Sepetys’ flowing prose gently carries readers through the crushing tragedy of this tale that needs telling.
This bitterly sad, fluidly written historical novel tackles a topic woefully underdiscussed in English-language children’s fiction: Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror.
On June 14th, 1941, Soviet officers arrest 15-year-old Lina, her younger brother and her mother and deport them from Lithuania to Siberia. Their crammed-full boxcar is labeled, ludicrously, “Thieves and Prostitutes.” They work at a frigid gulag for eight months—hungry, filthy and brutalized by Soviet officers—before being taken to the Siberian Arctic and left without shelter. Lina doesn’t know the breadth of Stalin’s mass deportations of Baltic citizens, but she hears scraps of discussion about politics and World War II. Cold, starvation, exhaustion and disease (scurvy, dysentery, typhus) claim countless victims. Lina sketches urgently, passing her drawings along to other deportees, hoping they’ll reach Papa in a Soviet prison. Brief flashbacks, seamlessly interwoven, illuminate Lina’s sweet old life in Kaunas like flashes of light, eventually helping to reveal why the repressive, deadly regime targeted this family.
Sepetys’ flowing prose gently carries readers through the crushing tragedy of this tale that needs telling. (maps, timeline, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 12-adult)Pub Date: March 22, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25412-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
A full-bodied YA escapade about an adventurer searching for a cause that adult readers will enjoy as much as teens.
In this YA fantasy series starter, loosely based on Norse mythology, an orphan receives answers to her questions about who she is—but doesn’t like everything she discovers.
Warner tells the story of stable girl Sigrid,who lives in the kingdom of Vanaheim. Sigrid’s constant companion is her speedy horse, Hestur, but she dreams of becoming one of the junior valkyries, who look down on her as she attends to their steeds—which, unlike hers, have wings. Sigrid gets a chance to showcase her abilities when Night Elves and a group of enemy valkyries attack Vanaheim and steal a magical relic called the Eye of Hnitbjorg. Sigrid battles with valkyrie Mariam, which leads to the accidental death of Mariam’s horse, Aesa. During their struggle, Sigrid grabs the Eye and momentarily views her own fate, seeing herself in the hellish underworld of Helheim, leading the valkyries and riding Odin’s eight-legged steed, Sleipnir. To fulfill her destiny, Sigrid frees the captive Mariam and persuades her to lead her to Helheim, whose queen possesses Sleipnir. Along the way, they add an ally: a Night Elf runt named Fisk. Sigrid gets answers about her heritage on her quest and must decide how best to use her newfound information and power to protect her people. Warner, who admits in her author’s note that she found a scarcity of information about some aspects of Viking society, deserves credit for creating an inclusive world, including a budding romantic relationship between Sigrid and Mariam. Sigrid is an admirable protagonist, remaining grounded even as she attempts to improve her station in life; her compatriots Mariam and Fisk also seek better lives and to escape difficult situations. Warner also makes the most of the Norse landscape, colorfully describing each of the various sections that the trio visits. The book feels lengthy at more than 400 pages, but, to be fair, it takes time to travel through nine different realms, and it all results in a colorful adventure.
A full-bodied YA escapade about an adventurer searching for a cause that adult readers will enjoy as much as teens.Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1649371485
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will be ensorcelled by the redemptions, revelations, and reconciliations.
Lines between good and evil blur as loyalties are tested in this trilogy conclusion.
Following the cliffhanger ending of The Camelot Betrayal (2020), Guinevere may have successfully sealed Camelot against its enemies in Arthur’s absence, but that wasn’t enough to save her. Held by Picts (who prefer to be called northern people) and familiar faces—Mordred and Morgana—she’s being taken by King Nechtan’s army to see the Dark Queen. Along with her complicated relationship with silver-tongued Mordred, Guinevere quickly forms a rapport with one of her captors, finding Nechtan’s bold, witty daughter Fina impossible not to like. Taking advantage of her proximity to Morgana—who assures Guinevere that they share a true enemy in Merlin—Guinevere asks her to help untangle the truth of Guinevere’s identity. The hard-fought answers she eventually finds cause her even worse existential angst. Tangled up with Guinevere’s identity issues is her web of relationships involving passion, duty, love—especially love, numerous kinds of love—and the broken trusts that weigh on her heart. Guinevere’s internal war of identity and individuality ends up informing the physical action of the climactic battle in a dramatic, high-stakes way. The conclusion of the story closes the curtain on the mythical elements in a gratifying manner and gives closure to the characters, though not without some bittersweet losses.
Readers will be ensorcelled by the redemptions, revelations, and reconciliations. (Fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-58175-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
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