In a satisfying trilogy conclusion, Liza confronts the conflicts between saving the world and saving her friends in an...
With the faerie and mortal lands crumbling away, a teenage girl must work with both worlds if anyone is to survive.
The Bones of Faerie series concludes with this high-stakes adventure for Liza. Relative peace has descended upon Liza’s town, where she practices her summoner magic and waits for her half-faerie baby sister to be born. But the forest is showing new dangers, though subtle ones: a strange-smelling gray leaf that crumbles away; a dying squirrel whose back half has turned to dust; “a pair of empty boots, as far apart as a man might stand, filled with the same dust.” Liza’s quest to find out what’s wrong reveals fresh disasters. In Faerie, the dust is everywhere but hardly as tragic as the fire fever— radiation poisoning—that’s devastated the population since the War. In the mortal world, the dust is rapidly spreading in the bloodthirsty, carnivorous forest that was Faerie’s weapon against the humans. Liza’s solution to the problem of the rapidly unwinding universe is not always easy to follow, but the personal is sufficiently compelling to outweigh any problems with the metaphysical.
In a satisfying trilogy conclusion, Liza confronts the conflicts between saving the world and saving her friends in an environment where nobody is willing to let go of the last generation’s hatreds. (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87069-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development.
A portal fantasy survivor story from an established devotional writer.
Fourteen-year-old Eva’s maternal grandmother lives on a grand estate in England; Eva and her academic parents live in New Haven, Connecticut. When she and Mum finally visit Carrick Hall, Eva is alternately resentful at what she’s missed and overjoyed to connect with sometimes aloof Grandmother. Alongside questions of Eva’s family history, the summer is permeated by a greater mystery surrounding the work of fictional children’s fantasy writer A.H.W. Clifton, who wrote a Narnialike series that Eva adores. As it happens, Grandmother was one of several children who entered and ruled Ternival, the world of Clifton’s books; the others perished in 1952, and Grandmother hasn’t recovered. The Narnia influences are strong—Eva’s grandmother is the Susan figure who’s repudiated both magic and God—and the ensuing trauma has created rifts that echo through her relationships with her daughter and granddaughter. An early narrative implication that Eva will visit Ternival to set things right barely materializes in this series opener; meanwhile, the religious parable overwhelms the magic elements as the story winds on. The serviceable plot is weakened by shallow characterization. Little backstory appears other than that which immediately concerns the plot, and Eva tends to respond emotionally as the story requires—resentful when her seething silence is required, immediately trusting toward characters readers need to trust. Major characters are cued white.
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development. (author’s note, map, author Q&A) (Religious fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780593194454
Page Count: 384
Publisher: WaterBrook
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
An uneven spin-off that will likely appeal to fans of the original franchise.
Readers return to the world of Agrabah from the Disney film Aladdin, this time from the perspective of Princess Jasmine as she faces her biggest challenge yet.
Tragedy strikes Agrabah and the royal family when the sultan is found dead. Even as she grieves her father, Jasmine must worry about her succession to the throne and the growing concerns of a supernatural evil creeping into the kingdom. Though Jasmine feels unprepared to take her father’s place, she accepts her fate. When a challenger emerges and lays claim to the throne, Jasmine must fight to erase everyone’s doubts about a young woman’s ability to reign and take her rightful place as the first sultana. It is interesting to see Agrabah through the perspective of Jasmine and to encounter characters both familiar and new. Monir builds on the Persian-inspired world by giving the new characters Persian names and including nuanced cultural elements. Fighting against long-held traditions and forging a place for women to be equals alongside men are timely themes, and Monir shows Jasmine’s resolve to be a just and suitable leader despite the frightening situations she often encounters. There is a lot of compelling buildup surrounding the mysterious and supernatural elements haunting Jasmine and her world, but the eventual reveal feels confusing and haphazardly patched together.
An uneven spin-off that will likely appeal to fans of the original franchise. (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781368048217
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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