A smart, complex, animal-based fantasy.
A Winnipeg teenager discovers her magical heritage—and that she’s marked for death.
Roan, a white girl, was taken in by her uncle and aunt after her parents died in a car accident when she was little. When what seems to be a chronic eye infection explodes into moths, she’s nearly taken by the Moth Queen into death and only barely saved by a talking fox who can transform into a woman with a fox head, nine tails, and fire magic. Roan’s guided by the fox, Sil, who gives her a crash course in a creation mythology that involves five creatures, now families, who keep peace and balance destructive powers. As Ancient power waned, a Celestial Darkling, Zabor, came into prominence, and a pact to appease her requires the five families to make sacrifices: Roan’s been marked as such. Roan must finish the task her mother started—defeating Zabor to end the deal—or she will die. Roan is genre-savvy to the hero’s journey, an intelligent heroine who gladly accepts information and help, and she is deeply concerned with avoiding casualties. She must pull together a group with representatives from each family despite the mind-influencing Owls’ stubborn, self-appointed duty to ensure their end of the bargain is upheld. Secondary characters are vibrant and multicultural (an Indian best friend and allies that include a black boy who uses a wheelchair and an Inuit girl), and the heroes have refreshingly good hearts. A reveal at the end sets up a sequel.
A smart, complex, animal-based fantasy. (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77041-357-3
Page Count: 440
Publisher: ECW Press
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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