SERPENT GIFT

The third installment in the Shamer Quartet draws Dina and her family out from temporary safety into indentured servitude and peril. Dina’s loved her refuge in the Highlands, but it all falls apart when a stranger seeks her out. The stranger is Sezuan, her father, and Dina’s mother flees from him in terror. Though Dina barely understands the danger Sezuan poses, she comprehends the price of flight; when they enter a Lowland city, Dina and her family are tricked into slavery. Dina’s brother Davin and friend Nico are dragged to prison, where dreadful mind games brainwash both prisoners and citizens. Thus begin two parallel adventures: Dina turns to Sezuan to mount a rescue mission, while Davin and Nico barely resist the manipulations of their captors. The wickedness of the villains is complete and unredeemable—yet the supposed wickedness of Dina’s father is more nuanced. The villains’ dire magic keeps the tension simmering, but it’s Dina’s relationship with her father and Davin’s growing self-knowledge that enrich this compelling fantasy. (Fantasy. 11-15)