A magical, myth-laden story in which the heroes gain courage through collaboration.
In Hawthorne’s fantasy sequel, a sentient silver pool challenges a group of people to take responsibility, collaborate, and face the dangers of unchecked magic.
In 1990, Sen. Ariana Peters of the United States Shifter Council encounters an unusual sinkhole in California. It exudes a silver, tendril-like substance that interacts with her directly and raises concerns about general public safety. The senator, prioritizing containment, authorizes the use of a substance called oblivion tincture to wipe locals’ minds and then relocate them. In a parallel storyline set in 2000,Iris Bai struggles to control her magical power after she absorbs multiple abilities. Her attempts to return these powers from whence they came, using transfer stones, are unsuccessful, leaving her feeling disoriented and fragmented. Meanwhile, Nivi Dawan attends a boarding school for magically gifted Shifters, where she makes friends with fellow attendees Ai and Jorge, who help her to accept herself. Iris goes on to experience psychologically taxing situations, including ocean-like visions and the direct influence of external entities, and one character is overtaken by “the silver.” Later, Iris and her friends undertake a daring rescue. Hawthorne’s complex book masterfully intertwines high-stakes storylines, immersing readers in a world of magical powers in which characters struggle with difficult ethical choices. The tension between Ariana’s authority and Iris’ and Nivi’s personal struggles results in a compelling, fluid narrative. Nivi’s and Iris’ journeys, in particular, highlight feminist empowerment as they reclaim their agency, resist manipulation, and assert control over their own destinies. The integration of Chinese and Aztec mythology adds cultural richness and a sense of history to the narrative, even though the author only hints at the full background of the fictional world. Still, these glimpses will entice readers to imagine a larger history beyond the text.
A magical, myth-laden story in which the heroes gain courage through collaboration.Pub Date: June 9, 2026
ISBN: 9798990597952
Page Count: 388
Publisher: Hawk Ridge Press
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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