A fresh narrative, rich in Chinese myth, that entwines sorcery and mystery.
In Hawthorne’s fantasy novel, a taboo form of magic shapes the destinies of those who inherit a family’s secrets.
In 1932, 17-year-old Davis Sun grows up as a non-magical “Static” in a world where magical ability defines people’s status. He’s constantly aware of the power and freedom he lacks. As part of a family with a complicated legacy, he becomes preoccupied with the notion of forbidden stones that can transfer magic from one person to another. While exploring his father Randall’s hidden belongings with his 7-year-old sister, Davis discovers the stones among Randall’s possessions, igniting a determination to circumvent the system that denied him power at birth. His search draws him into the dangerous politics of magic-using “Shifter” society, forcing him to confront his own clan’s hidden past. Fast-forward to 1955, and Iris navigates adolescence under the weight of her family’s legacy; she struggles with parental expectations and secretly stops taking the pills that her mother has been giving her: medication meant to suppress her awareness and keep her unusual abilities from surfacing. Then, in 1985, Ling Guang and his wife, Meng, make protective and morally fraught choices that shape the lives of those who follow them; Ling wrestles with the scandal of her daughter’s relationship with a Static man and the tragic fire that followed. Decades later, in 2000, the youngest generation, centered on Nivi, confronts the consequences of these hidden histories. Growing up under her grandmother’s strict watch, she uncovers inconsistencies about her parents’ deaths, including a mysterious fire. Hawthorne’s work offers much to admire: The prose enchants with descriptions of Chinese dragons and protective qilin; the concept of transfer stones anchors a fresh magical system, while intrigue and political maneuvering keep the narrative engaging. The presentation, though, occasionally feels disjointed, with frequent timeline jumps and unclear relationships among the various characters. Still, the novel will please readers who enjoy mythology, fairy tales, intricate magic, political intrigue, and mystery and suspense tales, as well as stories that examine how the choices of the past influence future generations.
A fresh narrative, rich in Chinese myth, that entwines sorcery and mystery.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9798990597907
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Hawk Ridge Press
Review Posted Online: April 1, 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
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