A powerful female protagonist fights for equality in a vivid, multifaceted fantasy world.
A young woman’s passion for mountain climbing threatens a brutal patriarchy founded on dark secrets in Dabney’s YA fantasy novel.
In the kingdom of Ectair, 17-year-old Klarke lives in a city where “mud and animal dung are as common…as boils and poverty.” She feels free only when climbing, “pressed against granite. Dangling from a thin rope, with no guarantees.” Her supportive instructor is the leader of the Ascenditures, elite climbers who maintain dams and bridges and risk their lives scaling a mountain to gather food and medicinal plants for the king. Klarke, the only woman trainee and the best climber, has competed twice for a chance to join the Ascenditures. The target of male derision and dislike, she outclimbs her competitors (while encumbered by the long skirt all women must wear), yet each time, the king’s judges grant victory to the male runner-up. Klarke’s determined to realize her dream: that is, if she can survive treachery, dark forces, and a king whose hatred is personal. Set in a kingdom where death can be the penalty for women who protest the male-dominated social order, this series launch is a well realized, unusually muscular, female-centered fantasy. There’s an old Bavaria-like flavor in the sure-handed worldbuilding here, which features horse-drawn carriages and cobbled streets, ships powered by sails, priestlike “päters,”and “holzenschreins” (shrines) to Ectair’s two gods. The kingdom’s history and underlying mythologies are woven into the plot with suspenseful intimations of not-yet-dead dark magic. Klarke’s deep love for climbing is authentically realized in the author’s informed portrayal of limb-shaking exhaustion, climbing injuries and deaths, and the search for foot- and fingerholds at seemingly unscalable heights. Can Klarke trust a seeming royal ally and her own heart? How did her mother and the queen really die? And can she truly free the subjugated women of the kingdom? Readers must wait for the next installment to follow Klarke’s search for the answers.
A powerful female protagonist fights for equality in a vivid, multifaceted fantasy world.Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781646034758
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Fitzroy Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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