Enthralling magic-and-crime escapism.
Following Ace of Shades (2018), Enne and Levi delve deeply into the politics of New Reynes.
The brush with the Phoenix Club leaves Enne vowing to avenge her mother and Levi determined to rebuild himself into legend—but first, they both must contend with the Augustine crime Family. Vianca Augustine orders Enne to help secure the election of the monarchist candidate in the senate election and to embrace her new street lord notoriety as Séance in starting her own street gang. Rookie Enne insists on doing it her way, maintaining her prim decorum and recruiting fellow girls (like gothic-styled Grace), which results in female friendship and not-terribly-subtle empowerment themes. Levi’s been offered a way out from under Vianca’s thumb and secretly works to support her estranged son’s candidacy—at the price of keeping his distance from Enne (so that Vianca can’t use them against each other—though it frees him up for a dalliance with handsome Narinder), sending third narrator Jac, a recovering addict, into drug dens owned by the Torren Family. The dizzying number of moving plot parts results in a cascade of alliances, betrayals, and reversals as the sprawling cast has romances of various sexual orientations but also friendships and other bonds—and not all bonds survive. Enne, Jac, Grace, and the crime Families are White; Levi and Narinder are brown-skinned; the supporting cast has a range of skin tones.
Enthralling magic-and-crime escapism. (map) (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: April 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-335-66134-0
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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