Tag Archives: magical abilities

Review: The Slug Queen Chronicles by S. O. Thomas

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , ,
The Slug Queen Chronicles by S. O. Thomas

The Slug Queen Chronicles
S. O. Thomas
Published April 2, 2020

Amazon | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About The Slug Queen Chronicles

She never believed in fairies… until one set its sights on her little brother. Now, she must risk everything to get him back.

On her twelfth birthday, Cricket Kane uncovers a chilling secret–tooth fairies have stopped collecting single teeth and have resorted to kidnapping children instead. When her brother is taken, the fairy leaves a changeling and a toxic black dust in his place. The dust soon infects the rest of her family, but to her surprise, she’s immune!

With the guidance of a mysterious cat, Cricket follows the fairy to a magical land where legendary creatures are real. When Santa himself takes her under his wing, Cricket learns she’s the only one who can harness the power of the dust to rescue her brother and the other missing children. But doing so might cost her life.

Can she summon the courage and strength to save her family and herself?

Find out now in this middle-grade fantasy for fans of Nevermoor and The Land of Stories!



My Review

One of the things I like about THE SLUG QUEEN CHRONICLES is that it features a blended family. Cricket’s dad has remarried and he and Cricket’s stepmom have just had a baby. Cricket talks a little bit about that adjustment, but more from the practical side and not much in terms of deep emotional processing. I liked seeing that representation in literature.

I also really like Cricket’s character. She’s loyal, determined, and smart. I found it easy to root for her on her quest to save her brother.

The story is pretty action-oriented. Things happen quickly, new complications rising in every episode or chapter. The cast of characters is a bit large, but they’re introduced more slowly, which helps make it easier to keep track of them all.

I think readers who enjoy dark fantasy, like SHADOW MAGIC by Joshua Khan will enjoy this book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Cricket is black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
The story contains magical creatures and fairy bargains– such as trading something you want for something you need. Not all humans can sense magic or see fairies. Cricket is special in these abilities.

Violent Content
Some situations of peril. Cricket has to eat or drink gross-looking or -smelling things. Some of the creatures are scary. An old woman gets hit on the head and collapses.

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. I received a free copy of THE SLUG QUEEN CHRONICLES in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Imprison the Sky by A. C. Gaughen

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

Imprison the Sky
A. C. Gaughen
Bloomsbury YA
Published on January 22, 2019

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About Imprison the Sky
Stolen from her family as a child, Aspasia has clawed her way up the ranks of Cyrus’s black market empire to captain her own trading vessel–and she risks it all every time she uses her powerful magic to free as many women, children, and Elementae from slavery as she can.

But Cyrus is close to uncovering her secrets–not only that Aspasia is an air Elementa with the ability to sail her ship through the sky, but that she is also searching for her lost family. And if Aspasia can’t find her younger siblings before Cyrus does, she will never be able to break free.

Armed with her loyal crew full of Elementae and a new recruit who controls an intriguing power, Aspasia finds herself in the center of a brewing war that spans every inch of the ocean, and her power alone may not be enough to save her friends, family, and freedom.

My Review
The most difficult part of Imprison the Sky for me was the fact that Aspasia captured, transported, and sold slaves. I know she herself was also a slave and that she was tortured by her actions. I know she refused to take women or children as slaves. But I still had a really hard time with that part of her character.

(In a weird way, that made me more deeply examine my feelings about some historical heroes who owned slaves, too. I found it wasn’t easy to dismiss the slave-capturing part of Aspasia’s personality, and yet I’d kind of dismissed that part of history for some of the historical figures whom I’d admired. So I think it was a good thing for me to think through, because that’s not something that should be dismissed.)

I think Kairos might be my favorite part of Imprison the Sky. I was so excited to see him come on scene. He’d been one of my favorite characters from Reign the Earth. If you’ve read and remember the first book in the Elementae series, you’ll already know he’s Shalia’s brother. He made a great partner to Aspasia, someone to temper her emotional flares and ground her without trying to control her.

I didn’t hate Aspasia, either. I liked that she was so protective of her crew. The way she used her power to protect them was awesome. I liked that she tried to save as many people as she thought she could.

On the whole, I’m glad I read it. I enjoyed a lot of things about the book, and especially loved the relationships between the crew members and the slight sky pirate feel it had. Imprison the Sky was definitely a fun read.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Aspasia has had both male and female lovers before. I don’t remember a lot of physical details of the characters. One character (Kairos) is from a desert kingdom.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two girls. Aspasia references her past sexual experiences and what motivated them (curiosity, lust, etc.). One character is open about his virginity. Later in the story, two characters start spending nights together, at first just cuddling. Eventually they have sex – it’s not a hugely detailed encounter, but we know what happens.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have magical abilities, like Aspasia’s ability to control the wind. This clashes with some of the spiritual beliefs of some cultures in the story, and makes the Elementae (gift-bearers) an object of persecution and experimentation.

Violent Content
Battles between Aspasia’s crew and others – pirates, slavers, etc. Some graphic details of injuries, death, and peril.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Unblemished by Sara Ella

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Unblemished
Sara Ella
Thomas Nelson
October 11, 2016

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About Unblemished
Eliyana has always recoiled from her own reflection in the mirror. But what if that were only one Reflection—one world? What if another world existed where her blemish could become her strength?

Eliyana is used to the shadows. With a hideous birthmark covering half her face, she just hopes to graduate high school unscathed. That is, until Joshua hops a fence and changes her perspective. No one, aside from her mother, has ever treated her as normal. Maybe even beautiful. Because of Joshua, Eliyana finally begins to believe she could be loved.

But one night her mother doesn’t come home, and that’s when everything gets weird.

Now Joshua is her new, and rather reluctant, legal Guardian. Add a hooded stalker and a Central Park battle to the mix and you’ve gone from weird to otherworldly.

Eliyana soon finds herself in a world much larger and more complicated than she’s ever known. A world enslaved by a powerful and vile man. And Eliyana holds the answer to defeating him. How can an ordinary girl, a blemished girl, become a savior when she can’t even save herself?

My Review
I feel like I went into this book with a grudge. I think I’ve read too many Christian novels where Joshua is basically a Jesus character and too perfect and somehow I always find the romance in those stories to be hard to buy into.

But actually, that was a huge misconception about this book on my part. Joshua is a relatively average guy (even if he does seem pretty perfect to El). I think the best part about this book is easily the voice. It’s different than a lot of other books in that you’re in El’s point-of-view so deep that it’s like her reactions are immediate. At first I had to get used to this, but once I did, I found I really enjoyed her sort of oddball girlishness, and she’s so easy to like that even if I’d struggled with the way the writing is, I probably would have stuck with the story to the end.

I liked how the fantasy story world and the real world intersect in the book with the portals to different places and the way they connect. All of Eliyana’s life, others have protected her, and suddenly, she must make decisions for herself and find her own strength.

The romance between characters definitely took some directions I didn’t expect. I liked that Joshua isn’t perfect and that there’s way more going on there than he lets on. In some ways I’m not a huge series reader, but I’ve already got the sequel to Unblemished on stand-by and I can’t wait to find out what happens next. If you liked The Storm Siren Trilogy by Mary Weber or Tandem by Anna Jarzab, you want to add Unblemished to your reading list!

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
The characters seem pretty homogeneous culturally.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing. El learns that her mom had her when she was sixteen.

Spiritual Content
Two forces shape the world El lives in. The Verity—a force for good, which inhabits the Vessel who’s supposed to rule. The Void, a force for evil, which can inhabit someone and make them soulless, sort of bad zombie soldiers.

Each person can possess one in a series of gifts, like the ability to heal, transform, paralyze others, etc.

Violent Content
Battles between El’s team and the cruel king’s soldiers. Not a lot of gory description, but some characters die or get injured.

Drug Content
El attends a party where she sees several teens drinking.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.