Note: I know the author of this book socially.
I have been looking forward to reading this book for years, and oh man, it did not disappoint.
The setting of this story is a magical desert world in which the wells are running dry. Our heroine is Jae, a member of the Closest caste, people who were cursed and enslaved by the Avowed in the aftermath of a long ago war. She discovers that she has the magic needed to restore the power to the Well and therefore save the world, but she must figure out how to do so while also freeing herself and her people from slavery.
One of the things that I love about this book is that while it deals with massive, overarching themes and stakes (oppressive power systems and how to overthrow them without destroying your own humanity!), it does so by focusing on the lives and experiences of individual characters and pulls you through the narrative that way. Jae is such a recognizable and yet specifically drawn character; she is the heart at the center of this story, but she can't do it alone, and she makes choices that result in consequences she couldn't have predicted, and those consequences matter in real and irreversible ways. She goes from having no control at all as a slave, to having a power so strong she must to struggle to learn how to control it.
Part of what's so satisfying about her journey is that it's a classic hero arc, both in the superhero "with great power comes great responsibility" mold and also within high fantasy world building and storytelling. Each step of her story feels inevitable and right at the moment it happens but not a second before, because the story builds both on each of the choices made within the narrative and on the greater fantasy traditions of how magic and power work. I couldn't have told you how this book would end at the halfway point or even with two or three chapters left, but once we arrived there it all slotted together like a puzzle. It's a magical system that makes sense intuitively as each piece of it is revealed and discovered, and the specific terms within the world (the Closest, the Avowed) become natural and anchor the reader to the larger history of the universe.
BBB&S is the first in a two book series, and the end of it does feel like the reader has just enough time to catch their breath. The hard work has only just begun for Jae, but I have no doubt at all that she's up for the challenge ahead.
Grade: A
I have been looking forward to reading this book for years, and oh man, it did not disappoint.
The setting of this story is a magical desert world in which the wells are running dry. Our heroine is Jae, a member of the Closest caste, people who were cursed and enslaved by the Avowed in the aftermath of a long ago war. She discovers that she has the magic needed to restore the power to the Well and therefore save the world, but she must figure out how to do so while also freeing herself and her people from slavery.
One of the things that I love about this book is that while it deals with massive, overarching themes and stakes (oppressive power systems and how to overthrow them without destroying your own humanity!), it does so by focusing on the lives and experiences of individual characters and pulls you through the narrative that way. Jae is such a recognizable and yet specifically drawn character; she is the heart at the center of this story, but she can't do it alone, and she makes choices that result in consequences she couldn't have predicted, and those consequences matter in real and irreversible ways. She goes from having no control at all as a slave, to having a power so strong she must to struggle to learn how to control it.
Part of what's so satisfying about her journey is that it's a classic hero arc, both in the superhero "with great power comes great responsibility" mold and also within high fantasy world building and storytelling. Each step of her story feels inevitable and right at the moment it happens but not a second before, because the story builds both on each of the choices made within the narrative and on the greater fantasy traditions of how magic and power work. I couldn't have told you how this book would end at the halfway point or even with two or three chapters left, but once we arrived there it all slotted together like a puzzle. It's a magical system that makes sense intuitively as each piece of it is revealed and discovered, and the specific terms within the world (the Closest, the Avowed) become natural and anchor the reader to the larger history of the universe.
BBB&S is the first in a two book series, and the end of it does feel like the reader has just enough time to catch their breath. The hard work has only just begun for Jae, but I have no doubt at all that she's up for the challenge ahead.
Grade: A
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