Unusual and largely engaging.
In this sequel to Below (2016), 16-year-old Elia longs to return to her home in the clouds, but she is stuck trying to survive in a harsh world where her dark skin and strange eyes mark her as an outsider.
Hokk, a citizen of Below, braves the badlands to rescue her from the marauders she’s been trapped with for weeks. Together they use the rescued winged donkey and flying horse to return to the floating islands of Above. However, the sun-scorched and desolate island where they land proves to be too much for the fair-skinned Hokk. And while Elia possesses the extra set of eyelids of Above, Hokk lacks this protection. Their only hope for rescue is a family of privileged explorers. Elia quickly finds herself enmeshed in the royal court of Above, but instead of the answers she seeks, she finds only more secrets and lies. Mostly smoothing out the worldbuilding snags that characterized the series opener, this seamless blend of fantasy, dystopia, and myth yields an absorbing tale. The growing bond between Elia and Hokk will enchant true romantics, while the surprising plot twists and ongoing mystery will satisfy readers looking for a dose of danger and action. The pacing is still a bit uneven as the narration shifts among Elia, Hokk, and Tash, a noble girl of Above, and there’s a regrettable reliance on tropes of exoticism. A cliffhanger ending promises another addition.
Unusual and largely engaging. (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68162-604-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Turner
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers...
A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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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