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Dark and Deepest Red

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Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore
Publication Date: January 14, 2020
Book
Who It’s For: Teens, Adults

This is a beautiful and haunting story told in a dual timeline, linking people across five centuries. The story will hearken the tale of The Red Shoes, by Hans Christian Andersen, but it is so much more.

In 1518 France, Lavinia is swept into the chaos of a dancing plague, but her role is not that of victim, but as suspect. Her strange family and strange ways must mean only one thing: she is a witch. Five centuries later, Emil is linked to the past by blood, and Rosella by a beautiful pair of red shoes. Separated by 500 years, what must Lavinia and Emil do to save the people they love?

In this dark fairy tale, the author blends history, family, love, betrayal, women’s and girls’ roles in society, and the treatment of marginalized peoples in the past and present into a magical story.

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We Hunt the Flame

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We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Teens

Set in an ancient Arabian-like world, We Hunt the Flame follows Zafia, the mysterious Hunter who is determined to provide food for her village. She disguises herself as a man to do so, despite her best friend urging her to reveal herself as a woman. She is the only one able to go into to encroaching, dark forest to hunt and come out not only alive but also sane. On one such hunt, Zafia is confronted by the powerful Witch of the wood. She tells Zafia she can stop the  Arz from consuming her homeland if she travels to an ancient island and retrieves a powerful artifact.

Nasir is a deadly assassin and the son of the king. His brutal father accepts nothing less than merciless efficiency from his son and punishes those he loves whenever Nasir fails. Nasir is tasked by his father to track and follow the hunter to the island to retrieve the artifact then kill the hunter. While on the island they encounter elves, shape shifters and sentient plants with a taste for human blood. The main characters discover new alliances and undercover the truth about those who sent them on this perilous quest.

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Pet

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Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
Published: September 2019
Book
Who it’s for: Teens

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Jam lives in a world where monsters no longer exist. The angels have made the world safe again by eradicating the monsters. School children learn of the angels and monsters, but people have done little to prevent their reemergence. When a horrific looking creature named Pet steps from Jam’s mother’s painting, Jam must come to grips with the fact that there is a monster in her best friend’s house. With the monster hunter Pet by her side, she must make some tough decisions to protect her friend.

This creative story teaches us that monsters aren’t always what they seem , and that merely telling the tales of angels isn’t enough to stop the wicked. Brave people like Jam must speak up and fight to reveal the wolves in sheep’s clothing that live among us.

The Last Namsara

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The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli
Format : Book
Who it’s for: Teens

This fast paced, world building novel draws you in at the very start of the story. We meet Asha, an Iskari and the most feared dragon slayer in Firgaard. Between chapters, the author lays out the deep history and myth of the world, explaining not only Asha’s backstory but that of the belief system of the characters who inhabit the world. Ciccarelli does a wonderful job of keeping these sub-chapters short to the point and immensely enjoyable.

Asha has the ability to give dragons their fire, which is poisonous, by telling them the Old stories. Such stories were banned generations ago when the dragons betrayed the inhabitants of Figaard. Yet Asha uses these stories to lure and kill the dragons, presenting their heads to her father, the Dragon King of Figaard. Though she is greatly feared, she is betrothed to the sadistic commandant, who has little regard for her prowess. Only by defeating the most powerful dragon, the one who scorched the side of her face with his fire, can Asha find her freedom. In her quest, she discovers there is far more truth in the ancient stories than she ever dreamed.

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The Beholder by Anna Bright

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The Beholder by Anna Bright
Format: Book
Who’s It For: Teens and Adults

Selah was devastated when Peter publicly rejected her proposal to make him her prince, her husband.  Didn’t he know how much she cared for him?  Before her private tears were dried, Selah’s stepmother Alessandra, whom she silently dubbed her “smother,” had a plan laid out for the Council.   Selah would leave her home and her ailing father.  With a company of protectors and advisors, Selah would set sail across the Atlantic to meet four potential suitors from very different lands.  She had to choose wisely to make a good political alliance.  Would love even be a possibility?  Would Selah ever return home?  Was her dear father dying?  Selah realized the gravity of her pending decision. It would impact her, her family, her country.  And what secrets was her crew hiding about her ship, The Beholder?  Was there more at stake than met the eye?

I enjoyed this historical fantasy.  It often paralleled fairy tales and mythology, such as Cinderella, Snow White, and The Odyssey.  I’m looking forward to its sequel, The Boundless, in 2020!

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House of Salt and Sorrows

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 House of Salt and SorrowsHouse of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
Publication Date: August 6, 2019
Format: Book
Who it’s for:  Teens, Adults

House of Salt and Sorrows is a retelling of the German fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses with a little bit of influence from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, Annabell Lee.  Annaleigh is one of twelve sisters in the Thaumas family living in a kingdom by the sea.  One by one her sisters tragically die.  Each death appears to be accidental but the kingdom starts to whisper that the family is cursed.  Suddenly, Annaleigh is one of seven remaining sisters and she is second in line to inherit the kingdom.

Annaleigh’s stepmother is determined they are no longer going to mourn and they must celebrate that she is pregnant with a boy.  They decide to have a ball and new dancing shoes are ordered for the girls.  The ball is a failure as no one wants to dance with the “cursed” sisters.  Disappointed and lonely they find a doorway to other kingdoms where they can dance the night away with people that don’t know who they are.  After attending a few of these magical balls, Annaleigh starts to have disturbing visions and begins to question if her sisters’ deaths were accidental or were they murder.

Meanwhile, Annaleigh meets a mysterious stranger on the docks who seems to have a romantic interest in her.  And, her childhood friend, Fisher, returns to attend the ball.  Fisher and Annaleigh have always just been friends, but it seems that he might want more than just friendship.  However, Annaleigh needs to solve the mystery surrounding her sisters’ deaths and figure out why she is having ghostly visions before she can decide on her romantic future.

This a great Gothic tale with lots of creepy atmosphere.  If you are familiar with Poe’s poem and a fan of fairy tale retellings, you will like this one.  Another one of my favorite fairy tale retellings also happens to be based on The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier.

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