A dark, compelling sequel.
Ren Scarborough, Japan’s Goddess of Death, must safeguard her throne and her country from the Reapers of her past.
It’s the early 1900s in Tokyo, and Ren—half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami—has now been Japan’s Death Goddess for a decade. But since she killed Hiro, her fiance, and her brother was lost to the deep darkness, her life has seemed lonely and worthless. Even her Shinigami whisper that she is not their legitimate leader because of her foreign roots. When Tsukuyomi, god of the moon and Hiro’s brother, appears at her door to warn her of the presence of English Reapers in Japan, Ren discovers that Ivy Cromwell, who bullied her in the past, has become the British Goddess of Death and is arriving in a few days to hunt her down. Without being able to rely on the Shinigami to back her, Ren seeks the help of gods who despise her in order to defend her throne and save Japan. This fast-moving, fantastical sequel is full of darkness, gore, anger, and fear, tempered by glimpses of love and forgiveness. Ren grapples with whom to trust, whom to kill, identity and trying to belong, and kindness versus weakness. The book immerses readers in Japanese culture and the captivating world of Shinto gods and goddesses and their complex relationships. Baker’s descriptions and immersive worldbuilding are beautifully detailed and enchanting.
A dark, compelling sequel. (author’s note) (Historical fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-335-91585-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell...
Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age.
The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2.
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell into a family . (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62779-212-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
BOOK TO SCREEN
Whether you came for the lore or the love, perfection.
Broken people, complicated families, magic, and Faerie politics: Black’s back.
After the tumultuous ending to the last volume (marriage, exile, and the seeming collapse of all her plots), Jude finds herself in the human world, which lacks appeal despite a childhood spent longing to go back. The price of her upbringing becomes clear: A human raised in the multihued, multiformed, always capricious Faerie High Court by the man who killed her parents, trained for intrigue and combat, recruited to a spy organization, and ultimately the power behind the coup and the latest High King, Jude no longer understands how to exist happily in a world that isn’t full of magic and danger. A plea from her estranged twin sends her secretly back to Faerie, where things immediately come to a boil with Cardan (king, nemesis, love interest) and all the many political strands Jude has tugged on for the past two volumes. New readers will need to go back to The Cruel Prince (2018) to follow the complexities—political and personal side plots abound—but the legions of established fans will love every minute of this lushly described, tightly plotted trilogy closer. Jude might be traumatized and emotionally unhealthy, but she’s an antihero worth cheering on. There are few physical descriptions of humans and some queer representation.
Whether you came for the lore or the love, perfection. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31042-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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