A fierce, loving, and exquisite humanity-centered book.
The Great Dismal Swamp is ready to unearth family secrets.
In 1722, Babylou Mac, nearly 19, killed the preacher’s son right after he murdered her mother. With the owner of the plantation where the family was enslaved in pursuit, she and her siblings fled into the magic of the Great Dismal Swamp, a wild and dangerous place that offered death and salvation in turn. In modern times, Atlas returns to her grandmother Grannylou’s home for the Bornday celebration: She and three cousins, all born on Grannylou’s birthday, are turning 19. Atlas worries that Grannylou’s age is catching up to her; she speaks of impossible, magical things, including having lived for hundreds of years. Grannylou, in turn, sees in Atlas a beacon for the lost souls, “guided by the promises of our ancestors” and seeking a paradise hidden in the swamp—but she also warns against letting the wrong people in. When Grannylou decides to return to the swamp, the cousins must unravel the secrets of the Isle of Floriate, which “has been a refuge of necessity” that blesses those “brave enough to reach its shores.” They must also guard against old enemies with grudges against their family. Poetic language, lush descriptions, and characters so conflicted and nuanced as to feel real anchor the magical elements, while the cousins untangle centuries of heartbreaks and horrors inflicted by cruel white enslavers to learn where they came from and the gifts they’ve inherited.
A fierce, loving, and exquisite humanity-centered book. (author’s note, sources) (Fantasy. 13-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781250820372
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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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