Seraphina and Shadow Scale

Seraphina, 467 pages,Shadow Scale, 608 pages, both by Rachel Hartman
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I realized while digging through my old posts that I never had the chance to review Seraphina, so it's a good thing I re-read it before reading Shadow Scale! Seraphina Dombegh has spent a large chunk of her life trying to remain unnoticed, and for good reason: she's half-dragon in a land that still hasn't quite accepted dragons living amongst them, despite 40 years of peace. Complicating things is the death of the queen's son in a suspiciously draconian fashion, just days before Ardmagar Comonot, leader of the dragons, is scheduled to arrive in Goredd to celebrate the anniversary of the treaty between the dragons and humans. Despite being a lowly assistant to the court composer, she still manages to find herself in the middle of the investigation, helping Kiggs, the captain of the city guard, and Princess Glisselda, unravel the mystery surrounding the prince's death. And, surprisingly for her, she finds other half-dragons along the way. Shadow Scale sees our heroine leave Goredd in search of the rest of the half-dragons, as war looms from the fallout of the ending of the first book.

I'm leaving a lot out here to avoid any major spoilers, but the important part is that both of these books are great. What Hartman (a WashU alum, I might add) does with the concept of dragons in these books is wonderful. Instead of making them incredibly deadly creatures and leaving them at that, she instead makes them intelligent beings who pursue knowledge doggedly and place logic and order above everything. They remind me a lot of the Vulcans from Star Trek, especially in their determination to avoid any and all emotion, which is complicated when they transform into humans. There's also a touch of romance between Kiggs and Seraphina, which is of course made worse by the fact that Kiggs has been betrothed to Princess Glisselda since forever, and neither of them want to hurt her. Hartman also does an excellent job of world building, drawing heavily from medieval and Renaissance history and European, African and Caribbean culture in order to create the different countries in the books. While the ending of Shadow Scale seems to wrap everything up nicely, I wouldn't mind another book in Seraphina's world.

The Young Elites

The Young Elites by Marie Lu, 355 pages
A 2015 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults Book

Many years ago, a sickness swept through the island of Kenettra and through the rest of the world, killing many, and marking the ones that were left. When she was four, Adelina, her sister, and their mother all got sick. Their mother died and Adelina lost an eye, but her sister, Violetta, recovered completely, becoming her father's favorite. Unfortunately for Adelina, she becomes his favorite thing to torment, especially since a malfetto daughter has caused his business to wane. Rumors start to circulate that some of those that recovered from the sickness now possess powers, calling themselves the Young Elites and fighting against the growing distrust and dislike of the malfettos, a fear which has been perpetuated by the king and queen and enforced by the Inquisition. When Adelina overhears her father selling her to a wealthy merchant to be his mistress, she runs away, only to find her father close on her heels. In her desperate struggle to get away, she discovers that she too has powers, terrible ones that can cause illusions and incite fear. Captured by the Inquisition and then saved by the Young Elites, Adelina is determined to become one of them, learning how to use and control her powers. But Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, finds her and forces her to spy for him, using her sister as leverage. Can she gain the trust of the Elites around her, especially that of Enzo, their leader and rightful heir to the Kenettran throne, and control of her powers? Can she come clean about Teren and rescue her sister in time? And what will she do about the growing blackness in her heart?

While this one didn't grab me immediately like Lu's first book, Legend, I enjoyed it nonetheless. Adelina is a broken, messed up character, and Lu does a good job bringing her struggle to life as Adelina becomes more and more engrained into the Elites, and the stakes get higher and higher if they discover her spying before she has a chance to come clean. There are some pretty obvious parallels going on between the treatment of the malfettos and real-life events like the Holocaust, but what that aspect reminded me the most of was the X-Men, most likely due to the superpowers. I'm curious to see where this story goes, especially after the ending and the epilogue that followed. It's a solid story that will work well for teens and those who make a habit of reading YA.

(Read as part of YALSA's Hub Reading Challenge.)

The Winner's Curse

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkowski, 355 pages

Ten years ago, Valoria conquered Herran, a peninsular nation that valued art and philosophy slightly more than war and military prowess. Like all good conquerors, the Valorians enslaved whatever Herrani were left. While at the market one day with a friend, Kestral, the daughter of the general who led Valoria to victory, finds herself stuck in the crowd of people around the day's slave auction when a young Herrani blacksmith comes up for purchase. Without totally realizing what she's doing, or why, she finds herself bidding on him, pushing the price higher and higher until she finally manages to win. A little surprised with herself, she brings the smith, Arin, home and puts him to work. But she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him, and is soon looking for ways to talk to him about him and his life before slavery. And Arin, despite playing an integral part in a plot to lead the Herrani into rebellion, also finds himself drawn to her, wanting to legitimately know more about her, and not just looking for information that will be helpful to his secret cause. When the rebellion happens, Arin's role in it feels like betrayal, and Kestral, who can usually manage to out-think her opponents before they realize it, doesn't see it coming and is left not knowing what to do or who to trust.

This book is beautiful, from its cover to its words. Marie Rutkowski does a fantastic job of making both Arin and Kestral nuanced characters. Both are filled with doubts and uncertainty over who they are, if they can be what others need them to be. And even when we're reading their perspective, you can never really know the truth of them, as they both manage to avoid thinking about and examining their true feelings, especially about each other. Rutkowski is so good at writing around the edges of things, leaving the reader to try and fill in the empty spaces between words, that even after spending time inside both Arin's and Kestral's heads, they still manage to be enigmas. The action definitely picks up in the second half of the book, and keeping track of the time gets a little difficult. With so much happening by the end of this book, it's hard to see where the rest of the trilogy is going to go. But I'm ready to be surprised, and ready to spend more time with Arin and Kestral.