Empowerment-flavored brain popcorn.
Sisters unite in their battle both for their own lives and freedom for all of Viridia’s women.
Following the events in Grace and Fury (2018), newly exiled Nomi arrives at Mount Ruin to discover her polished, feminine sister, Serina, has developed into a revolutionary warrior in the coup that overthrew the prison island’s guards. With their newfound agency, the female prisoners must decide firstly what to do with their remaining guards and, ultimately, if their next step should be staying on the island or commandeering a boat either to seek asylum in Azura (personal safety) or return home (social reform, casualties guaranteed). Nomi wants to rally them to overthrow sociopathic Asa, but the women aren’t eager to trust any Viridian men they help in an uprising not to keep the oppressive, male-privileging system intact. The storylines diverge: Serina grows through newfound leadership obligations to her fellow prisoners, and Nomi looks to redeem herself and assuage her guilty conscience over her role in Asa’s schemes by working to oppose him. Now that Asa has the power he wanted, he’s let the charming facade drop. While both sisters have their romantic storylines, the male leads are mostly in support roles while the women make decisions to control their own fates, and a third main romance is between two women. While both sisters face dangers and obstacles, there are no real surprises or twists in the straightforward plot. The primary cast reads as white.
Empowerment-flavored brain popcorn. (map) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-47145-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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