An expansive, highly rewarding read.
On the heels of Night Spinner (2020), Enebish leads a ragtag band against the Sky King while Ghoa’s beliefs are challenged.
Although Night Spinner Enebish and newly awakened Sun Stoker Serik successfully led the desperate shepherds to Verdenet, finding the hiding king is far more difficult. Enebish’s psychological wounds from being betrayed in the past are still raw, resulting in behaviors that don’t do her any favors when dealing with her increasingly reluctant followers. In Ghoa’s parallel narration, she is forced to reckon with her own feelings of being betrayed, especially as Zemya’s trap springs into action and she takes the brunt of it. Enebish seeks out logical allies while Ghoa strikes an odd partnership, all the while keeping her eye on the prize. Uniting both storylines is the common enemy—Kartok—and the reveal of the full extent of his scheme. Their stories are gracefully balanced, enabling readers to explore more of the lavishly painted worldbuilding and internal mythologies. Characters’ past hurts inform their present decisions, good and bad, creating tension in relation to decisions of trust and forgiveness. The geopolitical situation blends well with the cultural. Ethnicity follows national lines, with Zemyans being very pale and blond; Verdenese like Enebish dark-haired with golden skin; and Ashkarians like Ghoa and her cousin, Serik (Enebish’s love interest in a sweetly romantic subplot), falling in between, with tanned skin and freckles. The conclusion thoroughly wraps up the duology.
An expansive, highly rewarding read. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64567-130-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Deeply romantic and utterly magical.
An aspiring alchemist and a talented sharpshooter team up to hunt an ancient beast.
When the hala appears each autumn, New Albion’s Halfmoon Hunt soon follows. Teams consisting of a marksman and an alchemist hunt the creature in pursuit of fame and fortune. Though the Katharist church condemns the hala as a demon, 17-year-old Margaret Welty has been taught by her Yu’adir father that it is a sacred creation of God. Legend even has it that the hala’s alchemized carcass could be forged into the philosopher’s stone. If Maggie wins the hunt and kills the hala, her alchemist mother, gone for months, may finally return home to stay. Weston Winters, son of Banvish-Sumic immigrants, has been fired from every apprenticeship he’s charmed his way into. Being taken on as Evelyn Welty’s student is his best chance at becoming an alchemist, but when he arrives at Welty Manor, Maggie immediately dislikes him. However, after they ultimately come to understand each other’s personal motives, they rely on one another to achieve their dreams. This atmospheric, emotionally driven story focuses on the slow-burn romance between two outcasts who yearn to belong and who face discrimination for their cultural and religious backgrounds. Characters are cued as White, and New Albion is reminiscent of early-20th-century America: the Banvish-Sumic, Katharist, and Yu’adir people read as fantasy-world corollaries of Irish Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish immigrants, respectively.
Deeply romantic and utterly magical. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-62365-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
Highly imaginative and powerfully affecting.
Folklore, fantasy, and horror are interwoven in this story of a 17-year-old’s journey to save her brother set in 1836 Wisconsin.
The story unfolds as Catalina’s father dies and her brother, Jose Luis, is stolen by the Man of Sap, a monstrosity of bark and leaves. Pa ranted about the terror of the Man of Sap’s deadly apples before he succumbed to them, but when the monster disappears with Jose Luis, Catalina’s world falls apart. Taking a satchel of supplies, Mamá’s beloved book of poetry by Sor Juana de la Cruz—a treasure from her Mexican homeland—and a knife that belonged to her white Pa, Catalina sets off to find her brother and destroy the Man of Sap. Along the way, she finds friendship, terrifying creatures, whispers of magic, and the key to believing that love is not always lost. Surrounded by poetry, both that of de la Cruz and her own personal writing that she cannot finish, Catalina finds words are a redemptive force. Readers are thrown into an exploration of the heartbreak and loneliness following death and loss, and each character, whether human or otherwise, brings introspection and courage to the tale. Mesmerizingly told through the eyes of both Catalina and the monster, the book invites readers to travel with characters who are reckoning with greed, fear, and love as they consider what makes a monster—and whether monsters can be redeemed.
Highly imaginative and powerfully affecting. (author’s note) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781682636473
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Peachtree Teen
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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