Come for the ballet costumes, stay for the exposé of corruption.
Issues of servitude and sacrifice simmer beneath the surface of a lush 19th-century fantasy.
Marit Olsen has lost her father (mining accident); her sister, Ingrid (magic overuse), and her place at the orphanage but is determined not to lose little 11-year-old Eve too. When Helene Vestergaard—a ballet dancer and former orphan who married rich—adopts Eve, Marit abandons her thankless seamstress job, following Eve to Copenhagen and into service. Like the other servants, Marit relies on her minor magic; all risk the inescapable, seemingly incurable, icy and fatal Firn by using their powers to keep the Vestergaards comfortable. Blaming the Vestergaards for her father’s death, Marit investigates the family, endangering everyone, even Eve. Chapters from the point of view of Philip Vestergaard explore how powerlessness, patriotism, and greed can lead to villainy. In addition to class inequality, Murphy tackles racism, with biracial Helene (Crucian mother/Danish father) and Eve (West Indian mother/father unknown) facing prejudice despite their talent and wealth in this otherwise white world. Part wish-fulfillment fantasy, with lavish descriptions of clothing, food, and flowers, part gritty whodunit, beneath the familiar upstairs-downstairs drama and glitter, the novel is also an extended (if sometimes obvious) metaphor for how the luxuries of capitalism, commerce, and colonialism ultimately cost lives.
Come for the ballet costumes, stay for the exposé of corruption. (Fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-14273-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
Only marginally intriguing.
In a remote part of Utah, in a “temple of excellence,” the best of the best are recruited to nurture their talents.
Redemption Preparatory is a cross between the Vatican and a top-secret research facility: The school is rooted in Christian ideology (but very few students are Christian), Mass is compulsory, cameras capture everything, and “maintenance” workers carry Tasers. When talented poet Emma disappears, three students, distrusting of the school administration, launch their own investigation. Brilliant chemist Neesha believes Emma has run away to avoid taking the heat for the duo’s illegal drug enterprise. Her boyfriend, an athlete called Aiden, naturally wants to find her. Evan, a chess prodigy who relies on patterns and has difficulty processing social signals, believes he knows Emma better than anyone. While the school is an insidious character on its own and the big reveal is slightly psychologically disturbing, Evan’s positioning as a tragic hero with an uncertain fate—which is connected to his stalking of Emma (even before her disappearance)—is far more unsettling. The ’90s setting provides the backdrop for tongue-in-cheek technological references but doesn’t do anything for the plot. Student testimonials and voice-to-text transcripts punctuate the three-way third-person narration that alternates among Neesha, Evan, and Aiden. Emma, Aiden, and Evan are assumed to be white; Neesha is Indian. Students are from all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East.
Only marginally intriguing. (Mystery. 15-18)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-266203-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A page-turner of a fantasy-horror debut from a promising new voice.
Something’s rotten in the province of Sussex.
Twelve families rule over the Smoke, a U.K.-inspired nation, where the citizens battle to maintain control against an encroaching fog that brings death and destruction in the form of monstrous Phantoms. When Silas Darling, Merrick’s father and Sussex’s Manor Lord, dies unexpectedly, Merrick must abandon her New London social season and return to her ancestral home, Norland House. Surrounded by her older sister, Essie (who’s set to inherit the title Merrick desires for herself), and cousins (who are concerned mostly with propriety), she struggles to find answers. When Sussex and the family’s seat are threatened by mysterious border breaches and attacks, Merrick enters into a tenuous alliance with sentry Killian Brandon to unravel a Gordian knot of family secrets. The measured pacing, combined with Merrick’s emotional arc, together create magnificent tension. The worldbuilding skews gothic, thanks to the creepy manor house and mist-infected landscapes that are befitting of a Brontë sisters novel—albeit with the addition of possessed corpses that consume human flesh. The gender politics of this world allow women to inherit titles and fight Phantoms, yet they have little agency to act on their own behalf without entering into advantageous, heteronormative marriages, an aspect of the fantasy world that readers may find confusing. Primary characters read white.
A page-turner of a fantasy-horror debut from a promising new voice. (guide to manors and ruling families) (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593572375
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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