A strange, inventive tale that evolves into a challenging and rewarding odyssey.
In Miller’s novel, a disaffected teenager receives a bizarre power that may be the key to changing her grim reality.
Shay Garner is a 17-year-old living in a hostile world. At home, she must contend with her abusive, alcohol-addictedmother, who hurls insults but never offers love or support. At school, with her two best friends, Opal and Santana,she has joined an after-school group to work on community service, but all three girls agree that petitions and picking up garbage will do nothing to reverse the environmental disasters and extreme poverty around their home of San Jose, California. “Every single moment, even this one, is a gift,” Shay thinks, adding, “No part of her believes that statement fully.” However, an unbelievable gift does, in fact, come Shay’s way. An odd figure named Corvus P. Capra with mechanical pincers for hands saves her from a man harassing her in the street; he then wordlessly offers her a black clamshell, which displays messages so that he can communicate with her. The item also gives its new owner the ability to control animals with her mind. Shay’s disbelief quickly gives way to amazement, and then a flurry of questions, as she realizes that she can compel cockroaches, spiders, cats, and dogs to follow her orders with merely a thought. Shay trains with Corvus at night, but he remains aloof about the power’s ultimate purpose: “Time is little,” he tells her. “Few questions, fine, okay. Many, not good. It is pesky.” As her abilities grow, she finds herself able to manipulate zoo animals and even people. Shay withdraws from the people close to her, just as Corvus finally reveals his intentions to use the power to stave off an environmental disaster. However, before long, she and her friends set off down a strange path to understanding what it really means to change the world.
Miller’s heavily philosophical approach doesn’t shy away from dark themes, violence, or language. The novel’s detached tone quickly alerts readers to the deadly serious stakes, even as some wacky plot elements emerge; the reveal of what Corvus truly is, for example, seems too bizarre to be believed, but somehow feels logical. Shay’s sheer intelligence will win readers over early; the probing questions she asks about her new powers make her feel genuine, while also pushing at the limits of the unusual situation. There’s a pervasive sense of despair that Miller renders beautifully, and it places readers squarely into the mindset of young people who feel powerless to fix problems, either at home or in the world at large. The novel’s excellent twist is that when they get power, it only creates more perplexing questions with unclear solutions: “There is a growing hollowness beneath it,” Shay thinks after one victory, “a sense of incompletion.” The protagonist’s story feels light-years from the typical hero’s journey, consistently focusing on more existential themes—and the result is something unusually unsettling and unforgettable.
A strange, inventive tale that evolves into a challenging and rewarding odyssey.Pub Date: June 18, 2025
ISBN: 9798284208939
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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