Compelling characters and worldbuilding are let down by an unengaging plot.
Secrets abound and elves invade in this multiperspective fantasy.
Readers are welcomed into the corridors of Four Halls castle through four first-person, present perspectives. There’s tenacious Thelia, her eyes set on the crown; quick-witted Parsifal, whose facial disfigurement is ridiculed; Bayled, the king’s ward and heir; and Sapphire, a nonbinary elf who overtakes Four Halls along with an elite elven crew. Though these elves arrive to prevent a dangerous overflow of Magic, their ruthless methods petrify the humans and shock Sapphire, who expected the invasion to be nonviolent. As conditions worsen for the humans, Thelia, Parsifal, and Bayled work to overthrow the elves, with Sapphire showing signs of going turncoat as they develop affection for their captives. The narrative’s strength lies in its strong-willed characters and deeply developed world, but these don’t make up for a slow-moving plot, unconvincing emotional beats, and a lack of agency among protagonists. While the split perspectives initially create intrigue by letting readers in on secrets and lies, later they lead to duplicated information reveals and contribute to the story’s slow pace. Life-threatening situations and complicated romantic entanglements receive equal attention; an explicit sex scene between cousins will likely take readers by surprise, though a blooming polyamorous relationship is a refreshing addition. Protagonists are diverse in skin color, sexuality, and gender.
Compelling characters and worldbuilding are let down by an unengaging plot. (map) (Fantasy. 16-18)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5124-2997-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing.
For the second time in her life, Leo must choose between her family and true love.
Nineteen-year-old Princess Leonie Kolburg’s royal family is bankrupt. In order to salvage the fortune they accrued before humans fled the frozen Earth 170 years ago, Leonie’s father is forcing her to participate in the Valg Season, an elaborate set of matchmaking events held to facilitate the marriages of rich and royal teens. Leo grudgingly joins in even though she has other ideas: She’s invented a water filtration system that, if patented, could provide a steady income—that is if Leo’s calculating Aunt Freja, the Captain of the ship hosting the festivities, stops blocking her at every turn. Just as Leo is about to give up hope, her long-lost love, Elliot, suddenly appears onboard three years after Leo’s family forced her to break off their engagement. Donne (Brightly Burning, 2018) returns to space, this time examining the fascinatingly twisted world of the rich and famous. Leo and her peers are nuanced, deeply felt, and diverse in terms of sexuality but not race, which may be a function of the realities of wealth and power. The plot is fast paced although somewhat uneven: Most of the action resolves in the last quarter of the book, which makes the resolutions to drawn-out conflicts feel rushed.
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing. (Science fiction. 16-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-94894-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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