Uses the legend of Chang’e, the Chinese Moon Goddess, as a jumping-off point. Xingyin, daughter of the imprisoned Chang’e, sets off on a quest to free her mother. I almost didn’t get past the beginning, in which Xingyin’s escape felt overwrought and melodramatic; however, as she bravely inserts herself into the court of the Celestial Empire, learns to be a warrior, and forges her own uncompromising way forward, I found myself really enjoying the story. The book reads like a wuxia drama, all silk and steel and smoldering glances, with the characters preoccupied with plotting and honor, and it’s such fun. Slow start, great finish. Apparently there’s a sequel but this book stands alone well.
Tag: genre-ya
This Poison Heart, by Kalynn Bayron
YA, urban (and small town rural) fantasy. Briseis Greene runs a flower shop in Brooklyn with her moms, and hides a secret: she has a magical ability with plants that she can only partially control. One day she receives news that her birth family has left her with a mysterious garden estate in the country, and she begins to uncover more than she ever could have known about her background; as she comes into her true power, threats coalesce around her. I found the pacing uneven and the events somewhat unrealistic, but I loved Briseis’ narrative voice and her relationship with her mothers (and the constant references to Get Out). Cliffhanger ending into the next book.
We Set the Dark on Fire, by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Dystopian YA fiction, nicely done in that it’s not in-your-face preachy. Daniela Vargas is one of the top graduates in an elite school that trains women for service to powerful men – but in an important role, either as his powerful social and household counterpart, or as the mother of his future children. Daniela, however, has a secret past; her documents were forged by her family, who were desperate that their child escape a future in the abused lower classes. Naturally Daniela’s secret becomes a cudgel, as forces in the rebellion force her to work with them or lose everything. I really liked how this book was executed; the dystopia was subtly done, as was Daniela’s internal conflict between clinging to privilege and risking everything. Warning: cliffhanger ending.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, by Theodora Goss
Riffs on the fact that a lot of classic monster stories involve the creation, and subsequent destruction / abandonment, of a monstrous woman. After the death of her parents, Mary Jekyll digs into her late father’s affairs and discovers not just a previously unknown sister named Diana Hyde, but other women who were brought into being by famous fictional mad scientists. The women band together to make their way in the world, helping Sherlock Holmes and Watson solve a string of murders along the way. The writing was perfectly decent, but the plot felt really more like a way to string together all these related stories, and there were so many characters that none of them felt particularly fully-realized.
A Wizard Abroad and The Wizard’s Dilemma, by Diane Duane
Catching up on the Young Wizards series; I read the first three as a tween and always meant to go back. Now that the little ones are reading them, I’m joining in! #4, A Wizard Abroad, sends Nita to Ireland. The book gushes a bit over how magical everything is in the Emerald Isle, but is still a fun ride. #5, A Wizard’s Dilemma, has a much more sober theme: when Nita’s mother falls ill with cancer, she finds herself looking to her wizardry for a cure.
Bitter, by Akwaeke Emezi
Prequel to the amazing novel Pet, but unfortunately I think it’s not as strong or as focused. Narrator Bitter has survived trauma to find solace in art, but finds it hard to justify being an artist in a world full of injustice, corporate greed, and police brutality, especially when practically all of her friends have joined an implausibly well-organized resistance movement in which teens demonstrate against societal racism. Much of the book is spent on Bitter’s self-doubt; it makes the otherworldly spirits and fast-paced action that dominate the last quarter of the book seem jarring. Lots of really piercing commentary on social injustice and human nature, but unfortunately the book doesn’t come together smoothly for me.
More than This, by Patrick Ness
The book begins when Seth is drowning in the sea. Fighting against the waves, battered against the rocks, he hits his head and dies. And then he wakes up, far from the ocean, at what he belatedly realizes is a version of his childhood home. The book is purposefully confusing at first – Is this the afterlife? Is it a simulation? A story? But as Seth feels his way through this newly strange environment, beset by occasional vivid flashbacks to his past, we start to form a theory of what happened to create the world that he’s in now. Love the side characters that appear in Seth’s new present, especially the character of Tomasz who combines snarky insight with vulnerability. It’s very existentialist for a YA novel, thoughtful while still action-packed, and I quite liked it by the end.
Legendborn, by Tracy Deonn
When E mentioned that she was reading this book, she called it a “big standard American YA fantasy with racism in North Carolina layered in,” which is a perfect summary. It’s got Cassandra Clare levels of ridiculously attractive teenagers, complex secret magical societies going back centuries, evil monsters to fight, etc, etc. The special sauce in this one is definitely the viewpoint of the Black narrator, who has to navigate racism in the real world alongside the magical one, and whose link to the magical world is intertwined with the race trauma of the country’s history. Narrator Bree, at sixteen, gets admitted into an early college program at UNC Chapel Hill, but finds herself embroiled in an ongoing magical conflict while still having to deal with issues on the home front. Deonn does an amazing job capturing the feeling of being a member of a visible minority going into a snooty, exclusively white environment, where you are almost certainly not welcome, but holding your head up anyway. And I absolutely loved how the plot defiantly made a space for Black people inside the extremely white background of Arthurian legend. Even the developing love triangle doesn’t look like it’ll be too annoying (and the love triangle is a standard building block of the Arthur myth, after all). Very promising start; the sequel is supposed to come out in a couple of months and I will definitely be getting in line.
Aru Shah and the End of Time, by Roshani Chokshi
I finally gave into the kid’s wishes and read one of his books, and this is SO charming. It’s basically Percy Jackson, except it’s based off of Hindu mythology. Aru Shah is an insecure, mouthy teen, constantly exaggerating (or outright lying) to put herself in the best light, and I liked how this character note was presented both as a weakness and a strength. Aru meets another girl named Mini, and the two discover that they are both Pandavas reborn, needed to defeat the demon that Aru accidentally awakened while trying to impress her friends. The writing is a bit precious but the jokes are genuinely funny; it works for the middle grade level, keeping the tone casual even as the themes get a little heavy.
Beasts of Prey, by Ayana Gray
A little too YA in execution and tone, but I liked the concept: a girl with mysterious talents and a boy who longs to be a warrior come together in a hunt for a monster that is terrorizing their city. Of course nothing is as simple as it seems and their conflicting loyalties and goals begin to complicate their wary relationship. I liked the monsters drawn from pan-African folktale and the relationship between the kids founded on mutual respect, and some of the plot twists actually took me by surprise… but the writing and dialogue were a little too simplistic for me; don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel despite the dramatic cliffhanger ending.