AERIE

A year after she died and discovered her nonhuman origins, Aza is drawn back into the conflicts between Earth and Magonia (Magonia, 2015).

Aza Ray Boyle had once been a white girl, dying since she was a toddler. When she died, she discovered she was truly indigo-skinned Aza Ray Quel, daughter of pirate Capt. Quel of Magonia. There, where the sky people control the weather, bird folk steer sailing ships amid squallwhales and stormsharks. Aza's returned to Earth in the (soon-to-be-shed) borrowed skin of a black girl, disguised as an exchange student and dating her real boyfriend, Jason. Their peaceful year concludes when Jason—concerned by reports that a Magonian assassin is after Aza—goes full stalker and turns her in to a creepy government agency for her own protection. Biracial (black/white) Jason, who has an OCD–like disability, soon regrets his decision, but when he tries to enlist his mothers' help, they fear for his sanity and have him institutionalized. Alternating Aza and Jason chapters have lovely, lyrical, and nigh-indistinguishable voices (Jason says he's "turned inside out, a sweater tugged over a head and unraveled into yarn"; Aza calls herself "flat origami, all the folds crushed in on themselves"). This is pure science fantasy in a mishmash magical world, absent the character realism that opened Book 1, but it’ll keep readers moving.

Though imperfect, a well-paced, cinematic adventure with shape-shifting birds to keep things exciting