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
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development.
A portal fantasy survivor story from an established devotional writer.
Fourteen-year-old Eva’s maternal grandmother lives on a grand estate in England; Eva and her academic parents live in New Haven, Connecticut. When she and Mum finally visit Carrick Hall, Eva is alternately resentful at what she’s missed and overjoyed to connect with sometimes aloof Grandmother. Alongside questions of Eva’s family history, the summer is permeated by a greater mystery surrounding the work of fictional children’s fantasy writer A.H.W. Clifton, who wrote a Narnialike series that Eva adores. As it happens, Grandmother was one of several children who entered and ruled Ternival, the world of Clifton’s books; the others perished in 1952, and Grandmother hasn’t recovered. The Narnia influences are strong—Eva’s grandmother is the Susan figure who’s repudiated both magic and God—and the ensuing trauma has created rifts that echo through her relationships with her daughter and granddaughter. An early narrative implication that Eva will visit Ternival to set things right barely materializes in this series opener; meanwhile, the religious parable overwhelms the magic elements as the story winds on. The serviceable plot is weakened by shallow characterization. Little backstory appears other than that which immediately concerns the plot, and Eva tends to respond emotionally as the story requires—resentful when her seething silence is required, immediately trusting toward characters readers need to trust. Major characters are cued white.
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development. (author’s note, map, author Q&A) (Religious fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780593194454
Page Count: 384
Publisher: WaterBrook
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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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