Look past stale tropes to enjoy a sparkling fantasy
This reimagining of “Rapunzel” is recounted by the young witch, Gothel, charged with her safekeeping.
Five years locked in the tower have taken a toll on both girls. Princess Rapunzel, weighed down by her ever growing tresses, is falling into madness—Gothel’s found rat bones in her hair. Yet when a prince arrives, determined to break the spell and marry Rapunzel, Gothel feels torn. Her own mother, who’d laid the spell, was killed by Rapunzel’s father, the high sorcerer who made Gothel his daughter’s caregiver. Gothel knows Rapunzel’s rescue foretells nothing good for her. On reaching Rapunzel, the prince falls into an enchanted sleep, and his handsome squire, Raj, persuades a reluctant Gothel to help him awaken the prince, but she explains they must first obtain the magical shears possessed by her aunts—powerful, dangerous witches in a distant castle—that can cut Rapunzel’s hair. On their hazardous journey they’re joined by a shape-changing dwarf in search of his name and a slightly dissolute dark elf with a magical lute. Beset by sand demons, a dragon, and mounting perils, Raj and Gothel fall in love. While Rapunzel and Gothel’s people are light-skinned, Raj is an Outlander, a member of a group of desert dwellers who embody tired Orientalist tropes. If trite romance clichés abound, so do welcome plot twists that reinvigorate the proceedings.
Look past stale tropes to enjoy a sparkling fantasy . (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: March 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63422-334-8
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Clean Teen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes
A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
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