An enjoyable take on generational fairy tales.
In this debut middle-grade fantasy, some offspring of famous fairy-tale characters band together when a precious artifact vanishes.
Fourteen-year-old Skylar Carson is a thief whose mother, Frostine—the villainous Snow Queen—abandoned her years ago for no discernible reason. Living in the village near Queen Snow White’s castle, Skylar does what she can to survive, with only her dog, Boxer, and her best friend, Carter Brown, for company. When she is suddenly invited by her estranged mother to attend the castle’s upcoming exhibition showcasing the “Gem of Fairy Tales”—the source of inspiration for all those striking stories—she wonders what the Snow Queen is up to. That’s when she meets other adolescents with renowned parents, including Maya, the daughter of Sleeping Beauty; Axel, Prince Charming’s son; and Naomi, the daughter of Queen Snow White. When the Gem disappears, a theft that may lead to the end of everything they know, the kids embark on a quest to find answers. The journey will lead them to the "River of Memories” and the "Man of Advice.” But time is running out and all fingers start pointing at Skylar as the culprit. After all, she is the daughter of one of the most dangerous figures in fairy-tale history and many believe that children like her inherit their parents’ traits: “Evil runs through their veins. They may be good most of the time, but then they will snap, and then you will see their true dark side.” Pereira’s story deftly follows in the footsteps of reimagined fairy tales for a young audience, such as Soman Chainani’s The School for Good and Evil book series and Disney’s TV film Descendants. With a narrative that alternates between the Gem quest and Cavallaro’s beautiful illustrations that pepper the pages, Pereira’s breezy, fast-paced novel mixes fantasy, mystery, and a heist with minimal character development and worldbuilding but a maximum fun factor. While the writing is sometimes clumsy and the tale superficially delves into key questions about heritage (including whether children necessarily follow in their parents’ footsteps), middle-grade readers will find the work highly entertaining.
An enjoyable take on generational fairy tales.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9798350918267
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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