Striking characters, both divine and human, enliven this leisurely story of good versus evil.
In Rohla’s fantasy novel, a god born to grant wishes uses her power to help people who’ve lost hope.
Starfall is a sovereign city-state that rests between two desert plateaus and two kingdoms, making it a “hot spot for trade and commerce.” One day, its citizens’ collective wishes and dreams, quite astoundingly, give birth to a female god. She can hear all of their yearnings and quickly finds 19-year-old Ellie, whose longing is the loudest. The teen is skeptical but mentally expresses her desire for her sickly little brother Sterling to be well again—a wish the god grants. Ellie deems the god, whom she names Freya, a “miracle worker” and ambles through Starfall’s bazaar to track down others with wishes. Freya delights a few locals, including a seller who yearns for a more glamorous stall and Sterling’s doctor, who wants the perfect ring to propose with. It’s hardly surprising when the surrounding kingdoms send royal messengers to invite Freya to their respective nations, but the god prefers living quietly with Ellie and Sterling. Ellie, meanwhile, dreams up weekly “wish fairs” in which Freya grants a limited number of wishes via a lottery system, with the option of turning down anything inappropriate or potentially harmful. Sadly, there are slaves in Starfall, like all of the nurses at a hospital, whose wishes Freya can’t hear, rendering her unable to help them. When Freya realizes the city-state has far more slaves than most people can see, she, Ellie, and Sterling make it their mission to free these captives.
Rohla’s bare-bones prose streamlines the physical details of characters and settings; this approach keeps the narrative moving at a steady clip as it unfolds (for the most part) in Starfall. Descriptions of emotions and temperaments are also effectively concise (“Dread slides its serrated teeth along the back of the god’s neck”). At the same time, the main cast virtually bursts with personality and backstory—Ellie and Sterling’s mother abandoned them, forcing young Ellie to care for her ailing brother on her own. Freya displays several humanlike traits, starting with her naïveté; she has an innate ability to converse with locals but learns many things as she goes along, including social greetings and what a “concubine” is. She’s also not quite as powerful as readers may anticipate, as she can only utilize her amazing abilities (like materialization and teleportation) for so long before she needs rest. The story introduces a handful of curious moral dilemmas, from the horrid treatment enslaved people suffer to a consideration of what, exactly, a dying girl would wish for. As Freya, Ellie, and Sterling slowly gather allies, it’s the villains who truly stand out. Starfall’s sleazy Governor Hensley, for one, drapes himself in flashy garb and laughs obnoxiously loud, and a nefarious, well-organized gang steals water from the poor. These thieving gangsters, along with other diabolical sorts secretly up to no good, ignite the final act as the story builds to a gratifying denouement.
Striking characters, both divine and human, enliven this leisurely story of good versus evil.Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 979-8670287180
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.
In a distant future, after the Last War when the human population became endangered, a new society formed from the ashes, strictly to optimize procreation.
But not procreation between just anyone. This society, ruled by the Illum—a mysterious authoritarian group—assigns mates to select for the best traits and to breed out defects, to grow the Elite population living in the clouds. Protagonist Emeline is a stubborn and bored young woman, working her days away on the ground as a Minor Defect—one of the class of women waiting to be approved for mating with an Elite, and hoping to never be banished further from society. Emeline’s instincts are apparently to reject the rigid decorum of her society, but she spends years trying to follow the rules set out for her, or at least dissociates enough not to challenge her way of life, until one day an elusive and charming man, Hal, walks into her office to talk about art. The same day, she is approved for mating and matched with Collin, the youngest member of the Illum, in the sort of pairing that hasn’t happened in decades. Courtship with Collin is full of luxury—fancy dinners and balls in the clouds—but also lies and days of discovering secrets kept from her, while trying to keep the Elite’s rumors and malicious Press at bay. Caught between these two men, with their own agendas, and so many unanswered questions, Emeline must decide what she wants, if she can want anything at all. With a rebellion rising in secret and the repression of the Illum close at hand, she’ll find what she’s willing to lose for the ability to choose for herself. The dystopian worldbuilding is underdeveloped at best, so get swept up in discovering truth from lies quickly before it starts to fall apart in your hands.
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798217090990
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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