A beautifully textured and deeply re-imagined version of the Grimm Brothers Goose Girl, Hale’s first novel is too long by a fair amount, but ensorcelled teen readers, swept up in the romance and the luscious language, probably won’t notice. All the elements are here: a princess called Ani is born with the gift of hearing and understanding the birds, the wind, and her beautiful horse, Falada. But Ani’s mother, the queen, who has the gift of people-speaking, is so disappointed that Ani’s gifts are in another direction that she sends Ani off to marry a prince of the next kingdom. On the road, Ani’s serving maid Selia and her cohorts kill her guard and Selia takes Ani’s place. Ani is cared for by a forest woman, becomes a goose herd in the town, and sees Falada’s head hung in the town square. When Ani rallies her gaggle of friends to try to stop the war that Selia is instigating to hide her treachery, it leads to a gorgeous, dramatic climax where stories “tell us what they can. The rest is for us to learn.” (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-58234-843-X
Page Count: 388
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2003
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
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After Awakening the dormant spirit of her ancestor King Arthur Pendragon, almost-17-year-old Briana Matthews must fight to learn and control her magical inheritances.
As a Black person who also possesses the ability to use Root, a form of magic borrowed from deceased practitioners and passed down to her through her mother’s family, Bree is unique in the Line of Pendragon. It is through blood and violence that Bree’s magical abilities intertwined—both those from Arthur’s Welsh origins and from her family’s Bloodcraft originating during chattel slavery in the American South. Together they have turned her into one of the most powerful people either Line has ever known. The intricacies of her navigation of her new powers are at the heart of this sequel to Legendborn (2020), especially as Bree balances the knowledge that her Blackness creates a critical distance between her and the racist people she is sworn to protect as the king of all Legendborns. The plot is complex, and the morsels of information that help fill in the gaps of knowledge don’t always feel fully formed, which may leave readers confused as they try to keep up with the new powers and beings that are presented. Still, there are important, if hard to read, references, for example, when Bree is kidnapped and experimented on by an all-White council, a turn of events that reflects Deonn’s commitment to presenting unflinching truths about the cyclical insidiousness of racism.
A worthy successor to an explosive debut. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4163-7
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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BOOK REVIEW
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
18
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Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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