Anti-princess Sofia, her friends, and their adventures will amuse and delight readers.
Princess Sofia flies off on her own adventures.
Six months after the close of The Girl With the Dragon Heart (2018), Princess Sofia of Drachenheim (a secondary character in Burgis’ previous books set in Drachenheim) is forced to attend the Diamond Exhibition in far off Villenne. The bad: leaving the safety and comfort of home, a two-day flight in a dragon-lofted carriage, and playing the polite princess upon arrival. The good: Sofia immediately offends the king and queen of Villene, leading to unexpected freedom to disguise herself as a university student, attend a lecture by her favorite philosopher, and explore the city. First-person narration makes Sofia’s privilege obvious, just as it does her journey of growth through self-reflection and friendship with goblin and kobold immigrants. When the ice giants of the north feel threatened by the weapons and intentions on display at the exhibition, it’s up to hot-tempered Sofia and friends to save the day, and Sofia finds her un–princess-y characteristics can be an asset. As in the other books in the series, Burgis deals with issues as serious as privilege, immigration, and identity in a manner that is both honest and free of didacticism. Characters are a range of skin tones, from pale to brown to green to white; Sofia herself has brown skin.
Anti-princess Sofia, her friends, and their adventures will amuse and delight readers. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0207-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
Ponderous and protracted, with more work needed on both the world and the characters.
Two young teens with special powers face an ancient evil rising from the very heart of the Tinvali Empire in this doorstopping series opener.
Pursued by ruthless agents eager to exploit her mysterious ability to read peoples’ true feelings, Arden—eventually, after many chapters alternating between dual narrators—links up with foundling Mako, a budding music mage who’s carefully hiding the fact that he’s invited an invisible smooth-talking trickster spirit named Narrix to be his lifelong guardian. It seems that some of Narrix’s fellow spirits may be even nastier—and there are ominous hints that they might be sneaking back into the world. Several of Arden’s adventures do more to bulk up the page count than advance the plot in any meaningful way, and though (like many of Mull’s protagonists) she’s a dab hand at snarky banter, she otherwise comes off as a rather wooden character. Readers may find Mako’s journey and conflicts more absorbing, as he struggles to balance the joy of blossoming into an outstanding warrior under Narrix’s tutelage with the sneaking suspicion he’s made a bad choice of tutor. Whether his concerns are valid or not remains to be seen. The leads present white.
Ponderous and protracted, with more work needed on both the world and the characters. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780593712047
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Labyrinth Road
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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