Category Archives: Fantasy

Review: Court of Miracles by Kester Grant

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,
Court of Miracles by Kester Grant

Court of Miracles
Kester Grant
Random House Children’s
Published June 2, 2020

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About Court of Miracles

Les Misérables meets Six of Crows in this page-turning adventure as a young thief finds herself going head to head with leaders of Paris’s criminal underground in the wake of the French Revolution.

In the violent urban jungle of an alternate 1828 Paris, the French Revolution has failed and the city is divided between merciless royalty and nine underworld criminal guilds, known as the Court of Miracles. Eponine (Nina) Thénardier is a talented cat burglar and member of the Thieves Guild. Nina’s life is midnight robberies, avoiding her father’s fists, and watching over her naïve adopted sister, Cosette (Ettie). When Ettie attracts the eye of the Tiger–the ruthless lord of the Guild of Flesh–Nina is caught in a desperate race to keep the younger girl safe. Her vow takes her from the city’s dark underbelly to the glittering court of Louis XVII. And it also forces Nina to make a terrible choice–protect Ettie and set off a brutal war between the guilds, or forever lose her sister to the Tiger.

My Review

I feel like retelling LES MISÉRABLES is a pretty tall undertaking. I’ll admit that I felt skeptical going into COURT OF MIRACLES. Telling the story– or reframing the story– from Eponine’s (in the story she’s known as Nina) point-of-view was a really cool choice. She’s such a compelling character in the musical (I haven’t read the book, so I’m flying a bit blind there.). I loved the idea of sticking with her throughout the story.

COURT OF MIRACLES captures that streetwise, vulnerable but clever and smart girl from the original story. I liked that the story centers around sisterhood, too, first with Nina’s biological sister and then her adopted sister, Cosette.

Also– I love that we have a female Javert! I thought that was super clever and gives a lot of interesting twists to her motives and a need to prove herself as a women in a job that’s dominated by men. I’m curious where that goes.

One of the biggest things that felt missing to me in the book, though, are the echoes of the morality that seems to fill the original story. There’s no one honorable– even Jean Valjean only helps Nina because he owes her a debt. Everyone is out for themselves. And given that most of the characters are thieves, that’s not shocking. I just felt like there was a core of the original story that didn’t carry over.

I think it’s there a little bit in the way Nina remains loyal to her sisters, despite the costs or what’s convenient. She values them and can’t turn her back on them even when it might save her.

On the whole, COURT OF MIRACLES delivers a gritty cast of characters inspired by LES MIS and reminding readers of the power of sisterhood, loyalty, and courage.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Nina and her sister have olive-toned skin which they inherited from their mother.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to torture and cannibalism. Members of each guild receive some kind of brand or scar that marks them as a guild member. One guild master enslaves girls for prostitution, keeping them drugged and addicted to drugs to control them.

Battles and situations of peril with some graphic descriptions.

Drug Content
References to drinking wine socially. Scenes show girls addicted to and high on opiates.

Note: I received a free copy of THE COURT OF MIRACLES in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe #2)
Neal Shusterman
Simon & Schuster
Published January 9, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Thunderhead

Rowan has gone rogue, and has taken it upon himself to put the Scythedom through a trial by fire. Literally. In the year since Winter Conclave, he has gone off-grid, and has been striking out against corrupt scythes—not only in MidMerica, but across the entire continent. He is a dark folk hero now—“Scythe Lucifer”—a vigilante taking down corrupt scythes in flames.

Citra, now a junior scythe under Scythe Curie, sees the corruption and wants to help change it from the inside out, but is thwarted at every turn, and threatened by the “new order” scythes. Realizing she cannot do this alone—or even with the help of Scythe Curie and Faraday, she does the unthinkable, and risks being “deadish” so she can communicate with the Thunderhead—the only being on earth wise enough to solve the dire problems of a perfect world. But will it help solve those problems, or simply watch as perfection goes into decline?

My Review

Okay, let me review this backwards and say that the ending of this book hit me like a kick to the guts. (Does that need a spoiler warning? I don’t know. I feel like we can expect the ending of a second book in a trilogy to have a big issue because it sets up the final book and makes us desperate to read it?)

Anyway, now, days later, I’m kind of still reeling. I need gentle books for a while. Haha.

I think one of my favorite things about this series so far is the way the story pushes Scythe Anastasia (Citra) and Rowan apart and yet their feelings pull them together. They each have incredible strength and big things to contribute. I love that. What I’m not sure about yet is whether together, they’re more than the sum of their parts. I suspect that THE TOLL will address that pretty well.

As THUNDERHEAD progressed, I felt like I could see all the threads of the story pulling toward something big. At first the points-of-view all seem very separate– Citra, Rowan, and Grayson all seem to be individual characters with their own goals and motivations, intersecting at times but moving in totally different directions.

There are always hints at a bigger plot happening. And a greater evil emerging. I’m excited to see how all the threads weave together in the third book. Eventually. Once I get my insides sorted out and feel ready to face the end of the series. 🙂

As with Shusterman’s other books, this one has some heavy/dark themes. I think it’s balanced by incredible characters with deep moral values. Good guys committed to remarkable good in a world of others who are indifferent at best. True evil at worst.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
I don’t remember race details. It may be that most central characters are white? I’m not sure. I’ll try to revisit the book and update this.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex.

Spiritual Content
A cult called Tonists oppose the Thunderhead and Scythes.

Violent Content
Obviously descriptions of death where Scythes “glean” people. Some try to do this in humane ways while others revel in the violence and power of it. In one section, a character visits clubs in which patrons are permitted to bully or attack workers as part of extreme role playing.

One scythe decapitates and burns his victims after they’ve been killed. Some descriptions of and descriptions leading up to violent deaths.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: The Bone Thief by Breeana Shields

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18

The Bone Thief (The Bone Charmer #2)
Breeana Shields
Page Street Kids
Published May 26, 2020

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About The Bone Thief

A deft exploration of the weight of grief and cost of revenge, Breeana Shields’s Bone Charmer duology reaches its spine-tingling conclusion in this high-octane fantasy-thriller.

Saskia returns to Ivory Hall to train in bone magic, determined to stop Latham from gaining the power of all three Sights—past, present, and future. But danger lurks within the fortress’s marrow. Trials are underway for the apprentices, and the tasks feel specifically engineered to torment Saskia, which is exactly what Latham wants.

As she grows increasingly more suspicious, her thirst for revenge becomes all-consuming. Together with the friends she can trust and the boy she loved in another lifetime, Saskia traces clues from Latham’s past to determine what he’ll do next. Their search leads them across Kastelia and brings them to a workshop housing a vast collection of horrors, including the bones Latham stole from Gran, and the knowledge that the future isn’t all that’s in jeopardy—but the past as well.

My Review

I have lots of feelings about this book. First, I loved the characters. Saskia and her friends are all great, and I loved following their stories. The choices that Saskia has to make were heartbreaking and I felt myself holding my breath so many times as she wrestled with which path to take and what the right thing truly was.

I’m a latecomer to this duology– I haven’t read the first book. I do this fairly often, and I don’t mind it. Occasionally the story is such that you really need to read the first book first. I could tell with THE BONE THIEF that there were references to things from the first book, but for the most part, I didn’t have trouble following the story or understanding what was happening. I think I’d have had a more emotional connection with Saskia’s memories if I’d read the first book, though. I felt deeply connected with her in this book, so I didn’t feel the loss as I read.

The one thing that I found challenging for me was that most of the bone magic centers around human bones. Who had possession of them and how they were used was really important. Saskia carries one of her grandmother’s bones with her through the story and is searching for her mother’s bones. It’s all very natural within the story world, but if I’m totally honest, every time something came up about using human bones for things, I felt my body physically recoil from the idea. I just found some of the traditions and magic rules in the story world to be really creepy and struggled to get past that. It’s totally a personal preference and not a reflection on the writing or storytelling, both of which I really enjoyed.

It’s definitely dark fantasy– I think fans of SHADOW MAGIC by Joshua Khan will really enjoy THE BONE THIEF.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
I don’t remember any prominent racial details.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Lots of magic involving the use of human bones, including their use to predict the future or access private memories of the past.

Violent Content
References to and brief scenes involving torture. At one point, someone has to break Saskia’s arm to complete a puzzle. Situations of peril. Magic battles to the death.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of THE BONE THIEF in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: The Elephant’s Girl by Celesta Rimington

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Magical Realism, Middle Grade 8-12, , , ,

The Elephant’s Girl
Celesta Rimington
Crown Books for Young Readers
Published May 19, 2020

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About The Elephant’s Girl

An elephant never forgets…but Lexington Willow can’t remember her past. When she was a toddler, a tornado swept her away from everyone and everything she knew and landed her near an enclosure in a Nebraska zoo, where an elephant named Nyah protected her from the storm. With no trace of her family, Lex grew up at the zoo with her foster father, Roger; her best friend, Fisher; and the wind whispering in her ear.

Now that she’s twelve, Lex is finally old enough to help with the elephants. But during their first training session, Nyah sends her a telepathic image of the woods outside the zoo. Despite the wind’s protests, Lex decides to investigate Nyah’s message and gets wrapped up in an adventure involving ghosts, lost treasure, and a puzzle that might be the key to finding her family. Can Lex summon the courage to hunt for who she really is–and why the tornado brought her here all those years ago?

My Review

I think magical realism is one of the toughest genres to write well, because there’s always the risk that instead of seeing magic, a reader will see something else– hallucinations? Inconsistent plot or world?

Lex has a special relationship with the elephant Nyah, who protected her after the tornado left her at the zoo. Nyah sends her messages– pictures in her mind– and Lex tries to send pictures back.

Ever since the tornado, Lex has been able to hear the wind speaking to her, too. This was the most difficult element in the story for me to get into. I liked that it gave voice to Lex’s fears, making them a sort of personified antagonist. I wondered if it diluted the power of Nyah being able to speak to her, though.

I loved Lex’s relationship with Roger and her best friend, Fisher– all of her zoo family, really, but especially those two. As Lex tries to help Nyah find her family, it makes her examine her feelings about living with Roger at the zoo, too. He’s patient and clearly loves her, though he never pushes her to accept him as family. She also learns a lot through her friendship with Fisher, who is really different than she is. He’s outgoing and loves baseball. She learns how to be a good friend to him even when it means stepping out of her comfort zone or doing things for him.

On the whole, I thought this book was a really sweet story about found families. I liked the characters and the relationships between them. If you liked FLORA & ULYSSES by Kate DiCamillo, you’ll want to check out THE ELEPHANT’S GIRL.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Fisher’s grandmother is from Thailand.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Lex meets a ghost and promises to help her solve a mystery so she can move on.

Violent Content
Situation of peril and some descriptions of a tornado.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of THE ELEPHANT’S GIRL in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

Stoneheart (Stoneheart Trilogy #1)
Charlie Fletcher
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published May 1, 2007

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Stoneheart

A city has many lives and layers. London has more than most. Not all the layers are underground, and not all the lives belong to the living.

Twelve-year-old George Chapman is about to find this out the hard way. When, in a tiny act of rebellion, George breaks the head from a stone dragon outside the Natural History Museum, he awakes an ancient power. This power has been dormant for centuries but the results are instant and terrifying: A stone Pterodactyl unpeels from the wall and starts chasing George. He runs for his life but it seems that no one can see what he’s running from. No one, except Edie, who is also trapped in this strange world.

And this is just the beginning as the statues of London awake
This is a story of statues coming to life; of a struggle between those with souls and those without; of how one boy who has been emotionally abandoned manages to find hope.

My Review

I listened to this story as an audiobook read by Jim Dale, and I really, really needed this book right now. I started listening to it because I couldn’t sleep, and I think Dale’s voice is particularly soothing.

At first, I kept having to listen to the same chapters over and over because I’d fall asleep. But once I got hooked on the story, I started finding time to listen to it during the day, even if it was just for ten minutes while I folded laundry or started making dinner.

I found George to be a really sympathetic character (totally reminded me of like, every downtrodden, nerdy hero from 90s kids’ movies) and Edie even more lovable. I wish there had been more clarity about her background, but I feel like she’s such a big character in the present action in the story that I almost didn’t have time to miss the backstory details.

Also, the Gunner. I mean. Has there ever been a STATUE that made such an amazing character? I want him on my team forever. I felt like there were other more minor characters– the Clocker and Dictionary for instance– that I also thought were just great.

STONEHEART is a bit of a weird book. It definitely takes some willing-suspension-of-disbelief, but I both needed and really enjoyed the escape from reality for a bit while I read this one.

I think fans of THE STORM KEEPER’S ISLAND would enjoy the clever and unique story world of STONEHEART.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
Main characters are white and from the UK.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used a couple of times.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Statues come alive. Some monsters or people live under curses. A curse can only be broken by following a certain ritual.

Violent Content
Some situations of peril and frightening images, including reference to a man trying to stab a child, a man drowning a child, a monster who intends to eat a child.

Drug Content
The children hide out at a bar that’s closed.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: The Claires by C. L. Gaber

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, ,

The Claires (An Ascenders Novel)
C. L. Gaber
Big Picture Media, Inc
Published January 14, 2020

Amazon | Goodreads

About The Claires

Four beautiful girls. Quadruplets. They are not identical.
But each is named Claire.
Claire V is Clairvoyant—clear seeing with visions of the future.
Claire S is Clairsentient—clear feeling as she embraces another’s pain.
Claire A is Clairaudient—clear hearing to tap into the spirit world.
Claire C is Claircognizant—clear knowing with 100% accuracy.

Born in 1911, they first died together in 1928 at age seventeen. Two months later, they were reborn. And reborn. THE CLAIRES only live to seventeen and then they’re violently murdered. Somewhere in the world, a woman finds out she’s pregnant with quads. The Claires return to a new family as they try to break a curse that guarantees they die young.

It’s current-day Los Angeles, and once again, their seventeenth birthday is looming. Can they save themselves, clean up the streets in the name of penance, and crash their own prom?

The Claires is the first novel spin-off of the best-selling Ascenders Book Saga. Also available in paperback starting on January 14, 2020.

My Review

The thing that really drew me to this story was the idea that it’s about four sisters who are all under a curse that they’re trying to break before they turn 17 and are destined to die. It’s got great stakes and I’m a huge fan of sisterhood stories.

The writing style is a little unusual. Reading it, I felt sometimes like I was looking through a camera that kept refocusing and refocusing, zooming in and out so that I felt yanked around a little bit trying to follow what was happening. There’s an element of that that I liked– it created kind of a unique sort of conversational voice. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was taken down a notch or two.

I also felt like all of the sisters’ characters were basically the same. They have these super advanced powers and have basically lived for 200 years, so they kind of come off as superior and arrogant. Like normal mortals just aren’t worth their time, really. I could see how living so long would definitely make someone feel jaded– about high school especially! ha!– but sometimes it kept me from really investing in the characters.

Around the three-quarters mark, it seemed like the girls softened a little bit. I liked that. Their brother also has chapters and sections from his point-of-view, and I thought he was a lot more of a sympathetic character, but I didn’t really see how his story fit in with the girls.

I thought the way the book was formatted was really interesting, too. It’s broken into sections and each section has chapters and scenes in it, usually from one character’s point-of-view. Sometimes it changed narrators in the middle of a section though, which was a little confusing, since it felt out of sync with the rest of the book.

I kind of also got hung up on the fact that in a scene set in 1925, one of the girls gets excited about reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s latest book, THE GRAPES OF WRATH. I was confused because THE GRAPES OF WRATH is written by John Steinbeck and didn’t come out until 1939. I’m guessing the author meant THE GREAT GATSBY, which is by Fitzgerald and came out in 1925? It’s not a big thing, but it did seem really odd.

Anyway, on the whole, I think I was looking for a book experience more like Blue and her mother and their housemates in THE RAVEN BOYS with that close female bond and otherworldly adventure. While THE CLAIRES is a very different kind of story, it’s got that gritty dark feel to it that might appeal to fans of HOUSE OF NIGHT series by Kristin Cast and P. C. Cast.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 18 up.

Representation
Major characters are white. One of the sisters is in love with another girl.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used regularly throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some brief but graphic descriptions of sex. Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between girl and ghosts. Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
Lots of descriptions of predicting the future or knowing things through psychic means. Some descriptions of rituals once thought to bind witches. Descriptions of witches using power to harm others.

Violent Content
Several scenes show or reference graphic murders.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE CLAIRES in exchange for my honest review.