This earnest but uneven fantasy will appeal most to role-playing–game fans.
There’s a reason the popular role-playing game Beasts and Battlements originated in Midnight Lake, Wisconsin.
Twelve-year-old Vivian Van Tassel has extraordinary fencing skills, a short temper, a passion for Harry Potter books, and a dead mother—for which she blames herself. Moving to her mother’s hometown of Midnight Lake just exacerbates her negative feelings, as she endures bullies and nasty teachers at her new school. Still, despite insisting she doesn’t want friends, Vivian does gradually connect with four Beasts and Battlements gamers. Then, while doing a local history project, Vivian discovers unusual connections between B&B and Midnight Lake. Are the game beasts…real? She soon learns that vulturebears, leer spheres, and canimen belong to an “unholy alliance” fighting for Arborem, an ancient druid determined to eradicate humanity. Perhaps only Vivian, thanks to her mother’s special Silverthorn family heritage, can stop him. This fantasy adventure shines in Vivian’s struggle with grief and guilt and in its creatively crafted gaming elements. Following the prologue, though, active fantasy components disappear for many chapters, slowing the start, and some plot mechanisms feel contrived. As well, in our environmentally aware time, some readers might feel surprised to find a protective nature entity cast as the villain. Vivian and most human characters read White; one gamer is Black, and one has a Latine name.
This earnest but uneven fantasy will appeal most to role-playing–game fans. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781665918190
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
A charming series opener.
A foundling mouse sets out to uncover the mystery of her origins and of the magical needle sized for humans that was left with her.
Delphine’s travels begin with a summons to the palace, where her growing reputation as a brilliant seamstress commands an order for a ball gown for Princess Petits-Oiseaux—and also gives her a chance to discover exciting hints about a vanished order of needle-wielding magic mice known as the Threaded and of an ancient war with the rats. Meanwhile, no sooner does Midnight, cruel king of the rats, learn that the needle they have been seeking for a century has been found than said old war suddenly heats up and turns into a deadly chase. Also meanwhile, only barely noticed by the animal cast but sure to snag readers’ attention, certain events involving another seamstress, a pumpkin coach, a ball, a prince, and a glass slipper are happening above the floorboards in the parallel human world. That isn’t the only sly touch in this bibbidi bobbidi debut, which is rich in clearly delineated character types, features plenty of brisk action, and is also, overall, more than a bit reminiscent in tone and setting to Brian Jacques’ Redwall series (though with more focus on fashion than food). While this volume is mostly setup, heroes and villains alike end up on their marks, and plenty of loose ends remain to stitch up later.
A charming series opener. (Animal fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-368-04802-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A brisk launch well endowed with surprising exploits and ominous portents.
A young giant has identity issues—no surprise, being as she’s only 5 1/2 feet tall.
Disingenuously apologizing to young readers for trying so hard to make them cry (and promising more of the same in future episodes), Riley pits a short-but-mighty giant and an aggrieved preteen genie against an annoyingly clever king who has gone decisively to the dark side. Her fervent hopes of being accepted as a giant met with harsh rejection, Lena flees down from the clouds to seek comfort from the mysterious Last Knight and have her real nature revealed by a drink from ex-witch Mrs. Hubbard’s Cauldron of Truth. First, though, she runs into Jin, a thoroughly chapped genie banished into a ring until he demonstrates humility, who’s currently under the thumb (literally) of fiendish King Midas. Most of the action takes place around the Cursed City, a hidden settlement populated by well-known figures, from Pinocchio to Humpty Dumpty, that both Midas and the giants have sworn to destroy. After many setbacks and twisty takes on fairy-tale tropes, the end leaves most of the city intact; Jin and Lena, who are plainly made for each other (though neither is anywhere near admitting it yet), freer to act than they were; and larger scale villainy and betrayal afoot. The cast members, or those not made of wood or gingerbread anyway, present White.
A brisk launch well endowed with surprising exploits and ominous portents. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-2587-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
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