DNF at 25%. 
 The only reason this isn't a one-star book--and the reason I read as far as I did--was that the writing in this story is truly beautiful. Just look at this description: 
 The morning arrived the way Alice imagined a whisper would: in tendrils of gray and threads of gold, quietly, quietly. The sky was illuminated with great care and deliberation, and she leaned back to watch it bloom. 
 And this one: 
 The afternoon our story begins, the quiet parts of being alive were the busiest: wind unlocking windows, rainlight nudging curtains apart, fresh-cut grass tickling unsocked feet. Days like this made Alice want to set off on a great adventure. 
 Unfortunately, beautiful quotes are all this book really has going for it. The main character is an absentminded, silly girl who I gathered was supposed to be whimsical but was really just annoying. I know she's only twelve so maybe I shouldn't have expected her to make sense all the time, but I just could not find it in me to care about her. On top of an unremarkable MC, the plot--at least in the part of the book that I read--was a meandering succession of scenes showing Alice wandering around her magical hometown of Ferenwood and getting into various fights with her mother and Oliver. 
 Also, the setting itself was just confusing. There were quite a lot of atmospheric, magical descriptions, and while I was reading them they were lovely and entrancing. Unfortunately, they left me extremely confused when it came to actually trying to envision the world of Ferenwood and understand how it worked. 
 For example, there's this description of some buildings in the town: "Colors melted up walls and rushed down doors, orange and lavender swirling into a plump onion of a roof that sat snugly on a structure painted gold." Like, I get that this is supposed to be set in a magical fantasy land where people eat flowers and expect twelve-year-olds to save the world, but reading this book just feels having pretty words thrown at you in an attempt to distract from the lack of any substantial plot, setting, or characterization. 
 I'll admit that I'm still a bit curious about where this story is going. I might come back to this someday when I'm in the mood for beautiful words that don't require too much attention, but for now I won't be reading any further.