An eerily atmospheric journey through Jazz Age New Orleans.
A young African American woman’s love for her family and community leads her to make a bargain with unforeseen consequences in this retelling inspired by Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.
It’s Mardi Gras in 1920s New Orleans, and Tiana, a young African American woman, is running out of time. She is in possession of an amulet that Facilier, the Shadow Man, got one of his minions inside Prince Naveen’s inner circle to steal; it allows its wearer to impersonate the prince. He was trying to use it to gain access to the fortune of Eli LaBouff, the richest man in New Orleans, by wooing LaBouff’s daughter, Charlotte, who dreams of marrying into royalty. Facilier uses a conjuring trick to force Tiana to make a deal that will help her protect the people she loves. Her end of the bargain is to put a concoction made by the Shadow Man into the gumbo served at her restaurant, a deal that surely cannot end well: Even though Tiana seems to have everything she wants, evil forces are clearly at play. The setting is richly steeped in the history and culture of New Orleans. Chapters alternate between the third-person perspectives of Tiana, Naveen, and Facilier, with each having a distinct voice. This appealing twist on the classic fairy tale “The Frog Prince” creates space for examining different aspects of Vodou and compelling social justice issues that still affect people today.
An eerily atmospheric journey through Jazz Age New Orleans. (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-368-07756-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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