Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Will appeal to movie buffs seeking light entertainment.
“In the not very distant past, two magical stars collided, sending reality spiraling in two very different directions.”
While the old tales continue on as normal in the Source Worlds, in the Mirror Worlds, characters from Disney stories exist in heightened forms. The light and dark mirrors created in the stellar collision fell, pitting the forces of good and evil magic against each other. But the dark mirror has broken, and the Fractured Magic that now claws its way out from it threatens to rend the worlds as we know them asunder. Snow White’s peaceful life has been shattered by this magic: Her friends are missing, her evil stepmother is out to kill her, and she needs to put her fairy tale on hold to sort things out. With the help of new friends from new worlds—including Sulley from Monsters, Inc., Mickey Mouse, and Lilo’s companion Stitch—will she be able to stop the spread of Fractured Magic and set her story to rights? Character development takes a back seat to the adventures, battles, and rich visual details in this plot-driven novel. Familiarity with the main characters will do a great deal to endear them to readers, and the cliffhanger ending promises more adventures in the works.
Will appeal to movie buffs seeking light entertainment. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: July 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781368078917
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Disney Press
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
A formulaic skeleton without any meat on its bones.
Lupa seeks revenge for the destruction of her village.
Lupa has arrived at the Inner Light monastery with her wolf companion, Coras. Convinced the monks there are the ones who killed her family, Lupa attacks, but she is disarmed and faced with a devastating truth. The Empress Salkis, fearing a prophecy that eight children would dethrone her, sought to kill them and disguised her assassins as monks so as to erode the girls’ trust in the very people who were destined to train them to fight against her. With her sister Kita dead, Lupa must take both her own place and Kita’s in this celestial sisterhood. The additional burden weighs heavily on her, and she has difficulty keeping her destructive tendencies in check. While fighting off an assassin, Lupa accidentally lights the monastery on fire, and after warning the others, she decides to leave on her own and go discover her true self. The story moves so quickly that there is little room for character development, making the narrative feel thin. This is not helped by multiple time skips jumping over years of character growth and resulting in a disjointed, breakneck pace that doesn’t give events room to breathe. The story opens with a brief recap of the first volume, making this entry accessible to new readers. The classic comic–style art is dynamic, highlighting a cast that is racially diverse.
A formulaic skeleton without any meat on its bones. (storyboards, character profiles) (Graphic fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781681160993
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Legendary Comics YA
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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