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The Heart of the World
The first twelve years of Lily’s life were uneventful. She died when she was five, and a few more times after that, but it never seemed to stick. She met Death, another version of her from different dimension, every Sunday for tea, but was always back in school on Monday. She met an extra-dimensional revolutionary living inside her head, but apart from making her run errands for him all the time he wasn’t up to much either.
When she was twelve, however, things finally took an exciting turn. She was stolen away to another dimension, where they needed her to join in a glorious quest for the Heart of the World.
Sadly for Lily, the quest turned out to be more dangerous than advertised, and her loyalties less easily navigated than she'd hoped.
When she was twelve, however, things finally took an exciting turn. She was stolen away to another dimension, where they needed her to join in a glorious quest for the Heart of the World.
Sadly for Lily, the quest turned out to be more dangerous than advertised, and her loyalties less easily navigated than she'd hoped.
- GenresFantasy
314 pages, Paperback
Published October 10, 2023
2 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Jane Doe
379 books330 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
"Jane Doe" is a name frequently used as a pseudonym by women who wish to be anonymous.
"Jane Doe" is a name frequently used as a pseudonym by women who wish to be anonymous.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 20, 2023
Rating: 3.5, rounded up to a 4.
So, I have a lot of thoughts on this book. I’ve been following the author’s blog for a while, waiting with bated breath for when she would announce the release of the book. I was super excited to read it, and I’m a huge fan of the author’s wacky fics. Plus, I especially enjoyed the one this was adapted from. It was my favorite one that she wrote in the fandom it was originally from. Also, after I ordered the book, it was delayed by 2 days during shipping, which really built up my anticipation.
First of all, I do want to say that I had a great time reading the book. I binged it in only one sitting (interrupted by dinner), and it was fun noting the adjustments the author made to make this an original story. I was actually really surprised that she changed it to high fantasy and created elves, but I think it worked, especially the part with Lenin’s uprising. Whenever we got hints of Lenin’s background and backstory, I was hanging onto my seat. And, anyway, in the beginning, the fic was original enough that all the best parts (Death, Rabbit, glitches, Lily's insane powers, etc.) have remained, since those parts weren't in canon.
I think my favorite parts in the book were the interactions between Lily and Wizard Lenin, Death, and Rabbit. Maybe it's just my nostalgia for the original, but those scenes are so absurd sometimes, and even when they’re not, the characters are incredibly vibrant and whimsical. Even though the context was changed a lot for many of the scenes, sometimes considerably, the characters had the same wonderful, spontaneous, and weird quality.
Throughout the book, there were many hilarious lines, and I found myself grinning over and over throughout the book. Like the part where Lily becomes "blood-brothers" with the elf, and a surplus of others moments that I can't remember right at this second. I think what really drove this novel were the interesting characters and character interactions, predominantly Lily (well, of course, she’s the protagonist) and Wizard Lenin, and the mysteries the author set up were also intriguing. Like, what’s the deal with Lenin’s heritage? What’s the deal with that moment where it almost sounded like he had once been raped? What’s the deal with Jones? What’s the deal with Lily’s mom? All those questions set up the coming sequels really well, as they weren’t answered in this book.
One character who’s basically totally new that I liked was Ilyn. He didn’t have many lines, but I found him delightful to read about. Of all the new characters, he was the one that caught my attention the most. His reticence was hilarious, too. I enjoyed the scene where he lit Lily’s house on fire, and Lenin reminiscing about his own (failed) attempts to draw Ilyn out in conversation made me laugh.
However, there were a few factors that I felt a tad disappointed about, which hopefully will change in the sequel(s).
For example, about Ilyn: Lily’s connection with him makes sense, but it also felt very sudden. I felt it could have been done in a way that was less like a sudden slap in the face. Additionally, it made me slightly uncomfortable near the end, when Lily held his hand. Obviously, it’s not meant to be romantic in any way, but it was tinged oddly because Lily hardly acts like a child, and because Ilyn had some weird deal with Lily’s mom, who apparently looks like Lily. And, Lily is a 12 year old, and this is a grown man. Same thing, at a certain point that I can’t remember, with Lenin. I know nothing inappropriate at all is happening, but the vibes are kind of…iffy, in one scene, with this strange emotional connection they have. I love Lenin, and I love his relationship with Lily, and I didn’t have any problems with it in the fic, but here, in the book, there were just a couple moments that I thought were a bit too much, that seemed to imply (even though I knew they weren’t) things that were weird, because Lily’s 12.
In terms of the writing: It was fun, funny, and easy to read, but there were a lot of run-on sentences. Okay, not a tremendous amount, but maybe one every five or ten pages or so? They weren’t super noticeable, and they weren’t the type of run-on sentence that’s a complete affront to grammar, nor did they didn't ruin my experience, but it was kind of annoying. I've noticed in the past that the author sometimes has this issue. Here's one example: "'It's a seasonal flavor,' Lily pointed out, she supposed to magic elf warlords from other dimensions that wouldn't mean much, but it meant she had to make the most of it before it was out of stuck until next November" (41). And another: "There was nothing wrong with his voice in theory, it sounded like any other voice" (131). (Just now, I randomly flipped through the book looking for them, so that's why they're so far apart.) In any case, I’m pretty sure there should be semicolons or periods where there are, instead, commas. Again, I love Doe's writing, but I'm a little upset to see this in her book - it's a bit different to see it in fanfiction, which is a totally different context, where readers have no right to expect perfection from the creators of the works they like.
Another thing is that there were a LOT of em-dashes. Now, I suffer from the same affliction: I am a consistent over-user of em-dashes. I love them. I wouldn't want to look at how many there are in one piece of writing I make. But it got to a point, in this story, where I thought that many of them could be cut out, the sentences reformatted so they wouldn't be there. This isn't a huge problem, but it was slightly disruptive, and this is a published book that has presumably been combed through many times.
Anyway, next issue, the one I’m maybe most upset about: Lily's character is different here. Not tremendously per se, but enough that I’m sad. It's not noticeable at the beginning of the book, but gradually it becomes more apparent. I don’t hate it, but it was slightly disappointing. The thing I really like about Lily's character in the original is how bizarre, eerie, and inhuman she is, which makes sense, since she’s basically a god. A lot of the time, she’s just kind of socially awkward, but then, in certain scenes, it hits you straight in the face, like when she does that "skinner's box" thing with her relatives and the bong noise to condition them to stop mistreating her, and other moments that are later on in the timeline than this book adaptation goes. What I'm trying to get to, though, is that she's too inhuman and strange to have empathy a lot of the time. When she does "benevolent" acts, it's usually on a whim, or because she feels she has to because of fate, or other extraneous reasons. In this book, though, the author altered that. Again, not a huge amount, and obviously she was still definitely recognizable as Lily, but it was noticeable. The author gave her more of a moral compass, and when she saw horrifying things, she acted more like a normal person, was aghast, thought it was wrong, instead of whatever I think original Lily would have done, which would probably be to be surprised at how apathetic she felt - or something. Obviously I don't understand her character better than the author, but I do feel this is a very noticeable difference, and, to me, it makes Lily's character more boring. Probably, in the next few books, she'll undergo character development and become more like the Lily we know, but reading her genuinely act sort of like canon Harry in a few scenes made my soul wither a bit.
Next, the setting: The setting felt kind of underdeveloped. Like, I found myself being very confused about the size of the city/kingdom. Is that...just it? There are no other countries or anything? I think maybe other countries are referred to, but the whole place felt very isolated and strange, like nowhere else beyond the boundaries existed. It was very vague and hand-wavy at times, for all the elf species were described and introduced. I think it has a lot of potential, and I really, really liked the whole thing with the blackholes, and the Terrestrials coming to the kingdom through the tears in reality (seriously, I thought that was extremely clever, plus with Elizabeth’s backstory), but I wish the whole thing could have been explored more. What we were given was fascinating but too little.
And during the whole quest (which was basically totally new material from the fic, minus a few factors, and completely reworked), the pacing was a bit odd. I'm not sure how long the entire thing took, but since multiple times the author wrote "weeks", I have to assume several months passed. Except, it didn't feel like that - again, it was just kind of weirdly timed. The trials also were a little bit dull, though I certainly appreciated Rabbit’s eating two of them. I love Rabbit.
I like the author best when she's doing these wickedly sarcastic, nihilistic, satirical parodies of everything, basically, and, in this book, she strayed away from that more than usual, and it seemed like there were more moments where she wanted to inspire some genuine, moralistic feelings, and I disliked that. I mean, in comparison. Like the scene at the bottom of the ravine where Lily comforts Hermione by saying something like, “I think we’re more alike than you realize…You feel like…etc.” I’m quoting from memory here. It felt weird. I did think it intriguing that the author set up alternate-universe Elizabeth as Death’s “true love”! Actually, I really liked that, and the possibility of something between Elizabeth and Lily (though it seems extremely unlikely, because Lily’s Lily) was also really sweet/fascinating (I know I’m overusing that word, haha). I just can’t wait to see the changes to Elizabeth’s character in the next book…Also, Elizabeth is a perfect name for her. It just works so well! And I really like Lenin’s whole history and the way that’s been changed in the book. He’s such a gem.
Back to Lily, though, and how I feel about the changes done to her: I do realize that this Lily has gone through different experiences than fic Lily. For example, book Lily, while extremely neglected by her adopted parents, wasn’t verbally abused, starved, and locked into closets. She never went through that whole arc with the psychologist and having her memories (attempted to be) wiped, either. So, some differences are totally warranted. I do feel, though, that at the core of her character, these events don’t change her that much, and that their absence shouldn’t have made her so much more, as Lenin says, “noble”.
I still definitely plan on reading the sequels, and I’m eagerly looking forward to them. I’m really excited to learn what the whole deal with the statue of Rabbit was about, plus the whole magic school arc. I know Frank will have more screen time in the sequel, and that especially is something that will be exciting. Plus, while I was reading the fic, it got taken off the site at a very cliff-hanging moment, and so I’m eager to see what would have happened next. I still really, really love this story and these characters, but, unfortunately, I would say I enjoyed the fic more. I think my main hang up is Lily’s character and just the moralistic bits. I could have ignored the weird pacing and slightly underdeveloped world if not for that. Even when I say “moralistic”, though, I’m aware that this book wasn’t that moralistic AT ALL. It only felt so in comparison to what I remember of the fic - that’s what I mean. I hope whoever’s reading this knows I really, really do appreciate the author’s hard work, and the great parts of the story are overshadowed, to a massive degree, by the parts I felt are less great; it’s just easier to point out flaws than describe perfections.
So, I have a lot of thoughts on this book. I’ve been following the author’s blog for a while, waiting with bated breath for when she would announce the release of the book. I was super excited to read it, and I’m a huge fan of the author’s wacky fics. Plus, I especially enjoyed the one this was adapted from. It was my favorite one that she wrote in the fandom it was originally from. Also, after I ordered the book, it was delayed by 2 days during shipping, which really built up my anticipation.
First of all, I do want to say that I had a great time reading the book. I binged it in only one sitting (interrupted by dinner), and it was fun noting the adjustments the author made to make this an original story. I was actually really surprised that she changed it to high fantasy and created elves, but I think it worked, especially the part with Lenin’s uprising. Whenever we got hints of Lenin’s background and backstory, I was hanging onto my seat. And, anyway, in the beginning, the fic was original enough that all the best parts (Death, Rabbit, glitches, Lily's insane powers, etc.) have remained, since those parts weren't in canon.
I think my favorite parts in the book were the interactions between Lily and Wizard Lenin, Death, and Rabbit. Maybe it's just my nostalgia for the original, but those scenes are so absurd sometimes, and even when they’re not, the characters are incredibly vibrant and whimsical. Even though the context was changed a lot for many of the scenes, sometimes considerably, the characters had the same wonderful, spontaneous, and weird quality.
Throughout the book, there were many hilarious lines, and I found myself grinning over and over throughout the book. Like the part where Lily becomes "blood-brothers" with the elf, and a surplus of others moments that I can't remember right at this second. I think what really drove this novel were the interesting characters and character interactions, predominantly Lily (well, of course, she’s the protagonist) and Wizard Lenin, and the mysteries the author set up were also intriguing. Like, what’s the deal with Lenin’s heritage? What’s the deal with that moment where it almost sounded like he had once been raped? What’s the deal with Jones? What’s the deal with Lily’s mom? All those questions set up the coming sequels really well, as they weren’t answered in this book.
One character who’s basically totally new that I liked was Ilyn. He didn’t have many lines, but I found him delightful to read about. Of all the new characters, he was the one that caught my attention the most. His reticence was hilarious, too. I enjoyed the scene where he lit Lily’s house on fire, and Lenin reminiscing about his own (failed) attempts to draw Ilyn out in conversation made me laugh.
However, there were a few factors that I felt a tad disappointed about, which hopefully will change in the sequel(s).
For example, about Ilyn: Lily’s connection with him makes sense, but it also felt very sudden. I felt it could have been done in a way that was less like a sudden slap in the face. Additionally, it made me slightly uncomfortable near the end, when Lily held his hand. Obviously, it’s not meant to be romantic in any way, but it was tinged oddly because Lily hardly acts like a child, and because Ilyn had some weird deal with Lily’s mom, who apparently looks like Lily. And, Lily is a 12 year old, and this is a grown man. Same thing, at a certain point that I can’t remember, with Lenin. I know nothing inappropriate at all is happening, but the vibes are kind of…iffy, in one scene, with this strange emotional connection they have. I love Lenin, and I love his relationship with Lily, and I didn’t have any problems with it in the fic, but here, in the book, there were just a couple moments that I thought were a bit too much, that seemed to imply (even though I knew they weren’t) things that were weird, because Lily’s 12.
In terms of the writing: It was fun, funny, and easy to read, but there were a lot of run-on sentences. Okay, not a tremendous amount, but maybe one every five or ten pages or so? They weren’t super noticeable, and they weren’t the type of run-on sentence that’s a complete affront to grammar, nor did they didn't ruin my experience, but it was kind of annoying. I've noticed in the past that the author sometimes has this issue. Here's one example: "'It's a seasonal flavor,' Lily pointed out, she supposed to magic elf warlords from other dimensions that wouldn't mean much, but it meant she had to make the most of it before it was out of stuck until next November" (41). And another: "There was nothing wrong with his voice in theory, it sounded like any other voice" (131). (Just now, I randomly flipped through the book looking for them, so that's why they're so far apart.) In any case, I’m pretty sure there should be semicolons or periods where there are, instead, commas. Again, I love Doe's writing, but I'm a little upset to see this in her book - it's a bit different to see it in fanfiction, which is a totally different context, where readers have no right to expect perfection from the creators of the works they like.
Another thing is that there were a LOT of em-dashes. Now, I suffer from the same affliction: I am a consistent over-user of em-dashes. I love them. I wouldn't want to look at how many there are in one piece of writing I make. But it got to a point, in this story, where I thought that many of them could be cut out, the sentences reformatted so they wouldn't be there. This isn't a huge problem, but it was slightly disruptive, and this is a published book that has presumably been combed through many times.
Anyway, next issue, the one I’m maybe most upset about: Lily's character is different here. Not tremendously per se, but enough that I’m sad. It's not noticeable at the beginning of the book, but gradually it becomes more apparent. I don’t hate it, but it was slightly disappointing. The thing I really like about Lily's character in the original is how bizarre, eerie, and inhuman she is, which makes sense, since she’s basically a god. A lot of the time, she’s just kind of socially awkward, but then, in certain scenes, it hits you straight in the face, like when she does that "skinner's box" thing with her relatives and the bong noise to condition them to stop mistreating her, and other moments that are later on in the timeline than this book adaptation goes. What I'm trying to get to, though, is that she's too inhuman and strange to have empathy a lot of the time. When she does "benevolent" acts, it's usually on a whim, or because she feels she has to because of fate, or other extraneous reasons. In this book, though, the author altered that. Again, not a huge amount, and obviously she was still definitely recognizable as Lily, but it was noticeable. The author gave her more of a moral compass, and when she saw horrifying things, she acted more like a normal person, was aghast, thought it was wrong, instead of whatever I think original Lily would have done, which would probably be to be surprised at how apathetic she felt - or something. Obviously I don't understand her character better than the author, but I do feel this is a very noticeable difference, and, to me, it makes Lily's character more boring. Probably, in the next few books, she'll undergo character development and become more like the Lily we know, but reading her genuinely act sort of like canon Harry in a few scenes made my soul wither a bit.
Next, the setting: The setting felt kind of underdeveloped. Like, I found myself being very confused about the size of the city/kingdom. Is that...just it? There are no other countries or anything? I think maybe other countries are referred to, but the whole place felt very isolated and strange, like nowhere else beyond the boundaries existed. It was very vague and hand-wavy at times, for all the elf species were described and introduced. I think it has a lot of potential, and I really, really liked the whole thing with the blackholes, and the Terrestrials coming to the kingdom through the tears in reality (seriously, I thought that was extremely clever, plus with Elizabeth’s backstory), but I wish the whole thing could have been explored more. What we were given was fascinating but too little.
And during the whole quest (which was basically totally new material from the fic, minus a few factors, and completely reworked), the pacing was a bit odd. I'm not sure how long the entire thing took, but since multiple times the author wrote "weeks", I have to assume several months passed. Except, it didn't feel like that - again, it was just kind of weirdly timed. The trials also were a little bit dull, though I certainly appreciated Rabbit’s eating two of them. I love Rabbit.
I like the author best when she's doing these wickedly sarcastic, nihilistic, satirical parodies of everything, basically, and, in this book, she strayed away from that more than usual, and it seemed like there were more moments where she wanted to inspire some genuine, moralistic feelings, and I disliked that. I mean, in comparison. Like the scene at the bottom of the ravine where Lily comforts Hermione by saying something like, “I think we’re more alike than you realize…You feel like…etc.” I’m quoting from memory here. It felt weird. I did think it intriguing that the author set up alternate-universe Elizabeth as Death’s “true love”! Actually, I really liked that, and the possibility of something between Elizabeth and Lily (though it seems extremely unlikely, because Lily’s Lily) was also really sweet/fascinating (I know I’m overusing that word, haha). I just can’t wait to see the changes to Elizabeth’s character in the next book…Also, Elizabeth is a perfect name for her. It just works so well! And I really like Lenin’s whole history and the way that’s been changed in the book. He’s such a gem.
Back to Lily, though, and how I feel about the changes done to her: I do realize that this Lily has gone through different experiences than fic Lily. For example, book Lily, while extremely neglected by her adopted parents, wasn’t verbally abused, starved, and locked into closets. She never went through that whole arc with the psychologist and having her memories (attempted to be) wiped, either. So, some differences are totally warranted. I do feel, though, that at the core of her character, these events don’t change her that much, and that their absence shouldn’t have made her so much more, as Lenin says, “noble”.
I still definitely plan on reading the sequels, and I’m eagerly looking forward to them. I’m really excited to learn what the whole deal with the statue of Rabbit was about, plus the whole magic school arc. I know Frank will have more screen time in the sequel, and that especially is something that will be exciting. Plus, while I was reading the fic, it got taken off the site at a very cliff-hanging moment, and so I’m eager to see what would have happened next. I still really, really love this story and these characters, but, unfortunately, I would say I enjoyed the fic more. I think my main hang up is Lily’s character and just the moralistic bits. I could have ignored the weird pacing and slightly underdeveloped world if not for that. Even when I say “moralistic”, though, I’m aware that this book wasn’t that moralistic AT ALL. It only felt so in comparison to what I remember of the fic - that’s what I mean. I hope whoever’s reading this knows I really, really do appreciate the author’s hard work, and the great parts of the story are overshadowed, to a massive degree, by the parts I felt are less great; it’s just easier to point out flaws than describe perfections.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 14, 2025
lily and wizard lenin might actually be the best duo of all time... i eagerly await the next book in this series
September 27, 2025
I love this. These days, a fantasy quest is usually not my cup of tea, but this - humor, absurdism, politics, amazing characters - this has everything. I came here from Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus, and though there are some big changes, they did nothing to detract from the story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews