By: Catherine Witzaney
Format: Available in Paperback, ePub, and MOBI
Genre: Fantasy
Wingless
In a world of flight, he was born wingless.
But that’s the least of his problems.
Since being orphaned at a young age, wingless sprite Asher Songfeather has been sure of one thing: Bat sprites aren’t to be trusted. The fact that his own mother was one is something Asher does his best to forget.
But when his adoptive sister Carinen falls deathly ill, he’ll risk anything to save her—even if it means striking a bargain with a mysterious Bat sprite newcomer. The deal sends Asher on a perilous quest into the heart of the Bat Colony itself, where nothing is as it first appears. Saving his sister will require more than just courage and wits. It will take trust, too.
And Asher will have to rethink everything he knows about Bat sprites—including himself.
Meet Catherine Witzaney,
the author of Wingless
Talitha J Hart –
This story is a wonderful fantasy adventure about a boy learning to overcome prejudices and act selflessly in the face of fear. Even as an adult I found the story engaging and intriguing, and any middle grade boy or girl who loves stories of magic and adventure will love this one.
dasanders.is –
I love the characters and the fantasy world Catherine Witzaney created in Wingless. I really hope there will be a sequel!
Witzaney has woven a strong story of magical beings, family love and friendship, and learning to accept who you truly are. Asher Songfeather was born wingless, a rare occurrence for a sprite. He is also a half-wing. His father was a Feather sprite and his mother was a Bat sprite, also unusual since most sprites looked down on sprite clans intermarrying.
Asher tries to ignore his Bat sprite heritage being raised in the Feather town of Gan. However, as he works to find healing for his adopted sister and then her rescue, Asher is drawn into the middle of the dangerous realm of the Bat sprite colony. He finds not all Bat sprites are bad and learns to draw on the talents (magical ability) of both his Feather and Bat blood. He experiences deceit and prejudice; challenges and failure; and courage and redemption. Through all this Asher finds purpose and makes a promise—to change the unfair treatment of other sprites and to make the Bat colony a better place for all to live.
I would love to see Asher’s journey continue!
SageReads –
Fun and imaginative, Wingless immersed me in a fantastical world full of Sprites and magic. This coming-of-age story centers around love, loss, and what it means to be family. Fast-paced action and a variety of adventures kept me turning the pages. Witzaney tackles some big issues though the main character’s self-discovery in a way that I, as a parent, appreciate. I highly recommend Wingless, especially to the kids who love to read fantasy.
Susan Reimer –
Wingless by Catherine Witzaney presents young readers with an adventure in a world filled with sprites. Themes include the importance of family, loyalty and courage in the face of overwhelming adversity. Highly recommend!
lotr0103 –
Catherine Witzaney’s book, Wingless, portrays characters which are extremely well drawn. All these characters possess virtues: Asher, with loyalty and love, risking anything to save his adopted sister Carinen;
Siobhan, a Bat, who decides to help Asher in the end to save the Bat Colony from Ryn’s poison.
This book is a GOOD read! I highly recommend it to fantasy fans!
karis.root-2940 –
This book was amazing! Once I picked it up, I could not put it down! The characters in this book were incredible. Witzany did a wonderful job at weaving together beautiful morals and a captivating plot. This is a wonderful book for fantasy beginners. I highly recommend this book to fantasy fanatics and anyone in the middle grade.
Jennifer Clower –
What a great read! Perfect story for fantasy lovers! Hard to put down!
Asher is wingless sprite, which is extremely rare in this wonderfully imaginative world that Witzaney has created. In addition, he was adopted due to the deaths of his parents when he was a younger, making Asher no stranger to being “different”. In this coming-of-age story, Asher sets out on a quest to save his adopted sister’s life. This involves facing life-long prejudices he has towards certain other groups of sprites as well as coming to terms with his own heritage. He begins with good intentions, but as time goes on, his desperation to save his sister clouds his judgment. In the end, he exhibits amazing courage to right wrongs and works together with friends, new and old, to save the day! Wonderful story filled with the positive virtues of loyalty, courage, and selflessness. The book’s story lines wrapped up well in the end but was left open to future adventures…and if you are anything like me, you will very much want to return to this fantasy world to see what happens next! This book would be great for family read alouds.
As a side note, there is some instances of mild violence throughout the book (hand cuffed and locked in a dungeon, being threatened at knife point, soldiers dying in battle etc.); all of it is dealt with age-appropriately and not graphic by any means, but you may want to pre-read this if you have a more “sensitive reader” at home.
I received an advance reader copy of this book from Chicken Scratch Books however, my review is voluntary and reflects my personal opinion.
Melanie Bentz –
Such a beautiful book! Immersive fantasy world good for all ages, the storyline is easy to follow and very engaging, and the characters are beautiful with distinct personalities and descriptions. The book had me falling in love with it in the first few chapters. If you’re thinking of reading it, just do it!!
tdeltawright –
Wingless was really fun for me to read because I like the action scenes. It is about these creatures called Sprites. They are like humans except a lot smaller and have wings. There are several types including feathers and bats. The story is about a sprite named Asher who is a mix of feather and bat. A mixed sprite is like a mixed dog. He is skinny and a pale white and has no wings. He was just born that way. Asher’s sister, Carinen, is sick so he goes on an adventure to find a cure. Asher and his friend Hasiel and all of the other sprites in the whole world are a lot smaller then us so they have a lot of predators. However most of their encounters are with other sprites. Once Asher was searching in the woods for a friend and found her captured by some sprites and there was a crazy fight. Once Asher had a mission of finding a map in an office building so he disguised himself as someone else and gets in. There was a close encounter but he made it out safely. I recommend this book because it is adventurous, has cool action scenes and crazy encounters. If you like fantasy and strange creatures then this is the book for you.
mc.starofthesea –
this book is a rare treasure that any reader will be bound to enjoy. I quite enjoyed this book, and I hope you will too. Thank you Miss Catherine Witzaney!
ryleybentz –
Great book! So glad I got to get this book right when it was starting out, so excited to see it take off! If you like good fantasy world building and fairy stuff, give it a shot!
Susan Phelan –
What a fun adventure. I was carried away into the world and the bit of odd language didn’t slow me down as it fit into the story so well. Although the ending is satisfying, it also leaves room for another adventure, which I would look forward to reading as well.
Betty Vanderwielen –
This is a fantastic coming-of-age story about a wingless boy living in a fairy community where everyone else has wings. Even though it is an accepting society, he still feels his difference keenly. When he later finds himself in an extremely caste-centered bat community, he learns how destructive prejudice can be. But the most important thing he learns is to find the strength in his difference, and how to use that strength for good.
Additionally, in a world where Cool Aid characters crash through walls and speeding good guys leave crashed cars and injured innocents in their wake–and no one cares because the only important thing is catching the bad guys–it is refreshing to read a story where the “good guy” recognizes the unintended consequences of his actions and commits himself to making amends.
While immersed in a great adventure story, there is much for a child to learn from Wingless.
abigailnadalie –
Such a great book, filled with so many different goals for Asher rather than the same one actually was very interesting for me! I really liked it!
Heidi DeStefano –
If you enjoy books full of creative world building, this is the book for you. As fantastical as the world of sprites is, the story themes are solid and relevant for any time. Asher teaches us how to overcome the odds and to persevere!
babollinger –
Clanless by Catherine Witzaney is a good short fantasy read for a younger audience. Most of the characters all have distinct personalities which I enjoyed. I loved how it made you think about the very thin line between what right and wrong and weather doing a wrong thing with the right motives is okay. I must say the ending was very abrupt, and I couldn’t really tell witch plots were the main ones and which were just side plots. I think I would have liked this book more if I was younger but I still enjoyed it. I recommend this book for ages around 9-12 depending on what the reader can read and likes to read. This book was clean (which I loved) but I wouldn’t have minded a small sup-plot of romance between main characters, but maybe that’s just me. Overall I give it like a 3.5 star in my opinion.
jessica –
Wingless is a great middle-grade fantasy book! The characters are all unique and relatable. I loved the short, captivating chapters that kept the story going. I felt like I could keep reading ‘one’ more chapter and end up reading five. The fast-paced plot and well-rounded characters held my attention throughout the whole book. It’s completely clean, which is very hard to find nowadays. Especially clean AND well written.
zinners123 –
I enjoyed my reading of Wingless, a fantastical adventure novel. It is full of both action and suspense. One character in particular’s true intentions are kept hidden until nearing the end of the book, which provides mystery and intrigue. The main character, Asher, is faced with formidable decisions – that will result in difficult outcomes with either choice. With challenging decisions that will affect others occurring several times throughout the book, inward struggle is reasonably portrayed.
The described fantastical world created by Catherine Witzaney I found impressive. She went into well-thought-out detail with the creatures she created, the prejudices found among certain groups, characteristics unique to certain kinds of sprites (which is the made-up creature), and the special Talents each sprite is born with.
The plotline is founded upon Asher’s desire to protect and keep his adoptive sister safe. This strong determination to take care of Carinen, his sister, leads him into trouble, but his thoughts are generally not selfish but rather toward those he loves.
Light violence is found throughout several scenes – there is fighting, descriptions of wounds and cuts, and villains that have the intent to kill.
The danger and suspense were some of my favourite things about it; I wanted to keep reading to find out how the story was going to resolve!
Altogether, it is a gripping read with danger and adventure at every turn. Very good for fantasy and action loving readers.