An absorbing, character-driven YA tale of camaraderie and redemption.
In Barnes’ dark YA fantasy novel, a magical artifact causes trouble for a teenager and all the other residents in her mountain town.
A private auction occurs at a tavern after hours in the town of Harlech. Telyn Brower, who works there with her twin sister, Cressida, secretly watches as the sale turns volatile, leading to a few deaths. She recovers the auctioned item in the confusion—or part of it, at least. The Ever-Guise is a magic-infused mask that defies Cornic Empire Rules, one of which states that humans, like Telyn, aren’t allowed to “own magic.” This directive doesn’t apply to the nonhuman magic-wielding “flacks” in Harlech, such as the sheep-headed cornics that control the town. Telyn confides in her pals Caitlin and Hosh, and the three agree to use the wish-granting mask judiciously. But when things don’t quite go as planned, they risk drawing unwanted attention—namely from the auction winner, who believed that he was getting every piece of the Ever-Guise. When someone else gets hold of the mask, Harlech becomes a much more dangerous place; one of Telyn’s loved ones will likely be sentenced to slavery. To earn money and try to set things right, Telyn and her friends brave the Chaos Woods, which are filled with trees that make magic “go awry.” The woods are also the home of such otherworldly sites as the rumor tree and the golden pool, and many people who’ve ventured into the area have never returned.
Barnes’ novel, which kicks off a prospective series, moves at a leisurely pace. Along the way, it features several set pieces that feel like wholly developed stories on their own. At one point, for example, Telyn, who wants to research the Ever-Guise at the flacks-only Library, must first help a flack get her name on the humans-only Dating Chart. These subplots unfold in an unforgettable fictional world that teems with effervescent characters. Some of the best scenes in the book involve Telyn with Caitlin and Hosh, whether they’re working together or bumping heads over their wishes’ unexpected drawbacks. The flacks have delightful variety, from reptilian trogos and aquatic condas (with “billowy head[s]” that Telyn initially mistakes for hoods) to tylwigs that “turn water into ice in their bellies.” A “pattern witch” named Rayvn, who’s essentially an anthropomorphic cat, nearly steals the book. Her friendship with Telyn sharpens an understated theme of discrimination, with Telyn realizing that not every flack is someone to hate or fear. Despite the novel’s epic length of more than 700 pages, its timeline is relatively short; Telyn is still a teenager by the end, but she gets plenty of time to evolve: She’s burdened with regret, believing that she’s at fault for Harlech’s recent predicaments, but she also learns to forgive. The final act picks up steam as she teams up with an unlikely and not especially trustworthy ally and takes on a daunting foe. A superb denouement ably sets the stage for a second series installment. An absorbing, character-driven YA tale of camaraderie and redemption.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781939354334
Page Count: 730
Publisher: New Myths Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.
After 1,000 years of peace, whispers that “the Nameless One will return” ignite the spark that sets the world order aflame.
No, the Nameless One is not a new nickname for Voldemort. Here, evil takes the shape of fire-breathing dragons—beasts that feed off chaos and imbalance—set on destroying humankind. The leader of these creatures, the Nameless One, has been trapped in the Abyss for ages after having been severely wounded by the sword Ascalon wielded by Galian Berethnet. These events brought about the current order: Virtudom, the kingdom set up by Berethnet, is a pious society that considers all dragons evil. In the East, dragons are worshiped as gods—but not the fire-breathing type. These dragons channel the power of water and are said to be born of stars. They forge a connection with humans by taking riders. In the South, an entirely different way of thinking exists. There, a society of female mages called the Priory worships the Mother. They don’t believe that the Berethnet line, continued by generations of queens, is the sacred key to keeping the Nameless One at bay. This means he could return—and soon. “Do you not see? It is a cycle.” The one thing uniting all corners of the world is fear. Representatives of each belief system—Queen Sabran the Ninth of Virtudom, hopeful dragon rider Tané of the East, and Ead Duryan, mage of the Priory from the South—are linked by the common goal of keeping the Nameless One trapped at any cost. This world of female warriors and leaders feels natural, and while there is a “chosen one” aspect to the tale, it’s far from the main point. Shannon’s depth of imagination and worldbuilding are impressive, as this 800-pager is filled not only with legend, but also with satisfying twists that turn legend on its head. Shannon isn’t new to this game of complex storytelling. Her Bone Season novels (The Song Rising, 2017, etc.) navigate a multilayered society of clairvoyants. Here, Shannon chooses a more traditional view of magic, where light fights against dark, earth against sky, and fire against water. Through these classic pairings, an entirely fresh and addicting tale is born. Shannon may favor detailed explication over keeping a steady pace, but the epic converging of plotlines at the end is enough to forgive.
A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63557-029-8
Page Count: 848
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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