An engaging, sympathetic portrayal of a magically gifted teen’s struggles to navigate two worlds.
In this first installment of a YA fantasy series, a powerful teenager deals with the challenges of a new school.
Most teens stress about fitting in at a new school, but Eva Blackwell, entering Fairhaven High in her senior year, has more reasons to worry than most. For one, she’s an orphan, raised and home-schooled by nuns at Ragnarok Abbey. She loves it there, but many townspeople think Ragnarok is “kinda spooky.” Also, unlike most teens, Eva’s best friends are crows, and she possesses powers she can’t fully control, like her ability to affect weather or create fire with thought. Amid a sea of high school mean girls, Eva hopes to bond with the other new student, Tristan McGrath, but he seems distant. That changes after she learns Italian from Tristan’s grandmother, and he walks Eva home from the lessons. He appears in her dreams, too; when a dark-winged man with a “ring of yellow fire around his pupils” reaches out, letting Eva see “planets being born, worlds destroyed,” Tristan warns her not to succumb. Despite the scary prospect of an unfulfilled prophecy looming over her, Eva begins to accept the potent magical abilities she has tried to hide for so long, especially now that she has help. Fernandez creates captivating main characters. Eva, using a flat affect and sarcasm (the word awesome is always deployed ironically) in her first-person narration, makes an empathetic teen misfit, while aloof but charming Tristan also remains convincing. But Eva’s Ragnarok caretakers, uniformly kind, can seem interchangeable, with only one nun, who believes the teen is possessed by demons, standing out. Fairhaven is portrayed as a pretty but often damp small town where little changes. In this closed-off community, it’s hard for nonconformists like Eva, suspiciously good at tests and dressed strangely, to meld. Yet Eva’s hardest battles aren’t in the school or town; they happen internally and in the mystical realm. When depicting this arena, such as Eva’s struggles to master her magic or her epic battle of spells against the Immortal One in the Veiled Land, Fernandez’s story shines brightly.
An engaging, sympathetic portrayal of a magically gifted teen’s struggles to navigate two worlds.Pub Date: March 20, 2016
ISBN: 9780997261714
Page Count: 368
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
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. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
© 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.
