Paper Lanterns

Angela Velez 
Balzer and Bray, February 2022 
Hardback, £12.99 
ISBN 9780063071780

Many of us emerged, blinking from the darkness of endless lockdowns with the sickening realisation that our ability to complete a book had taken somewhat of a battering. I was one of those bloodied soldiers. The delightful, but not too sugary, confection of Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity helped to heal the mushy mess of my pandemic brain, and for that, I’m grateful.

The book tells the interwoven stories of three Peruvian-American sisters: oldest and least-seen Clara, seemingly dazzling at college; irreverent middle sister Milagro, constantly thumbing her nose at the strict nuns in her school, and youngest Lulu, a gifted but painfully shy budding biologist.

Lulu and Milagro are thrown together for a cross-country college road trip, and many hijinks and heartbreaks ensue. Angela Velez’s highly entertaining debut novel tips along very pleasantly, with many misunderstandings, tears, and revelations. At times, I felt like reaching into the pages, banging Lulu and Milagro’s heads together, and pleading with them to just get along. Some toe-curling incidents happen along the way and I found myself occasionally wincing and laughing across the course of a single page. Lulu and Milagro are two endearing protagonists, complex and contradictory.

Overall, this is a wonderfully vibrant debut, and Velez has vividly captured the alternate agony and ecstasy of being a teenager: struggling with your identity; feeling suffocated by parental expectations; bonding with your siblings over your shared history. I also loved the Spanish that was peppered throughout,. A joyous, effervescent read. I can’t wait to see what Velez writes next.

Caitríona O’Malley

Claire Legrand 
Katherine Tegen Books, February 2022 
Hardback, £14.99 
ISBN 9780062696632

Extasia is a refreshing feminist, dystopian horror that entangles you in a deeply flawed and fanatical society. The novel follows Amity as she tries to protect her village from the gruesome deaths that have plagued them. Just as she has been anointed a saint, she comes to the sickening revelation that her village is not the haven it claims to be. To add to it, she discovers that two of her fellow saints are members of a coven of witches. 

While this is a fantasy novel it highlights many current social issues that relate to women not only in Ireland but around the world. Two key themes the book focuses on are the abuse of power by religious authorities and the abuse and violence suffered by women. In today’s world, both of these themes are prevalent and Legrand truly makes the voices of every woman heard through her characters. She doesn’t shy away from the tragic reality of the victims and their suffering, and she never minimises the characters’ experience by redeeming their abusers. She shows the violent justice that these girls seek and deserve. Through their trials, they come to know their own magic and power and a powerful sisterhood is created.

This book truly is for fans of horror, it’s a perfect blend of fantasy and reality. If you loved Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn or the movie Jennifer’s Body this novel is right up your alley. Many tough topics are shown throughout the book and it is a harrowing tale that follows strong female leads in their pursuit for justice in a world that is against them from the moment they open their mouths, but it’s a tale that should not be overlooked.

Shauna Dalton

The Arc
Ben Oliver 
Chicken House, April 2022 
Paperback, £7.99 
ISBN 9781912626571

Finishing the trilogy which started in The Loop and continued in The Block, The Arc concludes the story of Luka Kane.

Luka, alongside the small group of allies he has gathered, must defeat the AI named Happy which has control of much of the world. The series has often been compared to The Matrix and the central concept, that Happy intends using humans as fuel, is identical.

The book is propulsive in its writing, never slowing down in a race to the finish. This comes at the expense of characterisation, with most of the cast barely getting more than a few lines of dialogue. When they do get some more page time, it is often for the purposes of exposition.

The Arc suffers from being forced to tie up a lot of plot in not a lot of space and could have benefitted from being longer, to give the story, and especially the characters, more room to breathe.

Ben Oliver has a knack for writing interesting action scenes and creates interesting situations for his cast to be in, but some further development of his cast is sorely missed.

Paddy Lennon

Way of the Argosi
Sebastien de Castell  
Hot Key Books, 2021  
Paperback, £8.99  
ISBN 9781471405549

Way of the Argosi is the seventh book in the Spellslinger series. This book is the first in the series to explore the origin story of the mysterious Ferius Parfax. Ferius has featured in previous books as a canny, humorous, and daring traveller who teaches a strange new magic to a struggling young mage. In this book we meet Ferius as a frightened child, determined to survive in the wake of the slaughter of her tribe. As bodies pile up around her, Ferius defies the odds and is pulled to safety and for a short time, lives with people who care and provide for her. 

However, when she encounters a Jan’Tep mage her world is torn apart. Vowing revenge, she sets about finding out who she is. We follow Ferius through her journey as thief, gambler, traveller, and killer as she meets and is mentored by Durral Brown, a wandering philosopher, who teaches Ferius the way of the Argosi, so that she too can become powerful enough to hunt magicians. As this is the seventh book in the series, the author doesn’t waste much time on introducing the world of the characters, most of the world building having been established in previous instalments. So, it could be difficult to dive into this book without any knowledge of the series. However, the characters are compelling enough to hold a reader’s attention and the story is well paced. Although set in a fantasy world, there are shades of the Old West in this series that will appeal to fans of Firefly or Jim Butcher.  

                                                                    Lisa Redmond

Pride and Prejudice: A Retelling
Laura Wood 
Barrington Stoke, January 2022 
Paperback, £7.99 
ISBN 9781800900240

In this retelling of the Jane Austen novel, Woods manages to successfully rework the text for a young, modern audience. This is not a modern day version of Pride And Prejudice, rather a modern language reworking. The storytelling is simpler and contemporary yet successfully retains the feeling of the classic. Each sentence has been brought firmly into 21st century language, with fewer word-heavy lines and helpful contextual explanations that guide the reader, yet still feels true to the language and era of the original.

We are treated to all the beloved scenes from Pride And Prejudice; the balls are particularly vibrant. Characters are well rounded, with Mrs Bennet showing her contrary notions particularly well, and Mr Darcy as intriguing a figure to us as he is to Lizzie. Tensions between the pompous old world of Lady Catherine and Lizzie’s modern outlook feel familiar and relatable.

Much of the interior musings and day-to-dayness of the original has been omitted, making the story feel a bit rushed in some places. This results in the time between some events, particularly between the proposal and the visit to Pemberley, feel as though they are happening more suddenly than originally intended. Overall this is an excellent modernisation that keeps the soul of Jane Austen’s novel as its core. 

This edition is dyslexia-friendly with specially designed font and paper colour for accessibility.

Patricia Hayes

Nicola Davies 
Firefly Press, 2021 
Hardback £14.99 
ISBN: 9781913102777

The Song That Sings Us tells the story of Harlon and her younger siblings, Ash and Xeno, as they barely escape from the brutal Automators. Nicola Davies builds a chilling dystopian world where Automators free people from “the tyranny of nature” by killing all wildlife they find and repressing the Listeners, humans who are able to speak with animals.

While the novel’s 400+ pages may be intimidating to some readers, Davies tells a very moving story from the point of view of both humans and animals. Her language is beautiful and poetic as she describes the natural world that the rebels are fighting to protect. The reader really feels the joy of speaking with elephants or singing with whales, just as they feel the despair of seeing the Automators’ machines cut down an entire forest.

Harlon, Ash, and Xeno are all heroes that the reader quickly comes to root for as they face down impossible odds to reunite their family and protect the animals they love. The villains’ goal to cut off humans’ connection with nature so they can more easily exploit it for profit hits frighteningly close to home.

Ultimately, The Song That Sings Us is a rip-roaring adventure story with airships, woolly rhinos, and battles between good and evil. But it’s also an important reminder that all life on earth is interconnected, and that humans still have a lot to learn from nature.

Anna Benn

Echoes and Empires
Morgan Rhodes 
Razorbill, January 2022 
Paperback, £8.99 
ISBN 9780593524138

What Josslyn Drake knew for sure was that magic is evil evil — that is, until she became “infected” with it. Now she and the criminal, Jericho Nox, must find a way to remove it.

  Echoes and Empires is the type of novel I was waiting for. Characters come alive from the very first pages, particularly the two main protagonists who are so well thought-out and developed, especially Josslyn. She is a teenage girl I could heavily relate to and not because of any specific personality trait described, but for being a realistic character through and through.  Josslyn didn’t suddenly come across amazing power or skills she didn’t have before. Rather, she utilised what she knew already. Her development was well planned out, from the pampered girl, favoured by the Queen of the Empire, to the young woman she’s becoming as she learns more about the world around her and herself.

The author did a fairly good job setting up the world for this story to take place, but it lacked cohesion at times. This might be because the majority of world-building took place mostly through dialogue. As Josslyn figures out how it all works, we as readers learn along with her.

  The storyline was well-paced in the first half of the book. After that, it continued effectively but it became apparent that the plot won’t be fully resolved anytime soon and it’s all a set-up for a series. I don’t mind it one bit though, because, when the time comes, I’ll be very excited to jump back into Josslyn and Jericho’s story.

Joanna Kleibauer

Mary Watson 
Bloomsbury YA, April 2022 
Paperback, £7.99 
ISBN 9781526636706

Savannah, the teenage protagonist of Blood to Poison, is angry. It’s an anger that blooms in the everyday injustices of life in the wake of South Africa’s apartheid years, from the men who catcall her in the street to the angry customers who mind their manners for white men but not black women. It is against this backdrop that Savannah finds out she is cursed — an intergenerational curse stretching back to her ancestor Hella, who harnessed magic to curse her enslavers.
Women, magic, and anger are all intertwined in this urban fantasy. In a world where girls are often told that their anger is irrational or unladylike, Blood to Poison revels in female anger. Watson explores how Savannah’s anger can be both a weakness and a strength: “Anger can warn you when something is not right. It can be a powerful tool, but has to be wielded carefully and with precision. You have to control it, not have your anger control you,” the enigmatic Mama Daline advises Savannah in the early chapters.

The themes of female anger and strength are woven within a fast-paced plot where Savannah struggles to break her curse before it’s too late. Savannah is an excellent protagonist, spirited and fierce but also so very kind and loving. Some of Watson’s more ambitious fantasy scenes lose the tight grip the rest of her writing holds, but even in these rougher patches, the strength of the characters and plot are more than enough to keep readers at the edge of their seats. Blood to Poison is both an excellent fantasy novel and meditation on women and their power.

Aoife Sheehan

Marcus Sedgwick  
Barrington Stoke, March 2022 
Paperback, £7.99  
ISBN 9781800900899

Wrath is the perfect blend of mystery, romance and paranormal genres, all in one book. It’s detailed enough to keep older readers entertained, while being appropriate and simple enough for younger readers to enjoy. The book is dyslexia-friendly, making it great for those who struggle to finish books or to get more advanced readers out of a reading slump. I recommend Wrath for ages 9-14.

Set in Scotland, it follows the life of the Fitz and his bandmates in the days leading up to his friend Cassie’s disappearance. Cassie doesn’t seem like herself, she has always been a bit unique but this time something is different — she keeps complaining about a noise, a low hum that she can’t seem to get rid of. She thinks it’s the earth trying to fight back. Everyone thinks she’s crazy, and she might start to think so too. 

The book, while delivered in an appropriate way for younger audiences, does have a brief scene of violence that isn’t graphic and features a couple that are verbally aggressive towards each other. 

Clara Crichton, 14