An entertaining twist on a legend from the point of view of an unusual young woman.
A teenage girl uses her skill with bow and arrow to join Robin Hood’s outlaw band in this coming-of-age YA adventure story set in the 12th century.
When 16-year-old Alys Fletcher’s brother, Hob, sets off with Robin of Locksley to join King Richard the Lionheart as a soldier in the Third Crusade, she longs to go with them, as she’s a talented archer herself. Instead, she’s sent to Nottingham Castle as a lady’s maid to Maid Marian, Robin’s true love. Worried for her brother’s safety, Alys makes a bargain with Robin, who promises to bring Hob back unscathed if she does all she can to prevent Maid Marian from marrying another suitor in his absence. Meanwhile, Alys adamantly refuses to consider marriage for herself, despite pressure from her family. While she’s in Maid Marian’s service, a disaster at her family’s farm—and the Sheriff of Nottingham’s onerous taxes—send her clan into poverty. When Robin returns from the Holy Land without Hob, she’s furious that he broke his promise and blames him for the Fletchers’ desperate situation. The novel, told from Alys’ point of view, creatively reimagines the well-known legend of Robin Hood in intriguing ways. At first, Alys is shown to ardently wish only for her family to be reunited and restored to their old life; faced with a series of difficult choices, she struggles with conflicting demands but develops confidence, resilience, and strong friendships with her fellow outlaws, including Little John and Friar Tuck. Vivid descriptions and engaging secondary players enliven the narrative. However, it’s occasionally marred by minor historical inaccuracies; for example, the castle’s interior is decorated with mounted weapons and armor, rather than fabric hangings, and in a crucial discussion about money, the author appears to use the terms shillingand penceinterchangeably. Overall, Alys’ journey from naïve youth to intrepid fighter will appeal to genre fans. The satisfying conclusion positions the protagonist to undertake a new quest in a planned sequel.
An entertaining twist on a legend from the point of view of an unusual young woman.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Silver Arrow Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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