DRAGONS: A Handbook of History & Lore from Basilisks to Wyverns, beautiful woodcut art of the worlds favorite mythical beasts

DRAGONS: A Handbook of History & Lore from Basilisks to Wyverns
AGNES HOLLYHOCK
publisher (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$19.99 all editions, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Dragons is your beautifully illustrated guide to these mythical creatures and their lore across cultures and centuries. Discover the ancient lore and cultural myths behind dragons—the world’s most mysterious and ubiquitous creatures—in this stunningly illustrated handbook.

For millennia, dragons have been considered real, appearing in legends and myths across cultures and societies, including Central America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Why are these creatures so popular, and what do they reveal about human nature?

Dragons offers a deep dive into the imaginative world of dragons and explores their vivid lore and myths across a wide variety of cultures. Through detailed descriptions and original artwork, learn all about these mysterious and powerful creatures, including:

Historical Tales and Legends

Dragons in Ancient Cultures

European Dragon Lore

Asian Dragon Myths

African and Polynesian Dragons

Dragon-Related Symbols

And more!

Featuring beautiful illustrations and a comprehensive appendix of notable dragon sites around the world, this easy-to-use and informative handbook is perfect for fantasy enthusiasts and the dragon curious. From their appearance in ancient myths to contemporary fantasy works, discover how dragons have influenced human culture across the globe.

The Folklore Legends series summons the mythical, magical, and mysterious creatures of lore out of the shadows with in-depth explorations of their stories and histories. Featuring original, woodcut illustrations and tales both famous and forgotten, these display-worthy volumes reveal the common traits, cultural variations, and appearances of these legendary beings across time and around the world.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Is there anything more certain to get a limbic response from a modern person than a dragon? Like dinosaurs for little kids, these monsters are not real (in the sense that you're not able to go anywhere in the world to see a living one) so the anxiety induced by a giant predator is manageable. We watch horror movies...or the news...for more threatening anxiety hits. Dragons and their legends add many layers of padding for the anxiety, so feel fun, almost friendly. After all you see tons of dragon media, like the Dragonriders of Pern series that's run for decades, all the way to the How to Train Your Dragon media franchise for the young ones.

We like to be scared. But only in fantasy. Dragons fit the need humans have for this fantasy of risk. A survey of the myth structures that deliver the shiver safely like this book is ideal for the YA market. This book is also beautiful, illustrated with woodcuts that capture the mythic element of the dragon lore we all love.

It makes for a lovely added layer of pleasure in the reading experience. The ebook looks fine on my tablet...I doubt a standard Kindle/Kobo would do that well with it, being black-and-white, but certainly wouldn't cause problems with the reading process.

But what a loss not to see this beautiful enhancing art in color!

A treat for any 12-year-old or older dragon-loving reader, fantasy fan, or just someone who likes reading about nyths and legends from around the world.

GOLEMCRAFTERS, fascinating middle-grade fantasy about identity and acceptance

GOLEMCRAFTERS
EMI WATANABE COHEN
Levine Querido (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5 of five

The Publisher Says: Emi Watanabe Cohen’s sophomore novel travels from the most awkward surface tensions to the beautiful depths of Jewish culture and lore for a tale of magical and emotional discovery.

On the same day Faye's brother comes home with a black eye, a package arrives from a relative they have never met. It's a slab of clay: some weird kind of bar mitzvah present?

The strange gift turns out to be an invitation to learn a craft that has been in their family for centuries. And it's not pottery.

Faye and Shiloh are driven to New York City by their grandfather for a spring break filled with magical instruction. But at night, they find themselves transported to a strange parallel world, where groups of innocent people are facing appalling hatred and violence. Are Faye and Shiloh destined to defend them?

How is that possible for a brainy, unpopular eleven-year-old and her vulnerable older brother?

It will take all the strength they can draw from their Jewish and Japanese heritage to not only crack the mystery of this alternate world but to find the power in them to confront the troubles of their present.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Fascinating remix of the well-known, always interesting, legend of the Golem. Imagine being Othered twice over: Japanese and Jewish so too Jewish for the Asian crowd, too not-Jewish for the Jews. The bullying, the name-calling, all terrible enough in middle school, get that much worse!

Shiloh comes home after being roughed up by bullies at school...at no time in the narrative do we see kids more than glancingly interact with their parents, which I recall tracks well with middle school behavior...to find his last bar mitzvah present waiting for him. It's from his father's father, whom he's never met, so of course he's intensely curious about it. It's decided, after it gets opened to reveal it's a big lump of clay, that the kids will go spend the summer coming up with their Zeyde, there to learn the family secret trade of golemcrafting...a trade I'd *literally*never*considered might exist, even in a fantasy world.

In this summer of learning about Zeyde, about their ethnic history, about magic and its workings, there's a fair old bit of Jewish historical trauma. Here's what I say to parents who think their children can't, or shouldn't, be exposed to traumatic historical facts: If they've ever watched the news at all, they already know the worst of what people can do to each other in god's name. Teach them, or let them learn about if you can't do it yourself, the history of how hate for the Other has warped and perverted societies. They'll know what to look out for if they've seen it before they can fall into it.

The author's unique heritage, like Shiloh and Faye's, is part of the reason she should bet trusted to tell your middle-grader about this blended identity, its struggles, and its rich rewards. Even if your child is not either of these ethnicities, this novel is a delightful fantasy work about a stern old mage teaching bumptious apprentices the whys, hows, and don'ts of magic. I've never met a middle-grader (look at the name, forevermore!) who didn't feel that awkward neither fish nor fowl unbelonging. This novel will give the reader of most all ages the strong sense of being seen in their social awkwardness.

As there is a lot of violence dealt with, discussed, but not shown directly, so as to make the middle-grade designation fit comfortably. There is also a very...pat...ending. I'm not sure I'd expect a fourteen-year-old not to complain about the kid-book vibe this presents, so be aware before gifting it up.

A solid performance from a writer gifted in making the tough parts feel manageable.

CAPITANA, not quite a success, not quite a flop

CAPITANA
CASSANDRA JAMES
Quill Tree Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$8.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Prepare to set sail with this riveting romantasy—the first in a duology—that’s filled with complex characters, sizzling romantic chemistry, and page-turning action. A must-read for fans of Daughter of the Pirate King, Together We Burn, or Fable!

Ximena Reale has spent most of her life at La Academia training to become a Cazador, a seafaring hunter who tracks down pirates. But her future is uncertain, thanks to her parents’ reputation. They were pirates, traitors to the Luzan Empire, and though they were executed when Ximena and her sister were young, they permanently damaged the Reale name.

Ability alone won’t earn Ximena the coveted Cazador cloak. So, when the legendary pirate Gasparilla returns and captures the Empire’s queen, Ximena offers to bring her back and capture the notorious pirate in exchange for a cloak. But there’s a catch: There’s only one cloak, and Ximena’s competition is Dante deLeon, an infuriating yet handsome classmate.

With their futures on the line, Ximena and Dante set out on a dangerous quest across the high seas. But can Ximena sail far enough to escape the legacy of her family, or will her relationship with Dante thwart her success in more ways than one?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Anarchy versus authoritarianism, in simplest terms. Neither side is presented in a terribly positive light. Reality having this extremely disagreeable habit of not being binary, I thought I'd like this book.

Not quite so much.

Ximena is far too impulsively sure she's Right, then remorseful when she's wrong, then back to impulsive action because she's Right...the cycle isn't going much of anywhere. No resolution makes recursion into repetition. That gets old fast. When it comes to the love interest, the cycle of assumption/acting on assumption/learning she was wrong should have consequences but it never does. It felt as though this character was impervious to learning. Kind of a drawback when you've set your story in a literal school. That it was basically a police academy, instilling authoritarian principles, was deeply unpleasant to me. You've encountered One Piece if you're interested in this story. That series of tales is 180° from this one in tone, in construction (One Piece hangs together), and society building.

Dante is described as handsome. In what way? Why is Ximena susceptible to his particular handsomeness? As it is, it seems as though Ximena is simply fixated on him, without reason or evidence we are able to see. His character, in the old-fashioned sense, is reprehensible. He lies and cheats to get what he wants...too much of that in the world already...and he spends zero time trying to engage with rule-loving Ximena for me to believe he sees her as any kind of person. She's just whatever he thinks she is, to him, and what kind of message is that to send to a YA-age girl?

So why did I bother to keep reading it? I'm a sucker for Hispanic-inspired cultures having grown up on or near La Frontera. I think the use of Spanish in the text is well done, coming at times that felt narratively natural. I enjoyed the school setting being presented as a positive even though I don't like or promote the authoritarian values it teaches.

The thing you should know about the author is, it seems she is in sympathy with the present US administration...thus explaining the positive presentation of authoritarianism...and, if huge amounts of gossip is to be believed, has regressive views about women's autonomy. I can't say I'd be all that surprised if I ever saw the evidence used to reach that conclusion. It *feels* like that would be her choice, from the manners and mannerisms given to different characters. I myownself have no direct evidence to support or refute the gossip.

I don't like the somewhat unsympathetic values asserted by the story, I have big issues showing the kind of "romance" that's in here to young women as a positive not a series of red flags, so I'm not recommending it. I'm also not angry I, an adult male, read it. If you're willing to see the positives I saw, or of you're culturally supportive of authoritarian stuff (what you're doing reading my reviews is beyond me in that case), it's okay. Please don't give it to an impressionable teen girl.

ORCHARD OF THE TAME, graphic novel that was a 2024 NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY SELECTION FOR BEST NEW COMICS OF 2024

ORCHARD OF THE TAME
MARLO MEEKINS (illus. Nick Cross)
Pegamoose Press
$24.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5*of five

The Publisher Says: A 2024 NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY SELECTION FOR BEST NEW COMICS OF 2024

Truth may set you free, but that knowledge can be a terrible burden.

River Siren is a young mermaid who has been manipulated and held prisoner by the evil, twisted Ainsprid. When she is accidentally discovered by two forest birds, Crowver and Birdt, River Siren is presented with an opportunity to escape her cage, leaving behind the only home she knows to journey out into a world of wild, wonderful, and sometimes dangerous things.

This beautiful coming-of-age tale, visually inspired by the golden era of animation, is an absolute feast of imagination. Equal parts whimsical and eerie, it harkens back to the warm nostalgia of classic fairy tales while then also pushing into the cold, uncanny landscapes of science fiction classics.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Such a beautiful book. I myownself am seldom that interested in the art in sequential-art storytelling. This year I've run across multiple comics that have art I'm actually interested in for itself.

promo pages, all handsomely done

There's a flavor of 1940s cartoons in this artwork that makes me smile. I'm always in favor of stories that show young women that they *can* make major changes for themselves, ones that better their lives and allow them freedom to act on their own behalf.

Make no mistake, the New York Public Library offered this story its imprimatur because its message of personal empowerment and overcoming of anxiety and fear is both loud and clear, and done with the honesty that allows it to transcend "message fiction"'s dread solemnity and tedium.

I don't quite get to five stars because it is quite a long read for a comic book. It isn't my preferred medium, as all who read my reviews know; and it's aimed squarely at an audience I am not. But it wins my approving recommendation over my minor cavils.

Scales & Scoundrels Definitive Edition: WHERE DRAGONS WANDER, & THE FESTIVAL OF LIFE

WHERE DRAGONS WANDER (Book 1)
SEBASTIAN GIRNER (Illus. Galaad; Letterer Jeff Powell)
TKO Studios
$12.99 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: This gorgeous, multicultural fantasy adventure follows treasure hunter, Luvander, as she searches for gold and glory. As she dives into an epic journey along with a young prince, his stern bodyguard, and a plucky young dwarf, our heroes will discover a secret that will bring light to a world encroached upon by an ancient darkness.

This is the story of a girl who liked to wander...

It's hard to make an honest living in a land brimming with magic and mystery, and treasure hunter Luvander is tired of being a penniless adventurer. Ever in search of gold and glory, she sets off for a fabled dungeon "the Dragon's Maw", an ancient labyrinth, at the bottom of which slumber endless wealth...or certain doom!

A loner by trade, Luvander is forced to team up with a team of scraggly adventurers, each hoping to find a treasure of their own in the forbidden tomb. There is Prince Aki, of the Scarlet Sands Empire, anxious for first taste of adventure yet blind to the consequences. His royal Shadow and bodyguard, Koro, whose very honor hangs in the balance of her prince's success. And Dorma Iron, a stocky young dwarf whose journey will take her deeper into the darkness than she ever wished to tread.

For these scruffy heroes, what starts out as a road to riches becomes the first step on an epic journey to destiny, for Luvander holds a secret in her heart that will shatter the chains of fate, and bring light to a world encroached upon by an ancient darkness.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Classic, high-fantasy story gender-flipped. It's still heteronormative, but a female who rescues a prince, and has a deep, dark Secret Identity...that's a mild breeze of fresh air in a genre I'm not wild about.

It has all the necessary Dungeons & Dragons elements for your gamer giftee, it's got artwork I sat and looked at even after I was done reading the simple story, and it sends a message I think we need a lot more of: males can be weak, and can need help and protection, without being worthless; females can be powerful protectors with hidden depths and leadership qualities. All of this wrapped in a pretty decently nuanced plot, with actual above-average character building that unfolds as the story progresses, made this a four-star read. It is, you'll note, the first of two books. Start here, and if gifting, definitely give both at the same time.

the dramatis personae

the action begins

drama!

specialness revealed

tension mounts

what's next?

I think this is a fair sampling of the illustration style. It takes you through the register changes in its use of overarching color pallette. It's got enough detail in the character design to make the faces legible to younger (11 and older, not my idea of suitable for the early chapter-book set) readers. It does not stint on action, nor ignore dialogue.

It's a solid series that I'm glad found a new home for ongoing adventures.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


THE FESTIVAL OF LIFE (Book 2)
SEBASTIAN GIRNER (Illus. Galaad; Letterer Jeff Powell)
TKO Studios
$12.99 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Treasure hunter turned cursed Dragon princess, Luvander, has sworn to uncover a way to break the chains that bind her true form, even as she is hunted by the relentless Houndmaster. As the search for her true self takes ever more dangerous twists and turns, Luvander must reckon that no one, not even eternal dragons, can remain untouched by the ravages of power.

This is the story of a girl who liked to wander...

Following a tense standoff with her elders, Luvander sets off to find a way to break the chains of her cursed fate.

Undeterred by danger, she travels to the frozen northern wastes of the Spine of Winter, to a reclusive monastery whose monks guard a secret entrance to the Dragon Dream, the shared plane of consciousness of all Urden, living or long passed. What she finds there will set her on a journey beyond where any mortals, and few dragons have tread, to uncover an ancient secret from the darkest corners of history. Continuing the epic journey of the cursed dragon princess and her fellow scoundrels in a world bent on undoing itself.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A change of publishers from the original was made so the same team could round off the main action of the story. It does exactly that.

It's a notable feature of the continuation that several side characters get deepened backstory. This really reads like a very well-run D&D campaign; the action genuinely makes a difference to story.

Any of your young woman giftees would probably resonate to this.

LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR, #WITMonth Japanese YA fantasy page-turner

LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR
MIZUKI TSUJIMURA (tr. Philip Gabriel)
Erewhon Books
$27.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In a tranquil neighborhood of Tokyo seven students are avoiding going to school—hiding in their darkened bedrooms, unable to face their family and friends—until the moment they find the mirrors in their bedrooms are shining.

At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives into to a wondrous castle straight out of a Grimm’s fairy tale. This whimsical place, oddly lacking in food and running water but full of electrical sockets, is home to a petulant girl in a mask, named Wolf Queen and becomes their playground and refuge during school hours. Hidden within the walls they’re told is a key that will grant one wish, and a set of clues with which to find it. But there's a catch: the key must be found by the end of the school year and they must leave the premises by five o'clock each day or else suffer a fatal end.

As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved. And so they begin to unlock each other's stories: how a boy is showered with more gadgets than love; how another suffers a painful and unexplained rejection and how a girl lives in fear of her predatory stepfather. As they struggle to abide by the rules of the game, a moving story unfolds, of seven characters trapped in a cycle of misunderstanding and loneliness, who are ultimately set free by the power of friendship, empathy, and sacrifice.

Exploring vivid human stories with a twisty and puzzle-like plot, this heart-warming novel is full of joy and hope for anyone touched by sadness and vulnerability. At the heart of this tender, playful tale is a powerful message about the importance of reaching out which shows how with one kind act you can change your life for the better, and more importantly, you can change the lives of others.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A story about coming out, though not the kind that phrase currently evokes. These socially maladroit and thus ostracized middle-schoolers are magically transported away from the bullying horrors of that age...the characterization of reincarnation as an endless round of middle-school lifetimes makes me so very glad I'm not A Believer...but, of course, there's a price to pay for this act of rescue. The seven of them must open up, honestly share their experiences, and only then will they be truly safe.

Well. That sounds like something I'd be sharpening my flensing knife with a ghoulish grin on my face, doesn't it? More adolescent exceptionalism! And with an added splodge of fantasy goo! "Oh he's gonna go to town on this one!"

Not this time.

Any story in which adolescent readers are encouraged, without bludgeoning, to share, and to respect the gift of sharing from another, gets my vote. Then to put it in a fantasy world that protects the wounded ones? Bonus points! To go on with the worldbuilding in a way that connects their safe escape spot back to the world they're rescued from, yet without the toxicity they need rescuing from flooding in after them? Rare and delicate flower, let me inhale you! The most usual problems are here, the bullying and the losses of safety and love. Each person's also shown to be made aware from the response to the issue that led the sufferer to this magical safe space of how much different the same stimulus can feel to different people.

Literally the point of this entire book is to learn the art of perspective in dealings with others.

I would like to experience no surprise, no extra frisson of happiness at this. The world would be a better place if I didn't. But I did, and I encourage all y'all with grands, niblings, kids of twelve or more, to grab this story up thence to present it ever-so-casually to them. It's a message, one of kindness and the presumption of goodwill on the part of all who are not genuinely rotten-souled, that I'd strongly urge getting into their heads.

Their dads and uncles, older brothers, and so on, as well.

WHEN THE ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY, multi-award and -honor winner, as well as anti-semitism fighter

WHEN THE ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY
SACHA LAMB
Levine Querido
$19.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

A 2022 New York Public Library Best Young Adult book!

2023 Stonewall Book Award for Children’s & Young Adult Literature

2023 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature

2023 Sydney Taylor Book Award for Young Adult

The Publisher Says: A queer immigrant fairytale about individual purpose, the fluid nature of identity, and the power of love to change and endure.

Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her.

Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America. But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they’ve left behind. Medical exams (and demons) at Ellis Island. Corrupt officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, poverty. The streets are far from paved with gold.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Multiple awards and honors and nominations later, it's very clear that the Industry recognized this story as one that has a lot to say, and a very winning way of saying it. The publisher tells us it's got a very Good Omens vibe...true enough, but don't expect Aziraphael and Crowley's intimate dynamic here. Like Good Omens there is an omniscient narrator, well used to keep us on the track of our angel and demon as they set about trying to right the wrongs "their" humans, the ones from the shtetl they've adopted as their home, endure.

Here I pause to mention something that could impact your readerly pleasure. There is a lot of Yiddish used in the story, which for the time and place is absolutely correct. It isn't translated, and at times the word or concept isn't entirely obvious from context only. I recommend that you have the browser open on some device, if you're reading a tree-book, to look up the words you don't think you've got right in your mind's eye. Ebooks usually have adequate dictionary access to tell you what you need to know if it isn't in the provided glossary. I myownself wasn't thrown by this but as anyone who's not here for the first time knows, I'm weird.

Rose is our main human character, a young woman just coming to terms with her lesbian identity. The early twentieth century was a lousy time to be a woman, let alone one who loved other women! Her best friend and love object has just gone away to the Lower East Side of Manhattan to marry a man, as is expected of any frum young woman in that place and time. Our supernatural entities are, for a contrast to everyone else, utterly unfazed by Rose's love for Dinah. They know their purpose is to help Rose (among others) get to the New World and take her shot with Dinah...if it can work out, as she's got this impending marriage thing....

Assisting a dead rabbi's ghost in finding his daughter so she can mourn him properly and thus prevent him fom entering awful dybbukhood, dispensing social justice to exploitive sweatshop owners, not to mention greedy steerage-selling profiteers gouging their fellow Jews out of the last tiny hint of savings, the evil christian supernaturals posing as immigration doctors to prevent Jews from entering the US...all this and more must be taken into righteousness before our supernatural duo can go back to Torah study and peace in Shtetl.

I genuinely think the playfulness of Author Lamb's imagination makes the difficult and unfair nature of the issues to be surmounted less unhappy than it would be in less amusing hands. I know the entire time Rose shows a brave face to the world, where we-the-readers know she's completely terrified but too outraged to let whatever it is pass unchallenged is the kind of message I want to send to all young women. Especially young Jewish women in the rising anti-semitic culture we've allowed to metastasize. It's a good read as a fantasy novel for adults, too; the Mythopoeic Society doesn't pass out their accolades with a shovel.

I can't go with a perfect rating because there are points towards the end that just go on too long. The pace overall is never breakneck, or really even brisk. The aforementioned Yiddish-language heavy text does wear on the Anglophone inner ear after a while. All that said, I still think this is a great Booksgiving choice for your thirteen-and-up nieces who enjoyed Good Omens.

And yourownselves, of course, why should those little pishers have all the fun?

Cornelia Funke's MIRRORWORLD series, book 4 THE SILVER TRACKS, of 5-book illustrated YA Dark Fantasies

RECKLESS: The Silver Tracks (MirrorWorld #4)
CORNELIA FUNKE (tr. Oliver Latsch)
Pushkin Children's Books
$15.95 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The fourth adventure through the Mirror leads to the Far East, where Jacob and Fox finally track down Will, who is travelling with rival hunter Nerron. In spite of his misgivings, Jacob agrees to go with them to the Island of the Foxes, in quest of another magical Mirror.

But their search quickly leads them into more peril, and as Jacob seeks security for himself and Fox, he is reminded of a disturbing promise he once made that now threatens everything.

Full of fairy tales and legends, old friends and new enemies, The Silver Tracks is the long-awaited fourth volume in the thrilling Reckless series.

The thrilling fourth instalment in Cornelia Funke's internationally bestselling Reckless series.

First book reviewed here—Second book reviewed here
—Third book reviewed here

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: We've learned a lot about Mirrorworld's different parts, right? Wrong! We're still in the ongoing-discovery phase of the series here, in book four, where we're heading to Mirrorworld's version of Japan called (unsurprisingly) Nihon. Our book three antagonist is back with a vengeance, and Will...Jacob's brother (about whom there is quite a surprising hidden fact) and the object of many a quest on Jacob's part...now needs to find him in order to make the curse that's turning his belovèd into wood release its hold. Naturally the antagonist is the only one who can accomplish this as he's the one who created Will's beloved.

No matter how much of the plot I tell you, it won't make one bit of difference. You're reading this review, so are in the mood for fall fantasy reading, so you would do well to get this series (though start with #1 or be *terminally* confused!) of YA dark fantasy novels.

Now, the opinions part. This book's very, very complicated and made more than necessarily so by the technique of using multiple narrative PoVs for even the most minor of characters. This can work beautifully if the reader's in full binge mode; readers like me, who take months to read long, complicated fantasy books, really don't see the benefit of it. I'm reasonably sure that Jacob is the best dark-fantasy protagonist who grows into adulthood in any series I've read, bar none.

He and Fox are becoming parents and discovering the deep, dark secret of being a parent that no one ever tells young people (the child you make together is superglued to your souls, both of you, from the instant it is part of your lives and makes every decision you make more complicated) in the roughest possible way. The stakes in this series entry do not get higher. The number of characters we're following is sizable, deeply intertwined, and morally malleable. Everyone learns they can do things they never considered they would when motivated powerfully enough. The adversary in the story, Spieler, suddenly apeared in the last book and is front and center throughout the action in this book. He did not grow on me the more I saw of him. A horrible person indeed, responsible for Jacob's father's unforgivable behavior. Responsible for entrapping Jacob's brother, Will. Generally an all-arounder in the cruel, abusive, manipulative villain sweepstakes.

*happy sigh*

Perfect for dark fantasy series use. I confess, however, that I'd've liked to see how he got so enmeshed with the Reckless clan as a whole earlier in the series...unless I just passed right by the hints that were dropped about how Will and Jacob's mother lit this particular fuse. The ways in which John Reckless, father of this brotherly dyad, comes off in a different light as the past is slowly revealed, is especially well-done.

I was more put off by the welter of voices as the read progressed. I am not in any way trying to unsell you on the reads! You should know in advance what's coming your way...be prepared when this read comes up to the top of your TBR that concentration is needed to get the full gestalt of the story's locations and narratives. There are many interesting voices: samurai, a centaur, a nine-tailed fox (Japan being an island of fox spirits), some ghosts, a child-eating witch, shapeshifters and even some old friends from the earlier stories.

In addition to Japan and its folklorians, we have our first gay character in Hideo. Based on auguries I'd expect some more time will be spent with him in the future book five. Which isn't out yet. Nor is it even announced by Pushkin Press...this bodes ill for my sanity.

Cornelia Funke's MIRRORWORLD series, book 3 THE GOLDEN YARN, of 5-book illustrated YA Dark Fantasies

RECKLESS: The Golden Yarn (MirrorWorld #3)
CORNELIA FUNKE (tr. Oliver Latsch)
Pushkin Children's Books
$9.99 ebook editions, avalable now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Jacob Reckless continues to travel the portal in his father's abandoned study. His name has continued to be famous on the other side of the mirror, as a finder of enchanted items and buried secrets. His family and friends, from his brother, Will to the shape-shifting vixen, Fox, are on a collision course as the two worlds become connected. Who is driving these two worlds together and why is he always a step ahead?

This new force isn’t limiting its influence to just Jacob’s efforts – it has broadened the horizon within MirrorWorld. Jacob, Will and Fox travel east and into the Russian folklore, to the land of the Baba Yaga, pursued by a new type of being that knows our world all to well.

First book reviewed here—Second book reviewed here
—Third book reviewed here—Fourth book reviewed here

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Jacob Reckless, our series protagonist, comes face-to-face with the hardest of adult problems in this entry into the ongoing series of fantasy Young Adult novels: "Why were love and death such close neighbours."

It's always bothered me that love poetry and love songs so frequently conflate love and death. This story, in which Jacob meets his vanished father after more than a decade of aging and growing and becoming his the man who can be a father as well as his brother Will's savior, very much focuses on this seeming dichotomy. Jacob must do what a lot of sonse must do: Come at last to understand the nature of love for a parent when the parent isn't who one wished them to be. Love and death...always sides of a coin, sometimes without much thickness between them so one side's pattern shows on the other side.

How much love costs is another thing Jacob must face in this book. He travels to a farther eastern part of Mirrorworld where we meet Slavic folklorians like rusalkas and, of course, Baba Yaga. Can not pass up a chance to call out the world-building that Funke treats us to in this series...we've had fae and (gar)goyls and sorcerous beings galore, now we get flying carpets and golems! There is so much lovely writing in the translation that evokes the differences in all the peoples of Mirrorworld that it's worth the price of admission just to be brought on Jacob's journey. Notably, as this is marketed as a young adult title, the publisher's treated us again to some lovely, evocative illustrations; again, worth the price of admission to get them before your admiring eyes.

More than all the fantasy novels aimed at adults that I've read, this series (to date) has done the most to convince me that there is a glorious amount of Story that's best told by means of fantasy tropes. There's nothing important that I don't care for in this German translation (misspellings à la anglais irk me, but not enough to knock points off for...especially from a British publishing house).

Why I'm only at four and a half stars not the full five is simply that the adversary in this tale pops up and has no reason to that I could follow. It's not awful; it's just that we've got such a fabulous set-up for this title in this quote: "The Golden Yarn...or the inseverable bond, as it is also called. As inseverable as the threads of fate," which gets vitiated by the up-popping adversary. "The threads of fate" are unquestionably the most relevant organizing pinciples here. Then, Author Funke, ensnare *everyone* in them from the get-go.

Really, there's nothing more to this than my nagging sense of "fair play" brought over from the series-mystery reading world. What works works so well that I want to be fair about your possible complaints. In dealing with Jacob's latest foray into Mirrorworld and confronting deeply ugly realities of his father, and brother, having flaws, Author Funke never once drops the thread that binds families of all sorts together.

Minor whinges be damned. The series works, and keeps working.

THE KELLY ANN JACOBSON PAGE for the DISCERNING YA reader: ROBIN AND HER MISFITS, & TINK AND WENDY

ROBIN AND HER MISFITS
KELLY ANN JACOBSON
Three Rooms Press
$14.00 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A roving female gang of fun-loving rebel bikers, street racers, and bandits led by Robin agree to give back to queer girls in need of help in this stunning modern reimagining of the Robin Hood legend.

Robin and her four Misfits—Little John, White Rabbit, Daisy Chain, and Skillet—have run away from their families in order to live off the grid on their own terms. For a while, they’re hidden, safe, and happy as they commit petty crimes that provide enough to get by. All that matters is keeping their small clan alive. Then, one mission proposed by an unfriendly associate from their past reminds them of their former lives and motivates the group to a new purpose. The five Misfits develop into a league of strong individuals united by a fresh goal: do whatever it takes to help queer girls rise above oppressive laws and attitudes.

Kelly Ann Jacobson, the author of the award-winning LGBTQ+ young adult novel Tink and Wendy, is back with another diverse twist on a popular legend.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I love Daisy Chain the best because her sibylline utterings aren't remotely clear to her listeners, fellow very young women, except by accident; or, I suspect, by her deeply sneaky inner sibyl wishing to make clear messages only occasionally.

The Prologue, by its nature, is a giant spoiler. Even I, deeply indifferent to spoilers, thought as we then moved back in time for the bulk of the novel, "what's suspenseful now that I know what I know?"

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

In that Daisy Chain-uttered Shakespearean truism, laddies and gentlewomen, lies the essential truth of this book. Every runaway runs out of steam at last. All lies are signposts aimed directly at the truth. And when eternal runaway Daisy Chain at long last finds herself, she then finds the greatly belovèd carved-granite mass that is Robin right where she left her.

So that Prologue? What does it spoil? Does knowing where mean how has no value? Or is "Don't waste your love on somebody who doesn't value it" more than one lie told in one sentence? That hand is always pointing its curled fingers directly at the truth of love never being wasted because it is valued...if, perhaps, differently than one would ask for it to be...but still valued.

What's on offer here is this: A story designed to be eaten up by young, questioning women in search of Identities in a world awash with given, never chosen, names. It's going to offer those young women snow chains for the tires on the unchosen, unsuitable dune-buggy that in their ill-suited design keep slipping on the glaciers where they inexplicably find themselves. This story can be their Nottingham of the spirit while their bodies work out how to steer their unstable, utterly unreliable transportation on to as-yet-unseen safer paths.

Highly recommended for those young women among your graduating family who could use a nudge to become Robin Hood not the Pretty, prized-but-powerless Maid Marian.

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TINK AND WENDY
KELLY ANN JACOBSON
Three Rooms Press
$14.00 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: What happens when Tinker Bell is in love with both Peter Pan and Wendy? In this sparkling re-imagining of Peter Pan, Peter and Wendy’s granddaughter Hope Darling finds the reclusive Tinker Bell squatting at the Darling mansion in order to care for the graves of her two lost friends after a love triangle gone awry. As Hope wins the fairy’s trust, Tink tells her the truth about Wendy and Peter—and her own role in their ultimate fate. Told in three alternating perspectives—past, present, and excerpts from a book called Neverland: A History written by Tink’s own fairy godmother—this queer adaptation is for anyone who has ever wondered if there might have been more to the story of Tinker Bell and the rest of the Peter Pan legend.

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My Review: Never for a moment have I believed that the story of Peter Pan and Wendy and the Lost Boys was sweet and Innocent and all on the up-and-up. There is a seedy adult-mediated sexuality in the whole concept of the story. The Lost Boys and Peter trapped in that eternal tween-age: where parents can comfortably if mendaciously Not Know that their kids are steadily, stealthily beginning the sad journey into adolescent sexual awakening. They're busily putting together hints and clues, and feeling weird new things without possessing words to explain them yet. Wendy, here as always the odd creature out, has a body the Boy and his boys don't know inside out already. She has a mind they can't fathom and she can't explain, because who can explain how they are built different from you? And because no one really talks to kids about what they want to know regarding sex and sexuality, parents keep giving kids the original deeply subversive story about the tragedy that befalls the innocent when Innocence is finally and forever lost. Never mind that the kids don't want this Innocence we're determined to protect in them. Having no idea of what Innocence means, the Innocent can't wait to get rid of it.

"It's harmless," goes the reassuring hiss of the lying snake within the well-meaning adult. "After all, it's got a tiny fairy standing between them, so Nothing Can Happen."

That's what this book is about: what happens when the tiny fairy, sick of being Between too many things and having no ground of her own, takes her rightful place in the action. As seasoned readers we know that's the starting gun for tragedy to unfold. This book is about the price that loving one, being in love with the other, exacts on the lover. Also what terrors there lurk within the armor-plated ignorance of being the belovèd. This story rips the dishonesty off the older story of wanting to keep your cake but eat it too...that evergreen source of unhappy resolutions to love triangles. Teach them young that there is no frictionless way to be in love: If you care enough to make it count, like Tink does, you will suffer most when your belovèd suffers. Teach them before they create disaster by refusing to choose, by declining to believe they can, they truly can! have happiness if they bravely reach out for it. It's better done like this than the Innocence-celebrating original.

These readers come away clear about what prolonging Innocence costs. What they probably don't—maybe eevn shouldn't yet— see is the pale and semi-conscious illness-ridden compromised and dishonest simulacrum that will, like here in this story, become the best you can have if you waver betwixt and between, refusing to make a choice.

As stories for youths go, this one is honest, well-told, and contains what looks like a happy ending that is, in fact, a dire warning. I'd time-travel to give this morally complex, intellectually serious retelling of a deeply problematic story told by a very sketchy source I wouldn't let near anyone under twenty-five to every teen I knew when I was one myself.

LITTLE EVE, US edition of the 2018 Shirley Jackson Award-winner for Best Novel & BLOOD MOON PROPHECY, debut YA fantasy

LITTLE EVE
CATRIONA WARD
Tor Nightfire
$27.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: From Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street, comes the Shirley Jackson Award-winning novel Little Eve, a heart-pounding tale of faith and family, with a devastating twist

STARRED reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist! A LibraryReads Hall of Fame Pick! Winner of the (2018) Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel!

“A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away.”

On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth.

The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction.

A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong.

And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: The #Spooktober reading this year has made me feel quite gruntled. That said, however, I'm glad I read Sundial first among Author Catriona's work...the domestic-horror vibe, added to the all human all the time cast of horror-bringers, made me feel comfortable with her voice. I had no additional hill to climb to get past the cosmic-horror tropes I wouldn't necessarily choose to read.

But psych the cosmic-horror tropes I was expecting, given that this is a story about a cult whose organizing principle is the end of the world, "cleansed" by sea-serpent, were absent. Instead this was an historical fiction with seriously gothic overtones, set at the end of World War One and containing the usual gothic elements. It wasn't a *bad* surprise. It was, however, definitely a surprise.

Author Catriona received the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel in 2018 for this story. I think that's one helluva great accolade to get for one's second published novel. That we in the US are getting it only now suggests someone fell asleep at the switch back in 2018. I can't say I felt this was a perfect novel, it relied a wee bit too heavily on ghastly punishments for its unsettling-bordering-on-scary stuff and its cult aspects felt worn out pretty quickly. What I found to enjoy was Author Catriona's word-sorcery:

My heart is a dark passage, lined with ranks of gleaming jars. In each one something floats. The past, preserved as if in spirit. Here is the scent of grass and the sea, here the creak of wheels on a rough path, here a bright yellow gull’s beak. The sensation of blood drying on my cheek in the wind. Abel crying for his mother, Uncle’s hand on me. Silver on a white collarbone. The knowledge of loss, which comes like a blow to the heart or the stomach. It does not reach your mind until later.

The opening of the book...we know the Dark Sorceress Catriona has rattled her bone-bag of words and will be casting irresistible spells soon. And she does.

Just not the ones I expected.

The manner of unfolding the story was intriguing. The setting was wonderfully gothic. The characters weren't as fully realized as the ones in Sundial were, but that is entirely understandable and was not unexpected...a second book isn't going to have the same polish as a fourth one does. At least, if the writer is developing authorial chops, it won't; and she most definitely is a writer developing fast and well. What that meant to me, as I read along, was that I could see details that were not the ones I think Author Catriona would emphasize now (eg, some of Delilah's behaviors, and Uncle's almost mustachio-twirling one-note-ness). I will say that this is why I landed on the four-star key instead of a fraction higher. The four stars are, however, fully merited based solely on the plot's cohesiveness and its appropriately increasing pace. A headlong rush would not have served this story the way it did Rob's story in Sundial.

While the ending is, I've tried to think of a different word but no other one fits, condign, it isn't necessarily the one you-the-horror-reader are thinking it will be. That, above all things, was the reason I recommend this story to my horror-reading friends: It's good not to know.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BLOOD MOON PROPHECY
DILANI KAHAWALA (Legend of the Nyx #1)
Cedar Street Press
$9.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: Eleven years ago, Tilly Nyx did something she wasn’t supposed to. As a result, her mother was killed. Her village was destroyed. Her sister disappeared. And an ancient horror sent her into hiding.

Now sixteen years old, Tilly is determined to go home, even though she doesn’t know where home is or how to get there. All she has is the map that her mother made her swear to protect with her life.

Tilly soon finds herself plunged into the world where it all began—a world of oceans, sailing ships, and feuds between ancient magical families. She joins a fleet in search of the secret that her map holds, the secret that has been guarded by her family for thousands of years.

As Tilly learns how to cast sprites and make potions, she and her three friends must follow the trail of murky clues left by her ancestors before time runs out. But the closer they get to their destination, the more Tilly learns about her true identity–and everything is not as it seems.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Young-adult fantasy with cosmic horror overtones isn't my go-to genre reading. This debut novel got in under my radar because I liked the cover and the storytelling voice lulled my concerns about the subject matter.

Because most of the story is told in short chapters heavy on description, I wasn't asked to "listen" to a chosen-one teenaged girl. That was a huge plus to me. I still came away from the read wanting to swat this bratty child for being so completely and unwarrantedly willing to be guided only by her own thoughts and feelings. She never consulted anyone with more information than she possessed, she never changed her mind until her stubborn skull got thumped and hard...she is, in short, a typical smart teen. That made me nutso!

The reason I finished the read was that I liked the found-family aspect, I found the author's descriptions and world-building were very well done, and the cover art. Oh my heck. I am such a fool for a gorgeous cover. This one really fits the story being told...you'll see why. So much of the story's action is sea-borne that I mention it as a possible deal-maker or -breaker, depending on whom the read is destined for; the ships aren't, for once, the relation- type but the wooden type. The author's grasp of sailing is probably superficial but, as mine is too, I found nothing eye-rolling in her depiction of life aboard them. The sailing themes served as handy reasons to bring characters together but only briefly...as that is a deeply rooted feature of chosen-one quests, that worked very well.

Mei, James, and Nav, Tilly's scooby-group, are all standard characters. The vibe one gets from the read is very much Harry Potter and those Mortal Instruments books; the side characters, though very much side characters, are more than furnishings for the heroine's story. That dubious honor goes to the immense cast of secondary characters, seemingly dozens of them, all serving one and only one purpose. These are features of YA fantasy stories, I hasten to add, not bugs. The author is quite clear about her purpose for each one of the secondary characters. When the occasional one pops back up in a later chapter I felt quite surprised.

If you're looking for something to please your classical-magic loving tween/early-teen niece/cousin/grandchild, this introductory volume in what I expect to be a successful series will earn you early-adopter points. This is an author to watch...her journey, beginning here, can go to much greater heights.

Cornelia Funke's MIRRORWORLD series, LIVING SHADOWS: second of 5-book illustrated YA Dark Fantasies

RECKLESS: Living Shadows (MirrorWorld #2)
CORNELIA FUNKE (tr. Oliver Latsch)
Pushkin Children's Books (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$9.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Jacob has saved his brother from the Mirrorworld, but now he will pay a terrible price. A fairy's curse is burning in his heart, and to break the spell he must embark upon a perilous journey - with his trusty friend Fox by his side - to seek out the only treasure that could save him.

Jacob's search for the golden crossbow will lead him across hundreds of miles by land and sea, to an invisible, enchanted palace within the Dead City. It will bring him face to face with vicious beasts, bloodthirsty giants, and a deadly stone­faced rival.

It will test his courage like never before.

Living Shadows is the second book in the thrilling Reckless series.

First book reviewed here—Second book reviewed here
—Third book reviewed here—Fourth book reviewed here

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I am convinced that this series is cruelly aimed at obsessive completist readers. The cliffhanger at the end of book one makes this book a MUST-READ NOW and, through the magic of Kindle, I was able to read the books back-to-back. I warn all who come after me: To sign up for this voyage into Mirrorworld is to commit to the whole cycle.

I am in.

What happens during the course of this book is that Jacob comes to understand something he'd never given much thought to: My love for you creates my responsibility for you creates a web of obligation that is endless...and as addictive as any narcotic. While we who have read the first book know what a price Jacob has paid, in fact what a price he paid after making a sacrifice that even he isn't quite aware of the dimensions of yet, we're probably not expecting the antagonist of this book.

In fact, I guarantee we're unprepared for the existence of the antagonist of this book. And that's probably Author Funke's most clever sleeve-ace yet. It plays well.

There are the accustomed delights of reading this series' world-building fillips. These are numerous, though enumerating them for you isn't really something worth doing in a review. There is a Fandom wiki, of course there is!, and I didn't look but am willing to bet there's fanfic on AO3. The reason is that Author Funke used every conceivable fairy-tale source to draw her world out from and has made it into a near-seamless whole. (Where there are seams that I can perceive, eg Goyls' method of transmission, it felt to me as though they were intentional not born of inattention to source material.)

The problem I had wth this entry is how kinetic, nay frenetic, it is. We go from pillar to post and back again; Fox is with us, Nerron the treasure-hunting half-Goyl whose existence is new to this book is against us; we're never for a moment at rest, able to take stock, pause to reflect. It's exactly what Author Funke intends, and it's a valid narrative technique but in this reader it creates a sense of distance from the characters. I'm so deep in the world that I don't get to experience his progress through his (final?) days.

Until I read this:

"If you catch your own children in the circle...then you can use the years you take from them for yourself. You're just taking back the life you gave them in the first place. The more of it, the better."

That was a gut-punch of a trap set for overeager treasure hunters, wasn't it?! And the sheer violence of the stakes set...if you're not a relative of the curse-setter, you're still going to die in the circle but it won't keep the curse-setter alive...could not be more urgent. Now that Jacob has found this evil place, he thinks he's trapped in the curse.

Fox, his shifter gal-pal, isn't having that. As always, the woman's love saves the man from his stupidity and greed. Though let's be fair to Author Funke, this time Jacob's greed was simply the desire to live that we all suffer from. And since Fox very much wants Jacob still alive, she's hardly just going to watch as he dies from a curse she can stop from progressing...if she's willing to do something that's very, very hard to do and commit murder.

Killing someone/thing in a struggle isn't murder. The intent to kill, the set purpose and the planning of the act...that's murder. Will she murder to save Jacob's life?

You'll have to read the book.

The ending is tremendously exciting.

Cornelia Funke's MIRRORWORLD series, RECKLESS I: THE PETRIFIED FLESH is first of 5-book illustrated YA Dark Fantasy Series

RECKLESS: The Petrified Flesh (MirrorWorld #1)
CORNELIA FUNKE (tr. Oliver Latsch)
Pushkin Children's Books (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$9.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Jacob has uncovered the doorway to another world, hidden behind a mirror. It is a place of dark magic and enchanted objects, scheming dwarves and fearsome ogres, fairies born from water and men born from stone. Here, he hunts for treasure and seeks adventure in the company of Fox - a beautiful, shape­shifting girl, who guides and guards him. But now Jacob's younger brother has followed him into the mirrored world, and all that was freedom has turned to fear. Because a deadly curse has been spoken; and Jacob must risk his life to reverse it, before his brother is turned to stone forever... Revised and updated by Cornelia Funke, The Petrified Flesh is the first book in the thrilling Reckless series.

First book reviewed here—Second book reviewed here
—Third book reviewed here—Fourth book reviewed here

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Don't mistake "young adult" for "fluffy." This story of brothers, orphaned early in life by a father whose abandonment of them without a word also cost them their mother to her grief, as they find the "Mirrorworld" that their father vanished into...inside his study!

This is a portal fantasy, with a secondary world that resembles our own enough to be an alternate-history wrold except for the fact that magic works. "Austry" is the name of the Mirrorworld country the brothers, and their father before him, arrive in, not the Austria they leave behind. The family's disintegration, as abetted by the mirror, is not something that the hero Jacob is trying to fix or to escape, like Meg in A Wrinkle in Time or the Pevensies in The Chronicle of Narnia. Jacob's a young adult, he fled into Mirrorworld to find a place for himself not look for someone else. Of course he finds others...a bad father-figure but a good mentor in Albert Chanute, innkeeper and treasure hunter in Austry, a girlfriend of sorts in Fox the shapeshifting...fox. He's got a life as a treasure hunter! He's met the Empress six times! (But don't tell Chanute that, he's only met her three times for treasure-hunting and now he's past it, so there'd be jealousy and trouble.)

The stakes this secondary world introduces to us could not be higher. Jacob's treasure-hunting ways are threatened by the Goyls, put a gar- in front and you'll get it, finally having effective leadership and thus starting to win battles in the eternal war between humans and their kind. What matters about that is that Will, Jacob's brother, has been bitten by a Goyl and is suffering the inexorable fate of such: He's turning into the stone creature that we call a Goyl but, since he's human, he won't survive the change. He will be a stone human...dead, but still walking without his soul. And Jacob, whose running away to find a life in this other world, now can't figure out how to save Will...and his refusal to share knowledge of Mirrorworld with Will is what left him susceptible to the bite in the first place. Oh! Wait! That's not enough pressure, not enough baggage. Will's utterly innocent girlfriend Clara finds the mirror and enters Mirrorworld, too!

Now, let me not spend more time in Spoilerville than is necessary. Will and Clara are serious Mary Sues. The world happens to them. They're not possessed of Jacob's trove of information...and this is something he quite rightly blames himself for not imparting to his adoring little brother. He spends just enough time recognizing that he's set these conditions in motion, and the success or failure of Will's future life among the living not-Goyls is entirely on him.

Celeste/Fox surprised me as a character. Will is younger than Jacob and he has a blah girlfriend, but Jacob's magical girlfriend is...a real full-bodied relationship partner! I wasn't thinking that would work in a kid-aimed story. But this, with its neither dwelt-on nor avoided sexuality and its frank presentation of bodily suffering...Chanute's arm is lost for a singularly stupid reason, for example, but it's before the story we're being told now starts, and is reported not experienced...is part of the not-quite-adult storytelling world. I'd give this to any sixteen-year-old and expect them to feel positive about it. Not younger, though. The consequences of stupid actions aren't minimized!

But sometimes, stupid people just can't be forced to stop being stupid. Clara simply can not be made to see what is completely obvious to the meanest intelligence: She is NOT in her own birth-world anymore and can NOT act like she's out for a particularly strange walk there! It gets wearing, her insistence that Jacob act as though her world's rules still hold sway. And he, fool of a man that he is, keeps explaining and explaining why her way won't work! Because she's unwilling to learn!

But Jacob...he's fighting through death and resurrection, he's fighting enemies he knows are enemies as well as friends he doesn't know are worse than enemies..."Who makes peace when you can have victory?" muses one such...Jacob fights until the fabric of Mirrorworld finally delivers him the thing he's consistently asked for, demanded, begged to receive. The thing he's died inside and out to cause to happen.

He's received the gift of an ending.

What a lovely way to make your portal fantasy pop! Make it such that there is no more severe betrayal that can occur to anyone in this world. Give everyone an ending. Then, stand back and watch the fun begin!

So perfect for its intended audience, so much in accord with the end-of-adolescence access of adult emotions but without the perspective to manage them. This should take the world by storm, and I hope it will.