I appreciated the insight into an area of the world that I have not read from much before, the area of the former Soviet state of Georgia, a neighbor to my own Armenia. In the story, the main character returns to Georgia from England after living majority of his life settled there after his father was able to get the narrator and his brother out of Georgia. Everything did not go as they would’ve hoped since the father was unable to bring his wife, the children’s mother, out of Georgia and spent a large part of his life in England trying to work as much as possible to save up money to bring her over. At some point when the narrator and his brother are adults, the father returns to Georgia and disappears, leading the brother to go back and search for the father, and when he falls out of contact, the narrator ends up in Georgia as well looking for his brother and his father. Throughout the narrative, the narrator is dealing with his traumatic memories from childhood brought back by his return as well as danger from the current government, which seems to be trying to hunt down his father for attempted murder. Most of this narrative kept me engaged as I learned more about this family, the complicated history that they have. Towards the end, however, when the narrative becomes more like a thriller, the author lost me a little. It was hard to stay engaged as the final chapters unfolded, which is unfortunate because the ending often colors our opinion of the narrative.
I’m glad that I finally got around to reading this YA urban fantasy. The author built an intriguing world that the reader learns about as the action unfold at a break neck pace from the start. The story opens with the main character, returning to see her sister after spending a year in a magical school/world loosely connected to our world, something she had no idea existed until the tragic death of her mother the year prior. It was then that she discovered that her totally absent father actually belonged to this magical race and she needed to get training to hold her magic. That initial premise gets blown out of the water right at the start, leaving the narrator picking up pieces and trying to figure out how to keep her sister alive in an ever-changing world. The magical world also functions as an allegory of colonialism in a straightforward yet nuanced way. This book ends with the cover being blown off of the big secret of the bad guy, so I look forward to seeing how this world will be dismantled and hopefully set to rights in the conclusion to the duology.
I don’t know how to explain it, but something about this particular narrative engaged me more than the numerous other YA Asian fantasies that I have read over recent years. This book uses a lot of similar tropes, characterization, and plot beats, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. On an objective skill level, I would rate this book a 3 to 3 1/2 stars but on an enjoyment level, I bumped that rating up to 4.25 stars. I’m always thankful when I come across stories that have that special factor whether inherent in the narrative itself or simply in the timing in which I read it that contribute to higher enjoyment.
For someone who avidly read Redwall books as a middle schooler and also got quite heavily into mystery authors like Mary Higgins Clark, this book hit the spot. Out of the three books by Tchaikovsky that I have read, this one is my favorite. I loved the slightly dystopian feeling of this world that has gone full into green tech, so much so that they have devised technology to enhance different sorts of animals to do all the messy work out of sight for the humans. It seemed like Tchaikovsky had a fun time crafting these characters and the plot, if he chose to write more in this world, I would definitely pick it up.
Knowing my track record with Kelly Andrews’ books, I should have just set this one aside and chosen not to read it, even if it shows up on the Goodreads Choice Awards YA fantasy list in the fall. I will say that I appreciated this narrative much more than the first that I read from her, but that doesn’t actually say much. If you’re going to have romance in your book, can we please get rid of the Insta-lust. I think that Andrews is trying to set up the potential of a love triangle in this duology but neither one of the so-called romances really works. Additionally, the main character reads like a completely different person in the male protagonist point of view. Also, my personal taste do not include any romantic inclinations with vampires and their bites, which is something that Andrews leaned into heavily in this book. I will definitely not read the conclusion to this duology.
I loved this book. I also love the fact that my enjoyment far exceeded my expectations. I have read from Arden before and had a decent time which led my expectations of her writing to be one of fairly average interest not necessarily something that I would seek out. This book combined a lot of the things that I really enjoy like history, political intrigue, and fantasy. I really appreciate how Arden took the real life figure of Anne of Brittany and placed her in a believable historical world that also had connections to fantasy. A lot of of the things that I really enjoyed about this book are not necessarily things that would attract most readers, but they were right up my alley.
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