Intrigue, romance, and revolution, with enough unanswered questions that fans will cross fingers for a sequel.
Victorian rebellion among the Magyar and the magical creatures of Hungary and Eastern Europe: the táltos, lidérc, and rusalka.
In a 19th-century Europe where the nobility's political power is reinforced by their magic, Anna is a failure among the highborn Luminate of London: she's Barren of magic. Though her supernatural sterility leaves her unsuitable for marriage, Anna has dreams. All her hopes crumble into dust, however, when her mysterious, uncontrollable ability to shatter magic destroys her sister's debut. Packed off to stay with poor cousins in Hungary, Anna's promptly drawn into the anti-imperial, democratic fervor spreading across Europe. Against the backdrop of the real-life Hungarian rebellion to bring down the Hapsburgs, Anna comes to love Hungary, befriends passionate student rebels, and learns that her Barrenness is (of course) a unique, potentially earth-shattering power. Narrator Anna, a white British woman of rank, questions her feelings for the handsome Romani, Gábor, who helps Anna negotiate the pros and cons of saving the world: freedom for the Magyar will also free Hungary's dangerous mythological creatures. Confident of her righteousness, Anna alternately scolds her family for saying "Gypsy" instead of "Romani," feels annoyance at Gábor for accusing her of slumming it with an exotic lover, and exoticizes the Romani herself.
Intrigue, romance, and revolution, with enough unanswered questions that fans will cross fingers for a sequel. (author’s note, bibliography, character list, glossary) (Fantasy. 13-15)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93599-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s some originality here, though it’s hard to unearth amid all the melodrama
An illegitimate girl who hopes to find her creative passion may be connected to another kingdom’s magical history.
At 10, white, orphaned Brienna was brought to Magnalia House. For the last seven years she’s studied to become an arden, an apprentice passion, with the goal of finding her patron. The arden-sisters study art, dramatics, music, wit, and knowledge; Brienna, who has no true vocation, has eccentrically studied in all the fields. Though she doesn’t truly belong among the talented (and somewhat racially diverse) noble girls of Magnalia House, they are her beloved friends. Perhaps once she’s passioned, she can even act on her romantic feelings for the white knowledge master. But Brienna’s having strange visions lately; could they be ancestral memories of an unknown forbear from the neighboring country? What with romance, jealousy, family drama, betrayals, ancient magical history, and characters with multiple secret identities, there’s a nigh-constant pitch of throbbing…well, passion. A voice is like “tamed thunder,” and hair is like “a stream of silver.” Malapropisms abound (“punctures of laughter”; “her beauty warbled by the mullioned windows”). Oddly, most of the shocking revelations of back story are openly detailed in the lengthy family trees at the novel’s opening.
There’s some originality here, though it’s hard to unearth amid all the melodrama . (Fantasy. 13-15)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-247134-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
The Salt trilogy closes with a third generation of children fighting petty but dangerous evils. Hana, a girl from the city's wretched Bawdhouse Burrow, is orphaned when her mother is burned as a witch. Ben grows up far from the city, raised by his grandparents Pearl and Hari in the idyllic village from Gool (2010). When Hana flees the city, she brings with her a terrifying message for those outside its darkness: The Limping Man is coming. He has the terrible power to make people love him even as he torments them, and he plans to wipe out all who stand against him. Since most of the outsiders—Ben's family, the forest Dwellers and "the people without a name"—have mental powers, the Limping Man intends to massacre them. Ben and Hana, along with their allies, must find the Limping Man's secret in order to save their own lives and homes. Ben and Hana’s victories, like those of their parents and grandparents, are local. Even if they do defeat the Limping Man, they cannot vanquish evil from the world; life in the burrows will likely continue to be nasty, brutish and short. The heroes' personalities are defined by their harsh environments, but they reach beyond those limitations. Fantasy heroes who can save only themselves and their loved ones are a welcome change from the usual. (Fantasy. 13-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55469-216-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
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