s. He is a Stravagante who has the power to enter parallel universes. The talisman gives him time without his sickness in Bellezza which is akin to Venice - a great water city surrounded by islands. He arrives in the city on the one day that it is forbidden for non-native Bellezan's to be there. Thus his first stravagation is fraught with danger because if he is discovered he will face punishment by death. But another person is in Bellezza when she shouldn’t be, the feisty Arianna, and so begins the meeting of their two stories and this exotic exciting historical adventure.

The characters in this story were all so colourfully drawn as was the world of Bellezza. The smells, the tastes, the rich setting, the atmosphere all transported me to this unfamiliar world and made me, like Lucien, fall in love with it. But the most breathtaking part of this story is the plot. The twists left me gasping and desperate to know more. The ending had me in turmoil. I wanted to cheer and cry at the same time. I lived this story with Lucien every step of the way. I watched the magnificient fireworks. I dived into the stinky waters of the canal. I hid in the secret passageway. You live every word.

If you haven’t started this series yet, you certainly should! I can’t wait to start the second book City of Stars. The Stravaganza series will appeal to fans of Theresa Breslin and Stuart Hill. Both happen to be writers that I love. Now I can add Mary Hoffman to my list of novelists who can weave stories which open a window into another world and make you feel as if you have walked through the streets, danced with the flamboyant people and risked life and death to do it. It’s love! ...more

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Mar 19, 2017 Auntie Terror rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed

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 ...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Sesana rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy

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 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 Arianna. Lucien is from our world, where he's a teenage cancer patient. Of course, when he first finds himself in Bellezza, apparently healthy, it seems like a dream to him. Arianna is from the world of Bellezza, but she was born outside the city. We first meet her when she's decided to run away from her brothers in order to spend the night after an important festival in the city, then present herself as a candidate to be mandolier (read: gondolier) the next morning. She has two problems here: only boys can become a mandolier, and only people born on Bellezza can stay in the city the night after the festival. They meet the following morning, when Lucien accidentally stravgates to Bellezza.

Things happen in this book, not necessarily because they make any sense to, but because the later plot will need them to. A perfect example happens relatively early: Lucien, who has just traveled from our world to Bellezza, is made a mandolier (gondolier) for a matter of hours before he's claimed as an apprentice by who is essentially the local wizard. He doesn't so much as set foot on a boat, so why bother with that digression? Because it will become necessary for the plot later on, of course.

Similarly, the antagonist's plots are all so painfully easy to thwart that he quickly ceases to be any sort of threat at all. This book is only 350 pages long, but he goes through no less than five separate plots, all of which are casually swept aside with no more than a few dozen pages of angst, at the most. After the first few, I just stopped worrying about him.

Fortunately, the characters are mostly engaging. I liked Lucien well enough, and his actions and reactions always seemed fairly reasonable to me, under the circumstances. The more minor characters are sympathetic and sound like they could reasonably be expected to sound. The Duchesse, for instance, sounds precisely like how I would expect a powerful woman who's successfully ruled a city for over twenty years to sound. (Though she, too, makes some decisions based only on what would be best for the story Hoffman has in mind.) Arianna, on the other hand... It's a good thing she's likeable. She shows a severe inability to think through her actions. See her grand plan to become a mandolier, one which she eventually admits she hadn't exactly thought through. It also never seemed to dawn on her that her brothers could find themselves in severe danger if they'd lingered in Bellezza too long looking for her. Nor, in all her indignation that girls can't become mandoliers, does it ever trouble her that non-Bellezzans can't, either. At least Hoffman generally treats this as a personal failing and a sign that she's still young, instead of an endearing trait.

There is promise here, there really is. Reading about this alternate version of Bellezza was fun, though I suspect that anybody who wasn't familiar with Venice (or at least the Assassin's Creed version) would be hopelessly lost. The idea of stravagation is interesting, though it needs more development to be truly convincing. And Hoffman can write believable characters and dialog, though she needs some serious work on her villains. But although this was an enjoyable read, I'm not hooked enough to continue with the series. ...more

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Nov 01, 2013 Sarah rated it it was amazing

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 ...more

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Mar 20, 2017 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: favourite-series, paperbacks-i-own, favorites, series-to-complete, kindle-books-i-own, thoughts-on-a-book, 2017

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 ...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Misty marked it as dnf · review of another edition

Shelves: supernatural-paranormal, juvenile-ya, historical, read-in-2011, timeslip

This hit on some MAJOR pet peeves for me, so even though I saw potential in some respects, I gave up.

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Nov 19, 2016 Pauline Zander rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, scribd, 2018-books

I love this series!

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Sep 20, 2018 Megan Lewis rated it liked it

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

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Sep 21, 2018 Brooke Carter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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

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Sep 09, 2019 Blu Jay rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

one of my favorites in high school, reading it again was fascinating. the different style of writing with many different perspectives and foreshadowing was a bit of a brain stretch, but I needed it to distract my busy mind. love the rest of the series too

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Sep 30, 2015 Sarah rated it it was ok

Shelves: as-it-began, the-sea, beware-of-mary-sue, bookful-of-idiots, historical-fantasy, kings-and-queens, all-ages-admitted, let-s-talk-about-religion, isn-t-that-convenient, dark-haired-male-entity

Lucien Mulholland has terminal cancer. He's always tired, his body is weak, his thick black hair has fallen out, and he can't play the violin anymore.

With little to cheer him up in his last days, Lucien is given an antique notebook - a very old antique, as in Renaissance Italian. Falling asleep with the notebook in his hand, he is transported to a magical place that is and yet isn't sixteenth-century Venice.

While he was terribly sick in England, Lucien is healthy and vital in this other world. ...more

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Aug 29, 2017 ✿ Jenna ✿ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, reviewed

OMG it took me a lifetime to read this book

RTC ...more

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Mar 03, 2019 Stephanie C rated it liked it

Shelves: vivid, not-great-but-charming-anywa, likeable-characters, magic, time-travel, difficult-sad-content, mildly-interesting, slow, empty-feeling

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...

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Nov 07, 2017 Krista rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017

Totally enjoyable read. There were a few parts that were a bit unbelievable or too convenient, but it was fun and I would like to continue the series.

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Feb 25, 2019 Sara Verboom rated it it was amazing

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.

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topics	posts	views	last activity
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. YA, fantasy, girl who goes to another world by sleeping. [s]	9	64	May 15, 2018 09:19AM
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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
does anybody else love the stravaganza series too?	13	30	Oct 13, 2013 08:33AM

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About Mary Hoffman

Mary Hoffman

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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. ...more

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Stravaganza (6 books)

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Quotes from City of Masks

“I hardly think a girl is much of a threat. I presume you searched her for weapons? But if she attempts to suffocate me with her straw mattress, I promise to call out for help.” — 55 likes

“If I had known, do you think I should have let her get away with this mad plan? That I should have let her rob me of my child? No, I should have taken you myself and hidden with you in some far-off land and never seen her again rather than agree to such an unnatural scheme” — 21 likes

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