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Book Review: The Last Huntress (Mirror Realm Series, Book 1) by Lenore Borja

The Last Huntress (Mirror Realm Series Book 1) by Lenore Borja

Spark Press, Nov. 2022

ISBN-13: 978-1684631735

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

The Last Huntress is a young adult fantasy/adventure with romantic underpinnings, clearly targeted towards  junior high and high school girls.  That doesn’t mean adults can’t read and enjoy the book: I’m a 48 year old man and found plenty here to like!

 

Alice, Hadley, Olivia, and Soxie are four high school girls with the power to enter the Mirror Realm, a sort of ‘between’ plane of existence that contains thousands of portals to locations all over the earth.  Their task as Huntresses is to destroy the demons from another realm that cross over to Earth to wreak havoc, using the Mirror Realm as a gateway.  That’s the bare-bones plot.  There’s actually a good deal more, and it ties into Greek mythology through Hades, Persephone, and the Furies, among others.  In the interest of not spoiling the plot, that’s as much as this review will cover.

 

The four Huntresses are the engine that provides the go-juice for the book; their interactions with each other are the best part.  The author nails it when portraying somewhat outcast, powerful high school girls, right down to their mannerisms and dialogue.  I’ve got a decade of experience teaching high school girls, and Borje hits it perfectly.  She knows how to write for this age set (not easy for adults) and the young adult crowd will find this easily relatable.  The four of them are a smart, rambunctious bunch that knows how to get tough when needed.  Whether they are falling through a mirror and crash-landing in a restaurant, or stealthily breaking into a police station for a raid, you’ll love the exploits of the four.

 

As for pacing and interest level, it is good throughout, with some notable high points.  One of the best is the three girls introducing Alice to the Mirror Realm. Their gravity-defying travels through the mirror halls are very well done.  The section towards the end of the book involving Hades is another standout section.  The rest of the book maintains a consistent level of interest and excitement, enough to keep the pages flipping.  The romance angle between Alice and Colin is there but thankfully, it’s not the overriding book focus, it’s just another color on the painting.  The book is more about ashing demons and saving the world, but there is enough of the true love/soulmate stuff to keep  young readers swooning.  Older readers will probably just chuckle and keep reading.

 

The only minor flaw is that the plot gets convoluted at times.  With the various prophecies and deals made by the Greek gods in the book, it can get confusing.  While readers who need everything to make sense might get frustrated, it’s best to just take it at face value and enjoy the story, since it is a good one.   

 

Bottom line…young girls will love it and learn a thing or two about Greek mythology.  Adults will likely enjoy reading this also, enough to generate interest for the next book in the series when it comes out. Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on December 7, 2022 by , Reply

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: Dispossessed by Piper Mejia

Cover image for Dispossessed by Piper Mejia

Dispossessed by Piper Mejia

IFWG Publishing Australia (2021)

ISBN: 978-1-925956-83-2

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

 

Dispossessed is a character-driven debut YA novel from New Zealand author Piper Mejia.

With unusual traits and a rapidly changing physical presence, sixteen-year–old foster child Slate is a perpetual loner who is used to rejection. When Malice, a woman claiming to be from social services, picks him up to take him to another home he isn’t surprised. But when she reveals she is taking him to his grandfather in New Zealand, he is introduced to a band of strangers living a nomadic lifestyle, and possibilities for a life he never imagined. There Slate finds a diverse group of people with unique traits and surprising abilities: people who are supposedly his kin.

Like Slate, no one understands Warnner, an institutionalized boy with a history of abandonment. When Warnner finds the community Slate has recently joined, he is intrigued and drawn to the people running it, because of the uncanny traits they appear to share with him. Unlike Slate’s restless distrust, Warnner’s interest in joining is almost immediate, and conflict brews between the two. The community’s world and way of life is soon pitted against a group of fanatics out to hunt, violate, and destroy them, forcing rivalries into the background as tense and tentative cooperation among the dispossessed becomes required for the community’s survival.

At times poignant, this tale is driven by rich cast of characters and a strong sense of place.  Mejia centers otherness and relies on the surreal in this carefully constructed society, using some Māori terminology, but with a minimal presence of the indigenous population. Instead, Mejia addresses marginalization as experienced by this community of outsiders, the dispossessed, and builds an intricate world where misfits find community and individual variances do not impose limits so much as they open doors to alternatives. A vividly imagined YA fantasy about kinship, community, and the differences that make people who they are, Dispossessed may resonate with readers of varied backgrounds who have felt alienated or misunderstood. Recommended for ages 13-18 who enjoyed the work of Daniel José Older’s Shadowshaper and The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent.

 

Contains: violence, torture, violence directed at the dispossessed, a marginalized group.

 

Reviewed by E.F. Schraeder

 

 

 

 

Key words New Zealand. YA. Urban Fantasy. Fantasy.

Posted on April 8, 2021 by , Reply