A MAIDEN IN THE FOXCOMBE

A girl who bucks the system gets more than she bargained for in this YA fantasy.

In the walled city of Spiregarden, girls are required by law to enter a maidenhouse once they reach puberty. There, they learn the womanly arts of cooking, cleaning, and entertaining, awaiting the day they will be matched to husbands. For the fiercely independent Kardin, life in Bellaro Maidenhouse is like a prison sentence. She sneaks out whenever she can—a serious breach of the rules. It isn’t long before Kardin is in danger of being deemed “unmatchable,” a designation that means banishment to the Sisterhood in a remote Cell beyond the walls. Enter the similarly hardheaded Cmdr. Lef, an officer in the Foxcombe, an elite fighting force charged with protecting Spiregarden from the monsters that stalk the world beyond its walls. Lef doesn’t want a wife—but he sees Kardin’s potential as a soldier. Everyone knows that neylon—as the monsters are called—are attracted to maidens. The entire society of Spiregarden is built around keeping them safe. To that end, the Foxcombe now needs to send a maiden operative out beyond the walls—and Kardin is that maiden. She’s finally escaped the life she never wanted, and she’s been given a level of freedom she’s always dreamed of. The only question is: Will she survive it? In this series opener, Kennedy’s prose is urgent and pulsing, tied closely to the emotions of her characters. Here Kardin processes the offer to join the Foxcombe: “Her heart raced with joy at evading the Cell, at achieving a childhood dream that had always been denied to her. Her mind, however, raced just as hard with terror. Every horror story of neylon she had ever been told or read cascaded through her mind like the horror scape of a nightmare.” The premise is familiar territory in many ways, combining tropes from dystopian YA with a heavy dash of Game of Thrones. That said, the author’s version is well crafted and more explicitly concerned with questioning traditional gender roles. The novel is a quick, satisfying read, and the audience will be excited to see what directions Kennedy pursues in future volumes.

A familiar but smart fantasy with a feminist orientation.