Though the heroine is very nearly surpassed by the story’s preternatural elements, her anomaly, even among the creatures,...
Wittchen’s debut fantasy, the first in a planned series, follows a teenage girl with the ability to see fairies as she finds her birth father as well as her origin in a world of demons and supernatural beings.
Tempest Laurier knows she’s not a typical 17-year-old: She can see faeries of varying sizes when seemingly no one else can, and she somehow knows that a miasma (“natural energy”) within her adoptive father’s necklace has possessed the man, precipitating his uncharacteristically abusive behavior toward her. When she wanders into the Unseelie Court, the darkest part of the land of Faerie, she encounters Cormac, the Black Knight, who tells her that she’s a halfling and the granddaughter of Marquis, the king of the Unseelie Court. Also, her biological father, she learns, is Kione, the Dark King of the demons. As Tempest slowly develops powers, including the “black flame” that leaves even demons in awe, she doesn’t know who to trust: Cormac is protective of her, but Marquis apparently wants her dead; Kione is keeping secrets from her; and the demons try to convince Tempest that Declan, the boy she’s fallen for, is duplicitous. The author’s novel has a jarring style with sudden transitions among numerous scenes, befitting of Tempest’s aberrant perspective. In a memorable scene, for instance, she stands outside Declan’s condo door as he speaks to other people, and she hears Declan begin a statement that he finishes by sending her a text. In her unnerving visions she sees ghostly figures or creatures that converse with her; sometimes, she sees events, such as a horrific scene with her Pomeranian, Cupcake, that haven’t actually happened. Wittchen fills the pages with fantastical beings beyond faeries and demons—a lycanthrope, a vampire, a witch—few of whom are heavily featured in this story, though they will likely return in a future entry in the series. Tempest may lose a bit of sympathy by succumbing to the immaturity suitable to her age: She slams her bedroom door and rolls her eyes repeatedly, and despite constant threats to her life, she parties quite a lot, usually at a club called the Slaughter House. But the series should give her ample room to grow, and a girl shrewd enough to acknowledge that the reason she quips is to disguise her fear—“Sometimes it’s easier to joke about things then admit that I was scared”—is already on her way.
Though the heroine is very nearly surpassed by the story’s preternatural elements, her anomaly, even among the creatures, will have readers hooked.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-1494943899
Page Count: 434
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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