Review of Celestial Monsters, by Aiden Thomas,

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Celestial Monsters

by Aiden Thomas
read by André Santana

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2024. 12 hours, 36 minutes.
Review written January 25, 2025, from a library eaudiobook

I finally got the sequel to The Sunbearer Trials read. It’s been a while, but it didn’t take too long to remember what happened at the end of the other book before those dread words “To Be Continued.” Let’s just say that their world is on the brink of the apocalypse, and Teo needs to save it, with the help of his best friend and the semidios boy he’s in love with.

I still enjoy the world of this story – a modern world, but it’s ruled by gods, which I think are mostly from Mayan mythology. There are quite a few transgender characters, one who switches to gender neutral pronouns in this book, which everyone is agreeable to – and it’s awfully refreshing.

The story itself is a bit too much like an older Rick Riordan book (older because more swearing) for me to get hugely invested. I have trouble with the mythology that requires human sacrifice – or any sacrifice – and I can’t quite understand how any world could get by a couple weeks without the sun. Ummm, how does that work, even if the sun is really the sun god? It’s best not to ask and try to immerse yourself in the story.

Other than that, there were lots of fights with the powerful “Celestials” released by the failure at the end of the last book. And an overarching plan to make things right that left a lot to chance. There were relationship things going on, and one of the viewpoint characters was the person who caused all the trouble, and they were beginning to get an inkling that was probably a bad idea. Our main character figuring out that sacrificing a child of the gods every ten years was a bad idea didn’t hit me too hard, I’m afraid, because, Duh? (I know, it’s what they grew up with. But I wasn’t super satisfied with what the alternative was, either.)

All that said, it’s a fantasy story with a main character who has wings and can talk to birds – which may not be as good in a fight as the powers the other demigods have, but it seems like it’s a lot more fun.

aiden-thomas.com

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Review of Buried Deep, by Naomi Novik

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Buried Deep

And Other Stories

by Naomi Novik

Del Rey, 2024. 428 pages.
Review written February 3, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

I don’t read a lot of short story collections, because I have a hard time getting through them. It’s so easy to stop after finishing a story. But once I started this one, I knew I wanted to read every single story.

There are thirteen stories, of various lengths, with at least one from the worlds of Temeraire, the Scholomance, and Spinning Silver – that story was actually the original version of the book – but a different negotiation on the part of the miller’s daughter keeps it to story length.

My favorite was definitely the one in the world of Temeraire that retells Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth Bennet the captain of a Longwing dragon. But this is not a proper occupation for a gentleman’s daughter. I love the way Naomi Novik works key scenes from Pride and Prejudice into that situation. And I love how Captain Bennet has learned to wield authority!

The title story is about the Minotaur and his sister Ariadne. The final story is in the world of an upcoming novel, currently titled Folly. I can’t wait!

Another favorite took place in the Scholomance after the events of the trilogy, so supposedly students are safer there – as long as their roommate doesn’t try to kill them.

Many of the stories are simply from some other fantasy world out of the mind of Naomi Novik – and she’s good at intriguing world-building. I loved the one about the woman who was a talented sculptor and who gets the commission to work with the magical clay – that tends to kill the sculptors who are permitted to work with it. (And there’s way more to it than that, which she skillfully communicates while telling you a fascinating story.)

This might be a good introduction to Naomi Novik’s magical writing, but it’s also a great way to keep her devoted fans patient while waiting for the next novel. Whichever you fall under, if you like fantasy at all, read this book!

naominovik.com

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Review of The Sunbearer Trials, by Aiden Thomas

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Sunbearer Trials

by Aiden Thomas

Feiwel and Friends, 2022. 405 pages.
Review written October 28, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

Here’s another wonderful fantasy with a transgender character front and center. As with the outstanding book Cemetery Boys, there is again a gendered element to the magic. In Teo’s case, he’s the son of Quetzal, the goddess of birds, and has wings. Those wings are brown and dull-colored like a female bird, even though he’s been taking testosterone for about a year. So instead of binding his breasts, which he no longer needs to do after top surgery, he binds his wings to hide them.

But that isn’t central to the plot (and we know from the beautiful cover picture that’s going to work out). What the book is mainly about are the Sunbearer Trials.

As a prologue, we get the story of how the gods made humans and the land of Reina del Sol. There’s also a hierarchy of gods, which is explained, with the Gold gods next after Sol and the Jade gods after that. Then there are the Obsidian gods who are selfish and destructive and whom Sol bound in the heavens by sacrificing their life.

Every ten years, there must be a new sacrifice to renew that protection. And to choose the sacrifice, ten children of gods compete in the Sunbearer Trials. The winner becomes the Sunbearer, who goes to the cities of Reina del Sol with the renewed Sol Stone. The loser becomes the new sacrifice.

So it’s a little like the Hunger Games, except only one competitor dies.

With that mythical background, I was surprised to find the story is about a modern civilization with television and internet and posts going viral. But gods, dioses, live among humans. Teo is a semidios, one of the children of a god.

The Gold semidioses go to a special Academy to train to be heroes. With the abilities they inherit from their parents, it’s expected that they will spend their lives protecting humans, and they train for the Sunbearer Trials along the way. Teo’s mother Quetzal is a Jade goddess, so Jade has to go to public school with mortals. The only ability he inherited, besides his wings, is the ability to talk with birds.

Normally, all the competitors in the Sunbearer Trials are Gold semidioses. But this year, Teo is chosen, and so is thirteen-year-old Xio, the son of the god of Bad Luck. It doesn’t seem at all fair, since neither Teo nor Xio has been trained for the trials, so Teo is determined to help Xio not be the sacrifice, as well as trying to avoid it himself.

Warning: This book ends with the words To Be Continued. But the book itself tells about the Sunbearer Trials, which take place in five different cities of Reino Del Sol. So you learn much about that world along the way.

Teo isn’t the only queer character in the book, and nonbinary characters and people with two dads (for example) are considered completely normal, which is all lovely and refreshing. And one of the semidioses competing was Teo’s best friend when they were much younger, but ever since he started at the Academy, he treats Teo as if all that meant nothing.

This book reminded me very much of Rick Riordan books, since, after all, it involves half-gods. There’s also witty banter and smart aleck remarks between the characters. Which all is not necessarily my favorite kind of fantasy, but kids do like it, and I did love the inclusion of multiple genders as a matter of course. There were some details about the world that made me wonder, but it was so much fun hearing about the different gods’ cities, I didn’t let that bother me as much as I might have if I weren’t as invested in the story.

And yes, I will want to find out what happens next.

aiden-thomas.com
fiercereads.com

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Review of The Last of the High Kings, by Kate Thompson

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Last of the High Kings

by Kate Thompson
read by Marcella Riordan

Clipper Audiobooks, 2009. 5 hours, 52 minutes.
Review written December 7, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve been meaning to listen to this book ever since I listened to The New Policeman back in 2011. But in those days, I listened to audiobooks on CD and never as eaudiobooks, but that was the only version the library had of this sequel. I’d been so taken with the Irish music mixed into The New Policeman audiobook that I wasn’t going to settle for reading it in print.

Well, sadly The Last of the High Kings doesn’t have any Irish music in the audiobook, though it does include the delightful Irish accent of the narrator. We’ve got the same main character, J. J. Liddy, but fifteen years have passed since he first visited Tir na nOg, and now he’s a father with a family.

And his eleven-year-old daughter Jenny never wants to stay indoors and can’t seem to follow directions. She can see and talk with the ghost who guards the ancient beacon at the top of the hill. She laughs when he thwarts archaeologists from digging into it. But she can also talk with the pooka who masquerades as a goat, who also seems to have designs on the old beacon.

Meanwhile, their old neighbor Mikey says he’s the last of the High Kings of Ireland. He wants to visit the top of the mountain one last time – maybe by helicopter? J. J.’s too distracted to make it happen, but his son Donal tries to see what he can do.

And those are the bare bones of what’s going on, but we’ve got more Irish magic and ultimately the fate of the world depending on some cleverness. But I especially like that the entire Liddy family gets involved in the magic that happens in this book. And there’s plenty of music and dancing.

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Review of The Thirteenth Child, by Erin A. Craig

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Thirteenth Child

by Erin A. Craig

Delacorte Press, 2024. 497 pages.
Review written December 24, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

The Thirteenth Child is wildly popular at my library – so many holds on the audiobook, I decided to read the print book – and the hype is completely deserved.

The set-up is that Hazel, the thirteenth child in her family, was given away by her desperate parents to the god of Death. However, he didn’t care for her right away, but came and took her on her twelfth birthday. And from there, he’s got a long life set out for her. She’s going to be an amazing healer. In fact, she has a gift that when she touches a sick person, she gets a vision of how to heal them. But sometimes, instead she sees a Deathshead – and then she’s supposed to kill the person to avert catastrophe – for example, a person with the plague who will spread it to thousands of others if she doesn’t act.

This reminded me of two of my favorite young adult novels: Little Thieves, where the protagonist is also a thirteenth child and is given away by her parents to gods; and Grave Mercy where a whole convent of nuns serve the god of Death as assassins and see a mark on the people they are supposed to kill.

As in Grave Mercy, the protagonist can’t help but wonder what will happen if she doesn’t kill the person with marked for death. In both books, there are consequences if she doesn’t.

Eventually, Hazel becomes a healer at court with the ear of the king, but that means that her actions are all the more weighty.

This book pulled me in as much as those other two favorites did, though by the time I finished, it hadn’t won my heart quite as completely. (Still really good, though!) There’s an odd chapter in the middle that’s a very sexy dream, right after she’s met the prince. At first, I thought maybe the author was trying to tip her hand that this is a romantasy, since there hadn’t been much sex yet, so this was to get us warmed up for what’s to come – but no, this was the sexiest chapter in the book, and didn’t feel at all warranted by the encounter with the prince so far. If it was to show she was attracted to him, it felt out of place at that point. (And I’m sorry, but I rolled my eyes so hard when his hands found “parts of me I never even knew existed.” It’s a dream. It’s all coming from your subconscious. You knew those parts existed.)

One other nitpicky detail is that there’s no way, chemically speaking, that an ill human body can produce a glittering golden discharge. If it’s a magical illness, it’s not going to be solved by some special herb. However, I did love the way Hazel, despite her gift, has to study healing and is able to use logic and knowledge to determine a cure when her gift fails her.

Despite those two small quibbles, I loved this book. It’s long, but I read it quickly because it was so immersive. I didn’t really notice the quibbles until I was done and thinking over the book, because I loved the character so much. The plot gets a tiny bit convoluted toward the end of the book, but nothing it can’t sustain. And I absolutely loved the tender and beautiful Epilogue that shows us what happens for most of our beloved characters many years down the road. It answered the question as to whether the author is going for a sequel – no, this is definitely a stand-alone, and a good one.

erinacraig.com

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Review of Spellbound, by F. T. Lukens

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Spellbound

by F. T. Lukens
read by Kevin R. Free and Neo Cihi

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 10 hours, 25 minutes.
Review written December 10, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I recently read my second F. T. Lukens book, Otherworldly. It was super fun, and reminded me of how much I enjoyed So This Is Ever After – so I realized I needed to listen to the book I’d missed (while on the Morris committee in 2023), Spellbound.

I was very glad I made up the oversight. And a hot tip is that these ones are all worth listening to. Kevin R. Free voices the main male lead in all three books, and he comes across beautifully as an adorkable, slightly goofy and outgoing character you want to hug and have as a best friend.

In this book, he reads Edison, a teen who’s been cut off from the world of magic since the death of his grandmother a year ago. So he goes to the office of Hexagon, where Antonia Hex works as a Cursebreaker, and begs for a job. Never mind that he doesn’t have any magic of his own. He misses his grandma and wants to be back in the magical community. Besides, he’s good at fixing electronic gadgets that always break around Antonia.

Edison has also been working on an app that will show him where the ley lines are – the lines that magic workers can naturally see and access. Since he can’t see them, maybe the app can make up the difference. What Edison doesn’t know is that according to the Consortium, that app is highly illegal. Also, after what happened with her last apprentice, Antonia is not allowed to take on a new apprentice. And it’s even more illegal to train someone who can’t see magic on their own.

But one thing leads to another. Antonia gives him a new name, Rook, and working in the office he meets another cursebreaker and his cute apprentice, Sun. Then later, when they’re supposed to be sorting cursed objects in a haunted house, Sun saves Rook from a Cursed Curtain that tries to kill him. Sun is prickly, but Rook thinks they’re awfully cute. Later, it turns out he can help Sun with their math homework – which brings the two of them even closer together.

But the more Rook learns about magic, the more illegal his existence becomes, and the greater the danger the Consortium will find out about his app. When he does get into trouble, both Cursebreakers and Sun are in trouble, too. Will Rook be able to do anything to save them all from the powerful magic wielders who are in charge?

This book ends up being a madcap adventure with a sweet romance thrown in. As with all of the F. T. Lukens characters I’ve heard read by Kevin Free, I found Rook lovable right from the start. Not that this is the same character! Both Rook and Sun are fleshed out with their own quirks and foibles, and here’s wishing them a long and happy career in the world of magic.

ft-lukens.com

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Review of The Spirit Glass, by Roshani Chokshi

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 0

The Spirit Glass

by Roshani Chokshi

Rick Riordan Presents (Disney Hyperion), 2023. 302 pages.
Review written January 3, 2024, from a library book.

Like the other books from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, The Spirit Glass tells about a kid who discovers that the mythology of her culture is real. In this case, Corazon Lopez has magic powers from her Filipino heritage.

Here’s how the author introduces Corazon’s gift:

Corazon had the blood of a babylan, a rare mortal who guarded the boundaries between the human world and the realm of spirits. Some babaylans whispered to the weather. Others brewed potions that could lure a soul back into a dying body. Some could even sift through dreams to find glimmers of the future. It all depended on each babaylan’s particular gift.

Trouble is, Corazon doesn’t yet know what her particular gift is. She does have her own anito, a gecko companion who thinks he’s a crocodile.

Corazon’s parents have been dead for three years, but their ghosts come visit Corazon at her aunt Tina’s house on every Saturday night. Corazon hopes to get her powers and bring her parents back from the dead.

But when a spirit steals her soul key, she ends up on a quest in the realm of the dead, visiting different mythological spirits. Her guide is a ghost kid named Leo, and they get into one adventure after another.

This book was one of those fantasy adventures where one thing leads to another and the characters follow along — a little less of a driving plot than in my favorites. But by the time it all wrapped up, my heart was warmed, and I had nothing but good thoughts for Corazon and her family and companions.

This is a gentle fantasy with a sweet spirit that will get many kids started on a love of fantasy adventures.

roshanichokshi.com
DisneyBooks.com

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Review of Spin, by Rebecca Caprara

Fantasy, Historical, Teen Fiction Review 0

Spin

by Rebecca Caprara

Atheneum, 2023. 393 pages.
Review written April 11, 2023, from a library book.

I did it again! I checked out a book from a list of young adult debut novels — but forgot to check the flap copy until I was halfway through the book. It turns out, it is not the author’s first book, only her first young adult book. So it is not, in fact, eligible for the Morris Award. (Those have to be the author’s first traditionally published book, period.) Although I don’t feel like I have time to read books that are not eligible, by that time I was fully invested and wanted to finish the story. So all’s well that ends well. I’m glad I got to read this book.

Spin is a novel in verse about Arachne, the mortal girl who was an expert weaver and got turned into a spider by Athena because she dared to boast that she was a better weaver than Athena — or that’s how the myth goes. In this book, Arachne gives us her real story.

It turns out that after many unanswered prayers, Arachne lost respect for the gods. And her mother told her stories of gods taking advantage of and raping human women. As Arachne practiced and built her skill, she dared to tell those stories in her tapestries.

So these aren’t simply verses about a mythical tale, but also a story of standing up to the patriarchy and daring to challenge those who oppressed the vulnerable. The writing is indeed poetry, weaving pictures with words.

rebeccacaprara.com

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Review of Together We Burn, by Isabel Ibañez

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Together We Burn

by Isabel Ibañez

Wednesday Books (Macmillan), 2022. 354 pages.
Review written December 27, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

Together We Burn is set in the fictional country of Hispalia, featuring a young lady named Zarela who dances flamenco in the dragon-fighting arena before her father, a Dragonador, fights the dragons. She is carrying on the tradition of her mother before her, who was killed a year earlier in dragon fire. Their family has owned the arena, the centerpiece of their town of Santivilla, for more than five hundred years.

But now someone wants to bring them to ruin. After the latest fight, some dragons were released, their wings unbound, to attack the people who came to their show. Her father is burned badly as he tries to help, and their family may well be ruined. And a few days later, the remaining dragon and their last dragon tamer are all killed in the caves below the arena.

But Zarela is determined. After giving all their funds to the dragon-fighting guild to pay fines and compensation to the victims, she has to sell treasures her mother left behind. She knows her father will disapprove, but she is determined that they will host another dragon fight. If she’ll never be able to find a dragonador to fight in their ring, well then, she’ll simply have to learn to fight dragons herself.

She hears of one place where she can purchase a dragon and someone to teach her. That potential teacher is young and arrogant and handsome, and it will take all Zarela’s determination to wear him down. He has sworn off dragon-fighting, but understands them like no one else. Even if he’ll agree to teach her, can she put aside her fear and conquer a dragon in the arena?

The writing in this book is lush and beautiful. But the beauty of the writing doesn’t stop us from quickly realizing what’s at stake, wondering how Zarela will possibly be able to save her family’s arena and her home.

Yes, it’s no surprise there’s an enemies-to-lovers plot. I somehow missed the transition there, where they switched from despising one another to not being able to keep their hands off each other, but I was able to go along with it. There’s a surprise twist toward the end with looming disaster, and I really did love the way they resolved Zarela’s need to put on a show with her growing understanding of dragons.

The fantasy world in this book was wonderfully imagined and stands out as something new, even for someone who’s read hundreds of young adult fantasy novels. A book about the world of bull-fighting — except with dragons.

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Review of The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Spellshop

by Sarah Beth Durst
read by Caitlin Davies

Macmillan Audio, 2024. 12 hours, 12 minutes.
Review written September 27, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Spellshop is a novel for adults that reads like a sweet middle grade story (and I mean that in all the best ways). Yes, our main character is an adult, who’s been working for many years at the Great Library of Alyssium, but years of staying away from other people, happy with her books and with the sentient plant who serves as her assistant, has left Kiela good-hearted and somewhat naive.

As the book opens, the great capital city has been through a revolution – and a mob has started burning the library. Fortunately, Kiela had prepared by packing up some of the most important spell books in crates on a library boat, so she is able to escape with the books and with her plant assistant Kaz. She heads to one of the outer islands, to the cottage where she was born, but which her parents left when she was a child.

In the Empire, it was illegal for someone not a sorcerer to cast spells, but Kiela’s not entirely sure who’s in charge now, and there’s a need for magic on the island, as the imperial sorcerers have been neglecting it for years. And she has those spell books….

It begins as she tries to figure out how to make a living and casts a spell that makes raspberry bushes grow. She has her family recipe book for jam, and she decides to open a jam shop – and sell some “remedies” on the side. Maybe she can help the islanders with the plants that are failing and the springs that have dried up. Maybe she can help her handsome and helpful neighbor Loren with his mer-horses.

It all seems to be going well until a terrible magical storm hits the island and Loren rescues a woman whose ship is destroyed in the storm. She says she’s an imperial inspector. How will Kiela hide her magic?

This is a feel-good magic story. Yes, there’s romance, but the only physical affection is kissing. Yes, there’s real danger, but everyone is revealed to have a good heart. (Well, except one guy, and he’s dealt with in a gentle way.) It’s a story about Kiela finding a place and a home and making friends and helping those friends, and I just know they’re all going to live happily ever after, and I so enjoyed spending time with them.

This is a perfect dose of charm if you have had enough of sex, darkness, and death with your fantasy. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy that, too! But this was a sweet change and a well-written story that leaves you feeling happy.

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