A sequel that serviceably does its middle-volume job; it won’t attract new readers but should please fans of Book 1.
Two surpassingly magical cousins are continually pushed into action during the European revolutions of the 19th century.
How could Anna have naïvely thought that she would destroy classism, racism, and imperialism simply because she had destroyed the magical Binding that reserved spellcasting for the nobility and imprisoned the magical praetherians? Alternating sections reveal the rising chaos that resulted from her actions in Blood Rose Rebellion (2017) from dual perspectives. Anna feels trapped in Vienna both by class and gender expectations and by the demands of the freed magical creatures. Mátyás, Anna’s cousin who was killed when Anna destroyed the Binding, has been reborn to a responsibility he desperately seeks to avoid. Both are appalled by the treatment of praetherians, who, newly freed, are being enslaved, murdered, and forced to wear identifying marks. Anna vows to speak up on their behalf, but as a young woman, her word carries little weight. Mátyás chooses banditry over leadership, but his kindness nevertheless brings more and more praetherians to join his gang. Both protagonists have revolutionary urgings, although their anti-imperialistic nationalism seems awfully selective, an unreconciled contradiction that could possibly be resolved in Book 3. Anna and Mátyás, both white, are exceptionally magical, with phenomenal cosmic powers that everyone wants to exploit, from the ancient Hungarian gods to the Hapsburg Archduchess Sophie. This all boosts expectations of series readers for a conclusion they may worry it cannot meet.
A sequel that serviceably does its middle-volume job; it won’t attract new readers but should please fans of Book 1. (author’s note, character guide, glossary) (Fantasy. 13-15)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-101-93607-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A standard post-apocalyptic dystopia with enough rich worldbuilding to appeal to most lovers of the genre. Deuce is a Huntress trainee in the tunnels beneath the long-fallen ruins of New York City. Like the rest of the Hunters, Deuce wants only to provide her city with meat and protect it from the subhuman, zombielike Freaks. So why, oh, why did they need to appoint that weirdo Fade her hunting partner? He's from outside the enclave and never learned how to fit in the way Deuce wants to. With Fade by her side, Deuce can't help seeing cracks in the elders' façade of benevolent protectiveness. Soon the two must embark on a new adventure, to the not-so-abandoned city Topside. Up here, they need a whole new set of survival skills to protect them against everything from sunlight to violent gangs of rapists and thugs—not to mention the ever-present and growing packs of Freaks. The well-developed tension is marred only by recurring inexplicable references to what readers seem to be expected to recognize as one of the more obscure stories of Victorian fantasist George MacDonald, but these are only mild stumbling blocks. All in all, this well-paced zombie-esque adventure in an urban wasteland will keep fans happy. (Science fiction. 13-15)
Pub Date: April 12, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-65008-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
In the end, choppy prose and the present tense make this moody, dreamlike tale of a special girl in a religious dystopia...
A young woman comes of age in an isolated community with stifling codes of conduct.
Emmeline, not quite 16, lives in a settlement of 600-odd people huddled in hungry solitude in the frozen north. With her birthday approaching, Emmeline isn’t looking forward to her coming-of-age, when leering Brother Stockham of the settlement’s leadership will begin to court her in earnest. Disabled, suffering from chronic pain, prone to self-harm and Stained by the Wayward actions of her long-dead grandma’am, Emmeline should be grateful for Brother Stockham’s attentions, but she prefers Kane, a quiet, handsome boy her own age. Perhaps her dreams will lead her to the Lost People and win her the respect she needs to choose her own partner. This slightly magical alternate history features the Canadian prairie as an unpeopled wilderness save for this mix of Francophones, Anglophones, and trilingual mixed-race Métis who speak French, English and First People’s languages such as Cree and M’ikmaq. Worldbuilding suffers despite its potential. Nonsensically, after five generations, the settlement’s people haven’t managed to form a mutually intelligible pidgin, and the language groups don’t mix (except when they do) and don’t understand one another’s languages (but seem to have no problem doing so).
In the end, choppy prose and the present tense make this moody, dreamlike tale of a special girl in a religious dystopia read just like all the others . (Fantasy. 13-15)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1235-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
