by Esther Friesner ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 22, 2014
A comfortably formulaic prelude to a projected sequel that will likewise be spun from some of the oldest surviving Irish...
The latest entry in Friesner’s Princesses of Myth series shifts scene but not much else.
Like her royal equivalents in previous volumes (Nobody’s Princess, 2007, etc.), beautiful, tempestuous Maeve, youngest daughter of Eochu Feidlech, High King of Eriu, goes through childhood and adolescence, learning the value and perils of being a princess while fighting for the freedom to shape her own destiny instead of knuckling under to expectations linked to her sex and place. To viewers of the 2012 film Brave this will read like a spinoff—centered on a willful lass with: wild red hair; three identical little brothers; an indulgent but tradition-minded royal father perched precariously atop a warrior society; a brisk way with her many suitors; the raw courage to tackle massively larger animals (here, a huge bull and, later, a savage wolfhound); and an unconquerable yen to be free. Unlike Princess Merida, though, Maeve’s pride remains intact as she grows to be an astute student of politics and human psychology. In the wake of engineering a daring rescue of a captured bard, can she find a way in the end to chart her own course without alienating her father?
A comfortably formulaic prelude to a projected sequel that will likewise be spun from some of the oldest surviving Irish legends. (afterword, pronunciation guide) (Fantasy. 11-14)Pub Date: April 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-449-81863-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
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by Rae Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2011
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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by Ransom Riggs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end.
Riggs spins a gothic tale of strangely gifted children and the monsters that pursue them from a set of eerie, old trick photographs.
The brutal murder of his grandfather and a glimpse of a man with a mouth full of tentacles prompts months of nightmares and psychotherapy for 15-year-old Jacob, followed by a visit to a remote Welsh island where, his grandfather had always claimed, there lived children who could fly, lift boulders and display like weird abilities. The stories turn out to be true—but Jacob discovers that he has unwittingly exposed the sheltered “peculiar spirits” (of which he turns out to be one) and their werefalcon protector to a murderous hollowgast and its shape-changing servant wight. The interspersed photographs—gathered at flea markets and from collectors—nearly all seem to have been created in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and generally feature stone-faced figures, mostly children, in inscrutable costumes and situations. They are seen floating in the air, posing with a disreputable-looking Santa, covered in bees, dressed in rags and kneeling on a bomb, among other surreal images. Though Jacob’s overdeveloped back story gives the tale a slow start, the pictures add an eldritch element from the early going, and along with creepy bad guys, the author tucks in suspenseful chases and splashes of gore as he goes. He also whirls a major storm, flying bullets and a time loop into a wild climax that leaves Jacob poised for the sequel.
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end. (Horror/fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59474-476-1
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
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by Ransom Riggs ; illustrated by Jim Tierney
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