An artful adaptation and delightful debut.
Pinocchio meets Frankenstein in this gender-swapped light fantasy.
Eleven years after losing his wife in childbirth—and their only child too—master puppeteer Gephardt Leiter succumbs to loneliness and puts his talents to the test. Though the territory of Tavia outlawed conjuring magic generations ago, Gep recites a forest crone’s incantation beneath a lustrous blue moon to bring a lovingly crafted marionette to life, a girl about the age his daughter would have been. Seven years later, Gep’s health fails and Pirouette, his (literally) animated daughter, finds herself struggling to complete the last in a commission of 100 life-sized soldiers. Soon after, the ruling Margrave’s heir demands yet another malicious mannequin, and he puts long-banned spells to use, turning an army of wooden brutes loose and accusing Piro of the very sorcery he’s practicing. Imprisoned by a madman, Piro faces a dreadful final task….An earnest, appealing, and accessible narrator, Piro fastens together a magnificent world where, per her father’s favorite maxim, “a maker will always prevail.” DeSelm’s at her best describing artisans at work—from the fleet-fingered tailor to the sure-handed potter—stitching, striking, stoking, and shaping raw materials into works of beauty. Allusions to source texts buttress gender-conscious explorations of belonging, honesty, autonomy, empathy, and the nuanced politics of creation. A simpler story about the timeless battle between those who produce and those who merely consume undergirds the fable. Physical descriptions indicate characters of varying ethnicities.
An artful adaptation and delightful debut. (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64567-080-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Somberly beautiful.
A girl goes in search of her missing sister and discovers a strange hidden world of dreams.
Corin, who’s 18 and dark-skinned, strives to protect her 12-year-old sister, Elly. But life as a thief is full of struggle, poverty, and loss, even without Corin’s avoidance of other relationships. Elly clings to the promise of fairy tales, like the one that says a princess lies sleeping in an underground castle after pricking her finger on a spindle. After the sisters fight and Elly runs off, Corin searches for her in Gyldan’s old network of tunnels—and finds the tale is true: Cursed Princess Amelia, golden-haired, with eyes like “sea glass” and porcelain skin, lies asleep, surrounded by flowers. Corin enters the princess’ dreamworld—the place “where your subconscious desires come to life.” She meets Briar Rose, Amelia’s alter ego, who experienced her share of sadness and wanted to fall asleep. Also in the dreamworld is green-skinned Malicine, the nonbinary demon who, despite having placed the curse of eternal slumber on Amelia, is mostly friendly. All three are running from things they can’t face, though the dreamworld may not give them a choice. Pham’s debut, a Sapphic reimagining of “Sleeping Beauty,” explores mental health and asks a lot of readers as it seesaws between emotional confrontations, time jumps, and scenes where one character inhabits the memories of another, all of which demand intense engagement. Still, the ending is earned as well as positive.
Somberly beautiful. (content note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9798217113026
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty.
In this retelling of a classic, a drama student’s obsession with beauty leads her down a dark—and possibly deadly—path.
Eighteen-year-old Penny Paxton is beginning her first year at Dorian Drama Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she hopes to follow in her starlet mother’s footsteps—and earn the love that her mother has never seemed to offer. At Dorian, Penny is mentored by Royal Shakespeare Company legend Orlagh Camran, who makes her the compelling offer of a portrait by the Masked Painter, a mysterious artist with the ability to gift his subjects everlasting youth and beauty. But shortly after Penny’s portrait is complete, several of the Masked Painter’s subjects are found murdered. Fearing that she’s made a terrible mistake and may become the next victim, Penny, who’s gay, begins to investigate the murders with the help of an unlikely ally. As she attempts to uncover the truth surrounding the Masked Painter and the murders, she’s forced to reckon with her own toxic obsession with beauty. This chilling, atmospheric novel, inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, is entertaining and full of twists, though some of the reveals feel contrived and some questions are left unanswered. The plot unravels at a leisurely pace but eventually builds to an action-packed (if somewhat convoluted) conclusion. Most characters are cued white.
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty. (content note, author’s note, bonus scene) (Fantasy thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250346797
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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