QUEEN OF FACES

Two outcast teens join forces to fight an infamous witch who’s at the head of a violent rebellion.

Anabelle Gage has one year left to live unless she transfers her Pith to a new body. Working as a maid, she can’t afford the cost of replacing her decaying Edgar chassis; all her hopes ride on attending Paragon Runic Academy, Caimor’s ultra-exclusive magic school. But when her rejection letter arrives, desperation drives Ana into a reckless heist that goes horribly wrong and a criminal partnership with someone she never expected would help her: Nicholas Carriwitch, Paragon’s headmaster. Carriwitch sees Ana’s potential and wants her help hunting down Khaiovhe, the dark witch in charge of the international terrorist organization Commonplace. However, Ana won’t be working alone. Weston Brown, an Ousted noble and former Paragon student, lost everything when his mother exiled him—working for Carriwitch and killing Khaiovhe is Wes’ only chance to return to his old life. Although this debut shows glimmers of potential, with its characters’ urgent goals and its overarching sense of danger, the story suffers from messy worldbuilding and uneven pacing. Ana, who presents as the fantasy equivalent of white and East Asian, with her Caimorian father and Shenti mother, describes her Edgar chassis as ethnically vague. Wes is cued white. The exploration of gender identity in this world conflates sex and gender, presenting a stuck-in-the-wrong-body narrative.

A poorly developed twist on magic school fantasy stories.