Lively feminist conceits dressed in too-familiar vampire garb.
Teenage love must overcome immortal evil in DeKelb-Rittenhouse’s (Faerie Rings: The Book of Forests, 2009) young-adult vampire novel.
Teenager Lauren Whitfield has a lot on her plate—getting good grades, working on her creative writing, and hiding her crush on her best friend, Kayla Price. Her life becomes much more complicated, and much more dangerous, when she and Kayla begin working at the too-good-to-be-true vintage clothing store Deja Nous. The amazing clothing in the store pales in comparison to the gorgeous owner, Elizabeth Valiant, and both Lauren and Kayla become enthralled with their beautiful boss. Yet just as Lauren begins to bloom as a young woman under Elizabeth’s tutelage, she and Kayla also begin to wither. The girls are constantly exhausted, plagued by bad dreams, and have trouble eating anything but rare meat. Lauren is horrified when she finally learns the cause of her ailments: Elizabeth is a centuries-old vampire, and she is grooming Lauren and Kayla to become her next immortal lovers. Lauren must find a way to free herself from Elizabeth’s thrall and thwart her intentions before it’s too late. It’s encouraging to have lesbian main characters as well as positive portrayals of bisexuality in YA fiction. The implicit and explicit feminist calls to arms and defenses of the “inconvenient” women of history and fiction are also refreshing. As a vampire tale, however, the novel does almost nothing new. Elizabeth is the lesbian vampire vixen, a stereotypical role as old as Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1871 novella, Carmilla, which Dekelb-Rittenhouse references in the novel. The conventional signs of a vampire attack and seduction are portrayed with almost mechanical efficiency: animal transformation, alluring characters who only appear at night, mesmerism, neck wounds, exhaustion, dreamlike visions, increased sensuality, cravings for blood and raw meat, etc. Finally, Lauren’s confrontation with Elizabeth and the conclusion itself feel rushed.
Lively feminist conceits dressed in too-familiar vampire garb.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-0984531844
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Tiny Satchel Press
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With a refreshingly original concept, this substantial fantasy, the first in a duology, is an undeniable page-turner
In Tiny Pretty Things co-author Clayton’s solo debut, beauty comes at a price.
On their joint 16th birthday, Camellia and her five sisters are sent out to restore beauty to Orléans, where everybody is born gray and ugly. They’ve been training for this their whole lives. As Belles, the sisters can use their magic to transform the citizens of Orléans from their original states. For the right price, Belles can grant any desired look. When Camellia secures the coveted spot of Her Majesty’s favorite, it seems as if her dreams have come true. As the most powerful, sought-out Belle, she is in charge of the royal family’s looks. However, the princess is insatiable in her quest for beauty and will do anything to get it—even if it means endangering the Belles and the kingdom—and Camellia may be the only one who can stop her. Not only that, but Camellia finds herself slowly uncovering the secrets of the Belles’ origin, and it’s not as pretty as she was taught. With wonderfully descriptive language, Clayton builds a grand and lavish world, carefully chipping away at the veneer to reveal its dark, sinister interior. In a world where anyone can change their skin color as often as they can change their hair color, race is fluid. Camellia is brown, and her sisters are various shades of brown and pale.
With a refreshingly original concept, this substantial fantasy, the first in a duology, is an undeniable page-turner (. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4847-2849-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Freeform/Disney
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
SEEN & HEARD
Enticing and original.
Abandoned by her sisters, Io Ora must trust Bianca—former mob queen, now dying wraith—to help her find the hidden gods and end them forever in this duology closer that follows Threads That Bind (2023).
Io and Bianca cross mudflats that harbor deadly chimerini and dodge the violent, unpredictable tides that flood the Wastelands, where humans have struggled to survive ever since the Collapse shattered the moon into three pieces. The youngest of the Moirae-born (sisters with Fates-like powers), Io is able to see the threads governing every human fate in the Quilt. She can end a life simply by cutting another’s life-thread, but the cost is high: Each time, she must sever one of her own 35 threads. As Bianca traverses anarchic wastes and dangerous urban slums ruled by powerful gangs on the way to their destination, the teeming city-nation of Nanzy, she weakens but pushes on. Despite setbacks and betrayals, the two discover unexpected allies willing to risk their lives to confront the gods. Io’s personal evolution, like the Moirae’s silver threads, is woven seamlessly into the complicated plot. While her romance with Edei is satisfying, the story’s emotional driver is the sisters’ difficult history of loss, longing, pain, and betrayal; each bears scars from their old, set-in-stone rivalries. Io’s world has an epic thematic scope and an intricately imagined setting. The characters are diverse in appearance, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Enticing and original. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9780593528747
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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