Home » Posts tagged "dark fantasy" (Page 5)

Book Review: Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2020

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374313357

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com) 

 

 

In this YA dark fantasy, Cadence is a corporeal mage whose magic comes through singing. While she comes from poverty, she is now the principal singer for the queen. Queen Elene, also originally a commoner, overthrew the previous monarchy and has forced the nobility to live in fear. Once a year they must all attend a Performing where the principal singer sings a song intended to cause pain and fear in the nobility. This is Cadence’s first year and when she sees the extraordinary pain her song is causing, she stops singing. Cadence’s disobedience leads to Ren, the queen’s torturer, murdering her dog. In return, Cadence has a tantrum that leads to the death of six people, and refuses to cooperate with the queen.

 

 

The scene of Cadence’s Performing is extremely dark and disturbing, and while we get some backstory on Elene that makes her behavior understandable, Ren and Elene’s cruelty was hard to handle.

 

 

Cadence’s mage training and social class separated her from her closest friend, Remi, who is forced to attend the performance. Remi is later arrested for going to the hospital, which is illegal for nobles, and her father is seized for treason. Elene tells Remi that if she can gain Cadence’s cooperation, she and her father can move to better quarters. Cadence is reluctant but doesn’t want Remi hurt. Despite Cadence’s monstrous actions and Remi’s position as prisoner, the two are falling in love. But Elene’s oppressive reign is about to fall to rebels, and Cadence is the one who has to decide how she will use her voice.

 

 

I like magic systems that involve music, but the magic system can’t stand alone. The character of the mage also matters. This year I have also read the YA fantasy Edgewood, which, while very different in its world building and overall plot, also has a main character who discovers she is a song mage, and she claims her agency even in the face of a cruel and capricious ruler. Cadence is passive, complicit, and easily provoked, so even though I felt sympathy for her situation, I couldn’t really cheer her on. This is supposed to be a sapphic romance inspired by Phantom of the Opera, but outside the mask wearing and the singing I didn’t see much of a connection to Phantom, and while Cadence and Remi did develop a romantic relationship, I don’t see how it could have a happy ending.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 2, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: The Strange Nighttime Journey of Father Stephen Marlowe by Ambrose Stolliker

 

The Strange Nighttime Journey of Father Stephen Marlowe by Ambrose Stolliker

 

Muddy Paws Press, 2022

 

ISBN: 9788986056906

 

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition (Amazon.com)

 

The basic plot device is one readers have seen before: a preacher who has lost his faith goes on a journey and faces hardships while attempting to regain his spirituality.  Why read this one?  It’s a quick-paced story that keeps the reader engaged, and shows good imagination.  Describing it as “strange” doesn’t do justice to Father Marlowe’s journey: some parts of it are straight off the clouds in Cuckoo Land.  It’s the creativity that pushes the book to success, and it’s got plenty of it.

 

Father Marlowe has good reason for his lack of faith: his brother (also a priest) killed himself, and Marlowe feels somewhat responsible.  As the book explains later, he may have some justification for feeling that way.

 

Father Marlowe goes to talk to a priest who specializes in faithless preachers, and that’s where his journey into strangeness starts.  The only literary equivalent for his odyssey that comes to mind is Alice in Wonderland, although Father Marlowe falls through a floor instead of down a rabbit-hole.  No world of smoking caterpillars and vanishing cats for the Father Marlowe, though: he winds up in the ocean of the Well of Lost Souls and must journey to the Black Fortress That Sees, in the land of A’ch’Ba’Hu.  (everybody got all that?)  His journey for faith, and his brother’s soul, takes him across all types of terrain, through many hardships, and has quite the collection of eclectic characters: some helpful, some not.  Does he succeed?  Maybe, maybe not… you’ll have to read it to find out.

 

This is written well enough that it’s a page-flipper. It’s got good pacing, and makes you feel for the character.  By partway through, you’ll be wondering how much poor Father Marlowe can handle before he throws in the cassock.  He’s a sympathetic enough character to get the readers on his side.

 

But the real star of the story is the journey itself, and what the Land of Lost Souls holds for the intrepid priest.  Flying boats captained by midgets with wings, demons that have full human bodies as feet, and a really weird take on Charon the boatman, among other things.  The journey becomes a little more “normal” (relatively speaking) towards the end, but it’s engrossing enough to keep the reader zipping through it.

 

There’s also a little hook at the end that leaves room for a sequel, and based on this book, most readers would want to continue the Nighttime Journey.   The only area that maybe could have used a bit more bulk were the flashback sections about Father Marlowe and his brother growing up.  There are enough of them to explain the story, but more would have been nice.  They were engrossing parts, and it felt like there was plenty more narrative to be mined in that section.

 

Bottom line, The Nighttime Journey is a well-written book that scores high on the creativity scale.  Most readers should enjoy this one, regardless of their feelings on theology.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on October 13, 2022 by , 1 comment

Book List: Get Ready for Black Children’s Book Week!

Black children's book week logo

 

February 27-March 5 will be the first celebration of Black Children’s Book Week, which extends Black History Month into March.

Black Children’s Book Week is a global celebration of Black children and the people who ensure Black children are represented in books and other children’s media. While the week is administered by Black Baby Books, events are hosted by both the Black Children’s Book Week Committee, and celebrants throughout the world!

Read Across America Day is also during the first week of March, so look for that week to be a huge celebration of children reading!  To get you started, here’s a short list of some really cool scary books to share with kids next week,  or really any time!

 

cover art for Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

Amari and the Night Brothers  by B.B. Alston  (Bookshop.org)

Thirteen-year-old Amari Peters, on a mission to find her missing older brother,  mysteriously receives a scholarship to the training camp for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, which has the mission of keeping supernatural creatures secret while also protecting humans. Amari navigates both the supernatural and social obstacles she encounters with her street-smarts, resourcefulness, and resilience.  Read the full review here.

 

 

 

 

cover art for The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown

The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown (Bookshop.org)

India Hill Brown joins Mary Downing Hahn as a true storyteller of the middle-grade ghost tale. Iris discovers an abandoned cemetery in a wooded area near her neighborhood. Soon she is having nightmares and is drawn back to the cemetery by the ghost of Avery Moore, a girl buried there. She and her friend Daniel discover it is a Black cemetery, dating back to when Black and white people were segregated even after death. Although they bring it to their town’s attention successfully, Avery won’t be satisfied until she has Iris as a “forever friend”. While there are many similarities to Hahn’s Wait Till Helen Comes,  Brown takes the story to a new and more complex level that deals with racism, segregation, and student activism among the scares.

 

 

 

The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack, illustrated by Brian Pinkney. (Bookshop.org)

These stories have the eerie feeling of truth to them, possibly because of McKissack’s introduction, where she describes listening to the stories the adults around her told when she was a child. This is a Caldecott Award winner, and also a Coretta Scott King award winner, but beyond that, it’s just really good storytelling, made even better by the dramatic illustrations. This is one of the books that you really need to hold in your hands and see the artwork complementing the story across a double page spread, to truly appreciate. Don’t let the award for children’s book illustration fool you: this book is often used with and appreciated by middle school aged kids and older.

Everyone talks about how seminal Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is, but The Dark-Thirty is just as essential.

 

cover art for Root Magic by Eden Royce

Root Magic by Eden Royce (Bookshop.org)

After Jezzie’s grandmother, a root worker, dies, her grandfather decides to teach her the basics of root magic, for purposes of protection, and she starts to develop supernatural powers. Her “witchiness” is causing her problems at school, though, and a racist police officer who knows her family are root workers is harassing them. Root Magic takes place around the time of the Kennedy assassination, during the time of Jim Crow. Eden Royce has written an excellent Southern Gothic novel with vivid description and plenty of scares about the traditions of the little-known Gullah-Geechee people. Read our full review here.

 

 

Posted on February 20, 2022 by , Reply
First « 34567 » Last