Book Review – ‘Malice’ by Heather Walter

TITLE: Malice
AUTHOR: Heather Walter
GENRE: YA Fantasy, LGBT+
WORD/PAGE COUNT: 480 pages (hardcover)
PUBLICATION DETAILS: by Penguin Random House on April 13th, 2021

Blurb from Goodreads:

A princess isn’t supposed to fall for an evil sorceress. But in this darkly magical retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” true love is more than a simple fairy tale.

Once upon a time, there was a wicked fairy who, in an act of vengeance, cursed a line of princesses to die. A curse that could only be broken by true love’s kiss.

You’ve heard this before, haven’t you? The handsome prince. The happily-ever-after.

Utter nonsense.

Let me tell you, no one in Briar actually cares about what happens to its princesses. Not the way they care about their jewels and elaborate parties and charm-granting elixirs. I thought I didn’t care, either.

Until I met her.

Princess Aurora. The last heir to Briar’s throne. Kind. Gracious. The future queen her realm needs. One who isn’t bothered that I am Alyce, the Dark Grace, abhorred and feared for the mysterious dark magic that runs in my veins. Humiliated and shamed by the same nobles who pay me to bottle hexes and then brand me a monster. Aurora says I should be proud of my gifts. That she . . . cares for me. Even though it was a power like mine that was responsible for her curse.

But with less than a year until that curse will kill her, any future I might see with Aurora is swiftly disintegrating—and she can’t stand to kiss yet another insipid prince. I want to help her. If my power began her curse, perhaps it’s what can lift it. Perhaps, together, we could forge a new world.

Nonsense again.

Because we all know how this story ends, don’t we? Aurora is the beautiful princess. And I—

I am the villain.

MALICE is an incredible fantasy debut novel that ticks all the right boxes – compelling protagonist wrestling with her darker impulses, lovely sapphic romance and creative world-building that takes what we know from fairytales and gives it a unique twist. 

Alyce is reviled for her Vila heritage that gives her the ability to curse others in contrast to the Graces whose magic is used to enhance people’s beauty, wit and other qualities. Of course they still visit Alyce in secret to pay for her magic elixirs to cause harm to their enemies, even while they shun her in public. This leaves Alyce with an understandable grudge against the people of Briar – until she meets its princess Aurora who is nothing like what she expected.

I loved Aurora’s independence and determination to break the curse on her own terms instead of handing over rule of her land to whichever man bestows True Love’s Kiss upon her. The blithe way she befriended Alyce because of her differences instead of scorning her for them, and then her earnestness in pursuing her after Alyce pulls away won my heart. I understood Alyce’s hesitance given that a Vila ancestor of hers cursed Aurora’s bloodline and the royal family want her to keep away from Aurora, but the push & pull between them was SO GOOD, I held my breath hoping for them to fall together instead of apart, even with all the odds against them.

As someone who’s been waiting their whole life for a lesbian retelling of Sleeping Beauty, I’m definitely the target audience and this book absolutely thrilled me. But I’d also recommend it to fantasy lovers in general who are interested in retellings with a fierce feminist angle! Basically everyone should read this and flail at the cliffhanger ending with me until the sequel arrives.

Disclaimer: digital copy provided free from publisher via Netgalley for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Book Review – ‘House of Hollow’ by Krystal Sutherland

TITLE: House of Hollow
AUTHOR: Krystal Sutherland
GENRE: YA Thriller/Fantasy/Horror
WORD/PAGE COUNT: 304 pages
PUBLICATION DETAILS: by Penguin Australia on March 30th, 2021
RRP: $19.99 AUD (paperback)

Blurb from Goodreads:

Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.

Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.

As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children.

The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.

HOUSE OF HOLLOW absolutely blew me away, this is definitely one of my favorite reads this year! 

It’s a genre-bending mix of thriller, dark fantasy, horror and family drama all effortlessly intertwined and perfectly served by a polished, lyrical writing style. The author has such a beautiful way with words that I frequently stopped to re-read certain sentences, and while I’m normally a fast reader, I consciously slowed myself down at points to luxuriate in the sumptuous descriptions and evocative, haunting turns of phrase.

We meet Iris Hollow the night an obsessed stalker breaks into her home to get close to the three sisters at the center of a famous mystery and whose violent attack is halted with a simple kiss from her eldest sister who demonstrates an uncanny ability to control others through touch. Weirdness blooms from the first page and only intensifies from there throughout this fast-paced, creepily atmospheric and tightly plotted story.

I was pleasantly surprised with the diversity of the characters with Iris being bisexual, her sister Vivi who is a lesbian and the hilarious Tyler, a Korean British, gender nonconforming model who used to date the eldest Hollow sister, Grey. These three embark on a desperate, dangerous search for her when she disappears once more, and in the process, Iris uncovers grim clues about their childhood disappearance and starts to piece together the dark truth behind what happened.

Fabulous fully-fleshed out characters, a cool spin on folklore and wry humor contrasting with moments of sheer horror make this a memorable, darkly enchanting read.

Disclaimer: Physical copy provided by publisher free for an unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

ARC Review – ‘Victories Greater Than Death’ by Charlie Jane Anders

TITLE: Victories Greater Than Death
AUTHOR: Charlie Jane Anders
GENRE: YA Sci-fi
WORD/PAGE COUNT: 400 pages (paperback)
PUBLICATION DETAILS: by Titan Books on April 13th, 2021

Blurb from Goodreads:

A thrilling adventure set against an intergalactic war with international bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders at the helm in her YA debut—think Star Wars meets Doctor Who, and buckle your seatbelts.

Tina has always known her destiny is outside the norm—after all, she is the human clone of the most brilliant alien commander in all the galaxies (even if the rest of the world is still deciding whether aliens exist). But she is tired of waiting for her life to begin.

And then it does—and maybe Tina should have been more prepared. At least she has a crew around her that she can trust—and her best friend at her side. Now, they just have to save the world.

From internationally bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky) comes a thrilling adventure set against an intergalactic war—Anders’s long-awaited YA debut.

In many a book, the main character is the Chosen One with a special destiny which they are often unaware of and thrown into the plot with confusion and complaints of ‘Why me?‘ I’ve always wanted to read a story where the protagonist DIDN’T resist the Call To Adventure and embraced it whole-heartedly like many of the sci-fi nerds among us would if given the chance. Victories Greater Than Death gives me that story I’ve been waiting for with a great subversion where our Chosen One Tina is well-aware that she’s a clone of an alien commander just biding her time growing up hidden on Earth until she’s old enough to rejoin the war. Far from railing against her fate, we meet her impatiently testing out ways of activating the beacon inside her which will summon the aliens to reclaim her!