A romantic fantasy that’s dark, genuine, and joyous, by turns.
In this fantasy novel, a young man struggling to find his place in the world meets a Forest Pixie who draws him into a perilous adventure.
Twenty-two-year-old human Amer has just been fired from his bartending job. Worse, he’ll be evicted from his apartment in days because the rent is overdue. This inspires him to run an errand for his friend Nurri, who operates a neighborhood food stand. He agrees to gather rainbow root, for which wealthy people pay handsomely, from the valley, and Nurri agrees to cut him in on the proceeds. Her map leads him through the Forest to perform his task. Meanwhile, wicked King Malo has been doing his best to ruin the Forest since taking the throne six years ago. He’s imprisoned his brother and rightful ruler, Ben, and must now eliminate Fillii, a Forest Pixie who has the potential to stop him. Fillii has been granted the “Protection of the Spell” by the maiden who wished her into being, which keeps the king from killing her; Malo aims to evict her from her tree and strip away her enchantment. The foxes Ren and Truuk tell Fillii to search the valley for “something” that will allow her to defeat Malo. Instead, Fillii finds Amer, a talkative human whom she refuses to trust. Human reason always results in disenchantment, yet Fillii is surprised to see that the Forest deems Amer worthy and thinks that perhaps he can help. Calleja writes with immense humor and heart, placing her novel in the company of classics such as Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn (1968). Her characters playfully wink at readers, as when Amer notes that he’s “sitting inside a tree” with elves and a Pixie who’s “apparently going to start a revolution,” and Fillii replies, “The Forest has a weird sense of humour sometimes.” The evil Malo never shies from murdering woodland creatures, as when he coldly destroys a giant Guio bird’s eggs. But Calleja highlights beauty, as well, as in the line, “It was as if diamonds of dew hung suspended in the air all around them.” Fillii’s complicated past with another human, Casz, creates tension with Amer, who’s more like her than either realizes. A warm, cozy finale will leave readers hoping for further tales.
A romantic fantasy that’s dark, genuine, and joyous, by turns.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 224
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
A new and contemplative take on the vampire novel.
Following a vampire across more than 200 years, this novel considers “whether this world and life in it is a kindness or an unkindness, a blessing or a curse.”
At the age of 10, Anna faces illness and death daily as an epidemic sweeps through her town. After the deaths of her father and brother, and when she's at her sickest, her grandfather arrives. Just as she’s about to succumb to the illness that killed her whole family, he transforms her into a vampire like himself. When she asks him why he did it, he replies: “This world, my dear child, all of it, right to the very end if there is to be an end, is a gift. But it’s a gift few are strong enough to receive. I made a judgment that you might be among those strong few, that you might be better served on this side of things than the other. I thought you might find some use for the world, and it for you.” The years that follow are difficult and often wrought with loss for Anna. She lives many lives over the centuries and eventually takes on the name Collette LaSange, opening a French preschool in Millstream Hollow, New York. Chapters alternate between Anna’s life beginning in the 1830s and her current life in 1984 as Collette. Notable points of tension arise when Collette tries unsuccessfully to sate her hunger, which is becoming increasingly unbearable, and as her interest in the artistic growth of a student named Leo deepens. Through decadently vivid prose—which could have been streamlined at times—this hefty novel meditates on major themes such as life, love, and death with exceptional acumen. The final questions in the book—“How presumptuous is the gift of life? What arrogance is implicit in the act of love that calls another into existence?”—serve as an anchor to meditations on these themes found throughout.
A new and contemplative take on the vampire novel.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781250856760
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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