A familiar tale of good versus evil with some imaginative elements and a sympathetic young heroine.
A young girl with healing powers must discover her inner strength to defend her loved ones and protect against the forces of darkness.
Indigo Lightner feels out of place and misunderstood, even more so than the typical middle school student—because she is far from typical. She feels at peace among the trees and has the ability to absorb their positive energy. She can heal by touch, and based on the color of light she sees around other people, she can sense their moods and feelings. Her mother scolds her for strange behavior and her fellow students make fun of her, but Indigo learns something amazing one day at school. Her neighbor Dayton Smith speaks up against a boy who is bullying Indigo and whose negative energy causes Indigo overwhelming distress. Dayton then recognizes Indigo’s power. He tells her that he also can read minds and speak telepathically, but most importantly, he knows that they have a much larger role to play. Indigo and Dayton ride their magic Gris Gris travel devices to the divine land of Mictlan and meet other powerful youths from different parts of the world. Meanwhile, the lizard people gather beneath Earth’s surface and plot their destruction. Indigo’s challenge becomes not only to accept her role as leader of the young warriors, but to also defend her family and friends from the violence King Azeel threatens. The division between good and evil is very straightforward, and Indigo is helped along her journey by some interesting secondary characters, including a fairy and her own grandmother, who has a secret past tied to Mictlan. While Indigo balks at assuming a leadership position and fighting terrifying creatures of darkness, she’s portrayed sympathetically and realistically. Though the novel maintains swift pacing, along with heightened action and tension, unfortunately, the last scene ends in a rush. Readers will surely wish for just one additional chapter to provide a resolution.
A familiar tale of good versus evil with some imaginative elements and a sympathetic young heroine.Pub Date: May 30, 2012
ISBN: 978-1452550107
Page Count: 266
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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