A clever, fast-paced story that should delight young readers hungry for magical stories.
In Kelly’s debut middle-grade adventure, a young mermaid princess returns to save her underwater kingdom years after it was taken over by an evil sorceress.
Shortly before the Witch of Darkness conquers the mermaid kingdom and hurls the ruler, Princess Marri-Anna, to the ocean floor via a whirlpool, Marri-Anna’s human lover, Robbie, smuggles their young baby daughter to safety. Out of necessity, he leaves Willamina in the care of his cruel sisters, Lena and Lottie, before going after the witch himself to save the woman he loves. After telling his sisters that it’s crucial the shell locket around the baby’s neck never be removed, he leaves, shortly thereafter getting captured by the witch. The greedy aunts immediately ignore his warning and remove the necklace, assuming it to be valuable, which instantly turns Willamina from her human form into a mermaid. For the next 12 years, they keep her confined to an upstairs bathroom, never telling her the truth about her origins. Besides the fact that she has a tail and can talk to fish, she has no clue what exactly is “wrong” with her other than that her aunts make her sit in a wheelchair and hide her lower half under a blanket when company visits. On her 12th birthday, a nasty cousin after her inheritance pushes her from her wheelchair into the ocean, where she is reunited with her people and learns the truth from the sea wizard, Merlin, about her destiny and the prophecy that says she’ll be the one to free the kingdom from the witch’s rule. Kelly’s zippy, imaginative tale samples elements from the best of both recent and classic YA fantasies and fairy tales. Willamina’s childhood and horrid aunts are Harry Potter crossed with Roald Dahl but with the refreshing twist of a female protagonist, and there is a great deal of The Little Mermaid, particularly Disney’s version, in the under-the-sea happenings. Some readers might find many of the characters a bit too broadly drawn and over-the-top, though the exaggerated style tends to fit the creative story’s fairy-tale tone.
A clever, fast-paced story that should delight young readers hungry for magical stories.Pub Date: April 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5030-2405-2
Page Count: 262
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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