A subtle, haunting debut.
Born in a gulag, 12-year-old Lina has known only deprivation, pain, and cold, but a daring escape proves that the outside world holds more mystery than she could have ever imagined.
Everyone inside the wire knows that the chances of surviving an escape are minimal. But when plucky Lina is drawn into a madcap breakout scheme, she agrees to help; her best friend, Bogdan, determined to protect Lina, follows. Both children are desperate to reconnect with lost family and forge new lives outside. Their escape is thwarted at every turn, however, by mythic elements from forbidden tales that turn out to be frighteningly real: hidden powers, ghost hounds, and a preternaturally omnipresent sorceress possessing both a fanatical vendetta and a heart-wrenching secret. Orton weaves a somewhat far-fetched tale, seemingly drawing more on fantasy of her own devising than on Russia’s own rich folklore. As a result, the two salient aspects of the story—the Stalinist-era purges and prison camps and the magic—never fully cohere, and small gaps in believability tarnish what could have been a fascinating story. Although the story is rife with interesting personalities, Orton does little to flesh them out, and the limited third-person narration does little to advance the development of characters other than Lina. The story is largely redeemed, however, by some truly beautiful images and relationships; the warm friendship between Bogdan and Lina is a particular delight. Lina is literally Caucasian; Bogdan is Tuvan. Cai’s scratchy, flowing chapter heads enhance the fantastical atmosphere.
A subtle, haunting debut. (Historical fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0712-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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