Hello All!
Sorry for the radio silence this past month. I've been extra busy at work with the paving season in full swing and a small promotion, but I did manage to finish three books! Today's Rant & Rave will include Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake, The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson, and Power of Four: Island of Exiles by Seven Borup. Since this post will be WAAAAYYY too long if I don't cut it short, I'm going to do one rant and one rave for each book. (I could probably write a super long Rant & Rave just about Three Dark Crowns, so please comment and discuss it with me!)
Three Dark Crowns follows three magical queens vying for the same crown in a yearlong battle to the death. This is the first book in the series and mostly takes place before the fighting starts. This book focuses on worldbuilding and getting to know the three queens- Katherine, Arsinoe, and Mirabella. Katherine is a demure poisoner. Poisoners can eat poison without getting sick or dying, and have held power on the island of Fennbirn for quite a while at the time of the book, though Katherine shows little potential as a poisoner. Arsinoe is a determined naturalist. Naturalists have a way with plants and wildlife, and usually have an animal familiar, though Arsinoe has yet to show any sign of a familiar. Mirabella is a kindhearted elemental. She can control storms and elements to her whims, and is a favorite to win the yearlong battle, but she doesn't want to hurt the sisters she remembers from early childhood.
The Year of the Witching follows Imanuelle, a young woman living in a puritanical society as it suffers through four plagues- blood, blight, darkness, and slaughter. Imanuelle discovers that there is much more to the history of Bethel, and the story of her witch mother, than the church is letting on, and she struggles to find the key to breaking the cycle of plagues before it's too late for herself, her family, and all of Bethel.
The main character of Power of Four: Island of Exiles is Deerface, a young rabbit just coming into colony life. The colony is comprised of patrollers, who fight off threats to the colony, collectors, who gather the colony's food, Healers, who aid the injured and sick, and messengers, who act as the main line of communication within the colony and its land. Deerface is disappointed to be chosen as a messenger, but quickly learns that his job is very important. When he and his teacher go to far into the woods one day, Deerface meets his father, an exile of the colony. It seems that Deerface's father has banded the exiles together, and is now their leader. As would be expected, Deerface has some conflicted feelings and difficult decisions to make.
First the raves:
Three Dark Crowns does an excellent job of making the reader like all three queens. Throughout the book, I cheered for each queen at some point, leaving me conflicted about who I really want to see become queen in the end. Luckily, I don't have to choose just yet.
Throughout The Year of the Witching, there are not-so-subtle statements fighting racism, sexism, classism, and the hypocrisy of religion. The entire novel is a thinly veiled look at issues prevalent in our society. (It even feels more like a historical fiction book than a fantasy book!) Imanuelle's conflict, between her upbringing and the problems she sees within the church, is eerily relatable, and not in a way that makes me proud to be a member of American society. However, I loved that about this book. It really made me think about society, how it needs to change, and how I can make those changes happen.
In the first Power of Four book, I really liked the way the rabbit society was set up. It was organized, but not sophisticated. I felt like this was a good representation of what I expect from rabbits.
And the rants:
Three Dark Crowns has an ending that is supposed to be a bit of a twist, but I think it was extremely predictable. (There's two surprises, actually, but one is more unexpected, and therefore nothing to rant about.) The way the book was set up, along with some other factors, really gave it away for me. That's all I can say without spoilers, but feel free to let me know what you thought if you read the book!
As for The Year of the Witching- the threat level in this book didn't seem very high. The description made the book seem very doom and gloom-y, but as I was reading, I almost never felt like the main character was in any danger. This took a lot away from the book, in my opinion.
Power of Four: Island of Exiles is another Paper Raven book I felt was a little immature for adult audiences, but it also has some content that is questionable for younger children. This gives it a pretty small audience range of about 11-16 years old.
Up next will be my June Owlcrate book, which was a little late getting here, Sisters of the Snake by Sarena and Sasha Nanua. As always, feel free to comment and share my blog with other fantasy lovers!
Dana
