Once there was

Review by Booklist Review

"Once was, once wasn't." Monsef's debut novel opens with a fable about a girl who saves a unicorn. It then jumps to current-day Berkeley, where 15-year-old Marjan Dastani struggles to keep her dad's veterinary clinic afloat while also trying to be a normal high-schooler. Her dad died under mysterious circumstances, and Marjan, now an orphan, has been forced to grow up fast. She is soon called on by a secret society to take her dad's place and is sent on an adventure to help heal a magical beast. Marjan must navigate this new life and her feelings of anger and abandonment, all while aiding strange creatures like djinns and unicorns. She has also begun uncovering clues to who murdered her father. The fables interweave old lore with the contemporary world to guide Marjan on her journey. The main character is Iranian American, and the story's themes include mixed-race identity and holding two worlds, as well as grief and loss.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Horn Book Review

Marjan Dastani, the daughter of an Iranian immigrant father and an American-born mother (who died when Marjan was seven), has grown up in California with stories that begin "Yeki bood, yeki nabood," or "Once was, once wasn't." Those stories "created a place that was real and not real, at the same time," where the mythical could coexist with the everyday. After her father, a veterinarian, is murdered, fifteen-year-old Marjan finds herself tasked with taking over management of the vet clinic and her father's crumbling finances. She is summoned to England on a mysterious mission, where she learns that her father was leading a double life: he also specialized in the healing of mythical creatures such as griffons, faeries, and gnomes. As Marjan tries to solve the mystery of who killed her father, she is pulled into a secret network in which these legendary beasts are brokered and sold. She must come face to face with who her father really was and with her own feelings of grief. With its blend of fantasy and mystery, the story slowly ratchets up the suspense. It also poses intriguing ethical questions about the conservation of endangered species and the devastating effects of human intervention on the natural world. A hard-to-put-down book with great appeal to fantasy and mythology fans. (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Fifteen-year-old Marjan Dastani discovers hidden family secrets and assumes new responsibilities after her father dies. Until his murder, Marjan's Iranian immigrant father was a veterinarian who ran West Berkeley Animal Clinic. Now, the high school sophomore, whose Norwegian American mother died of cancer years earlier, is left trying to run the business. Francesca Wix, her African American neighbor, is now her legal guardian. As Marjan attempts to keep her father's veterinary practice afloat, she ruminates on her resentment of the demands it made on her father's time--and is startled to learn that she is part of an ancient lineage tasked with healing mythological creatures. The layers of complex emotional and identity issues Marjan tackles give her character great depth; moments when she reflects on her connection to Persian culture feel natural and raw. The more readers learn about how she helps fantastical animals, the more is revealed about her father and the mystery surrounding his death. Marjan also deals with emotional triggers that do not allow her to bury her feelings, and the exploration of grief will affect readers deeply. The detailed visual descriptions clearly conjure up the enchanting world Monsef has created, one populated by expressive, surreal beings, each of which has its own backstory. A striking and heartfelt debut. (Fantasy. 10-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Chapter One: The Girl Who Saved a Unicorn| CHAPTER ONE | THE GIRL WHO SAVED A UNICORN Once was, once wasn't. A long time ago, in that forest that lies between the Alborz Mountains and the Caspian Sea, a girl went foraging for mushrooms. It had rained the day before. The ground was soft and damp, and the air smelled of loam and moss. It was a good day for mushrooms, and the girl had nearly filled her basket with lion's mane and hen-of-the-woods when she heard a sound away off in the trees. It sounded like an animal crying out in pain. There were leopards in the forest, and jackals, and brown bears. But this girl didn't like to think of any creature suffering. So she set out into the forest in the direction of the sound, to see if she could help. A little ways off the path, in a clearing in the deep woods, she found the source of the cries. The unicorn was bleeding and scared, its leg caught in a hunter's snare. It was a huge beast, and very wild. The girl had never seen such an animal before, and she knew at once that it was special. She also knew that as soon as the hunter returned to check on his snare, the unicorn would be no more. So she swallowed her fear and crept up on it, as gently and as carefully as she could. To calm it down, she offered it some of the mushrooms she'd picked. And when she felt it was safe to approach, the girl bent down and opened up the trap. The beast seemed to fill up the entire clearing with its long legs and its sharp, treacherous horn. The girl stood there frozen, too awed and frightened to move. The unicorn looked at its savior for a long time. Then it took a cautious step on its injured leg toward the girl, lowered its massive head, and plunged its horn into her chest, right above her heart. The girl fell to the ground, and as she did, a piece of the unicorn's horn broke off inside her. The unicorn watched her for another moment, then turned and loped off into the woods, favoring its wounded leg, and was not seen again for a hundred years. The girl, bleeding and in shock, managed to gather enough strength to return to the village at the edge of the woods, where she lived. There she collapsed and was carried to her bed. She lay there for many days. At first no one thought she would survive. But after a day, the bleeding stopped. And after three days, the pain began to subside. Slowly the wound grew smaller and smaller, until all that remained was a crescent-shaped scar, just above her heart, and a little piece of unicorn horn, lodged between her ribs. Time passed, and the girl became a woman. She married, and had children, and when they were born, some of them had crescent birthmarks above their hearts too. And so did some of their children, and their children's children, and so on. It's said, though no one can be sure, that some of the girl's descendants are still alive today, and that a few of them still carry that mark on their skin, where the unicorn first touched her. And it's whispered that maybe, just maybe, there's still a little of the unicorn inside them. Excerpted from Once There Was by Kiyash Monsef All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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