An engrossing tale of monstrous life—human and otherwise.
History comes to undead life in this bloody tale of vampiric vengeance.
When she was mortal, Malinalli spent her days bending to the whims of others in order to survive. A Nahua girl traded away after the birth of her stepfather’s heir, she translated the conquistadors’ demands to the Indigenous communities they destroyed. She bore their leader an heir: Martin, the first mestizo, a child born of rape and colonial conquest. For what she did in the name of survival, history dubbed her “the traitorous La Malinche.” In the 20th century, Malinalli, now an immortal vampire, travels the world on her own terms. Though she still bristles at how easily the modern-day world bandies about the names “Tabasco” and “Cholula”—one the place she first met the Spaniards, the other the site of a bloody massacre carried out by Spanish forces—Castro’s heroine takes some comfort in the knowledge that she persisted where others faded away. "Sometimes the real fight is surviving to tell the tale," she reminds us, "so others can hear it." Her story may be relegated to the margins of history, but she is the only person left alive who saw Mesoamerica forced to bend the knee to its oppressors...or so she thinks. Just as Malinalli starts to believe she might have found a place to put down roots, her past comes into a screeching collision with the present. A bloodthirsty conqueror she knew all those centuries ago survived as well, and he wants revenge. In the hands of a lesser writer, the tale of Malinalli—who was a real-life figure—could have come off as a flat recitation of what little historians know about her. Horror veteran Castro has done a remarkable job here, not only of resurrecting La Malinche, but of turning her into a fully realized, three-dimensional character. Readers meet a woman who scraped by on raw ambition and steely cunning, yet bears the scars of a lifetime of repeated victimization and trauma. Although the author brings a host of other historical actors into play, Castro never wavers in her dedication to, and focus on, Malinalli and her story.
An engrossing tale of monstrous life—human and otherwise.Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780593499726
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.
In a distant future, after the Last War when the human population became endangered, a new society formed from the ashes, strictly to optimize procreation.
But not procreation between just anyone. This society, ruled by the Illum—a mysterious authoritarian group—assigns mates to select for the best traits and to breed out defects, to grow the Elite population living in the clouds. Protagonist Emeline is a stubborn and bored young woman, working her days away on the ground as a Minor Defect—one of the class of women waiting to be approved for mating with an Elite, and hoping to never be banished further from society. Emeline’s instincts are apparently to reject the rigid decorum of her society, but she spends years trying to follow the rules set out for her, or at least dissociates enough not to challenge her way of life, until one day an elusive and charming man, Hal, walks into her office to talk about art. The same day, she is approved for mating and matched with Collin, the youngest member of the Illum, in the sort of pairing that hasn’t happened in decades. Courtship with Collin is full of luxury—fancy dinners and balls in the clouds—but also lies and days of discovering secrets kept from her, while trying to keep the Elite’s rumors and malicious Press at bay. Caught between these two men, with their own agendas, and so many unanswered questions, Emeline must decide what she wants, if she can want anything at all. With a rebellion rising in secret and the repression of the Illum close at hand, she’ll find what she’s willing to lose for the ability to choose for herself. The dystopian worldbuilding is underdeveloped at best, so get swept up in discovering truth from lies quickly before it starts to fall apart in your hands.
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798217090990
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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