Grounded, likable characters with complex emotions anchor this excellent series installment.
Three heroes seek an artifact that will reverse the effects of harmful magic in this medieval YA fantasy sequel.
Following the events of Dreadmarrow Thief (2017), teenage Tessa Skye of Sorrenwood is under a spell of subservience and engaged to Lord Turth of Turthville as the new Lady of Fellstone Castle, where she now lives. Meanwhile, her friend Calder Osric lives with and watches over Tessa’s mother, Faline, outside the castle; she still believes herself to be a sparrow after having used the windrider amulet to change between human and bird forms. When Tessa stops visiting her mom—and doesn’t invite her to the wedding—Calder sneaks into Fellstone to investigate. He convinces the sexton’s son, Ash Kemp, who loves Tessa dearly, to help him break Turth’s hold on the girl. A blow to the head frees her, and the three ride to Blackgrove to ask the Conjurer Lord Queshire for assistance in opening the locked Conjurer’s Book of Incantations. The book, Tessa hopes, contains a way to cure her mother. In Blackgrove, Queshire instructs them to find the Gravenwood, an engraved tablet that can “undo the effects of a magical spell” and allow “someone with no conjuring ability to steal the powers of a conjurer.” Tessa agrees on the condition that Queshire train her in conjuring—and therefore the manipulative statesman has the desperate heroes right where he wants them. After a brief setup, Benedict puts her heroes straight through the wringer in this sequel; Tessa, Calder, and Ash are later separated and must survive imprisonment, pirates, and conniving relatives. Ash's and Calder’s chapters are written in the third person, but it’s Tessa’s first-person chapters that truly shine. While she’s under the spell, for instance, she notes at dinner that Turth’s “scent was intoxicating, though the nearby platter of bacon might’ve had something to do with it.” Calder faces a deep emotional quandary because he fears that Faline won’t need him once she’s cured. An eleventh-hour twist emphasizes the elegance of Benedict's plotting, and the final line will make readers eager for the next volume.
Grounded, likable characters with complex emotions anchor this excellent series installment.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9994492-4-0
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions.
A teenage girl refuses a medical procedure to remove her heart and her emotions.
June lives in a future in which a reclusive Scientist has pioneered a procedure to remove hearts, thus eliminating all “sadness, anxiety, and anger.” The downside is that it numbs pleasurable feelings, too. Most people around June have had the procedure done; for young people, in part because doing so helps them become more focused and successful. Before long, June is the only one among her peers who still has her heart. When her parents decide it’s time for her to have the procedure so she can become more focused in school, June hatches a plan to pretend to go through with it. She also investigates a way to restore her beloved sister’s heart, joining forces with Max, a classmate who’s also researching the Scientist because he has started to feel again despite having had his heart removed. The pair’s journey is somewhat rushed and improbable, as is the resolution they achieve. However, the story’s message feels relevant and relatable to teens, and the artwork effectively sets the scene, with bursts of color popping throughout an otherwise black-and-white landscape, reflecting the monochromatic, heartless reality of June’s world. There are no ethnic or cultural markers in the text; June has paper-white skin and dark hair, and Max has dark skin and curly black hair.
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions. (Graphic speculative fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780063116214
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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