It is not easy being a human-sized girl in a family of giants, but Lina is convinced that at the naming ceremony her true nature and height will be realized. The day of the ceremony arrives and, against her parent's wished, Lina shows up with the other twelve-year-old giant hopefuls, only to have disaster strike, forcing her to flee her village in the clouds. Meanwhile, alternate chapters relate the experiences of Jin, a young genie in training, who is forced to endure the voice of the Cosmic Knowledge in his head and follow the whims of the evil Golden King, who has him in his clutches. Their paths collide as Lina escapes to the human village of who's inhabitants include many displaced magical fairy tale characters in hiding from the Golden King. Jin is sent to the same village by the evil ruler from which everyone is hiding. He becomes invisible to complete his dastardly mission and secretly encounters Lina--and inconveniently develops a crush on the giant-in-training. The situation quickly spins out of control as the giants go on a rampage thanks to Lina's actions and the Golden King's greedy desires force Jin to worsen the situation. Will this fairy tale world be destroyed forever? Will Jin ever break free of his evil master? And-most of all- if she isn't a giant, then what is Lina's true nature?
Riley, author of the popular Story Thieves series presents a new companion trilogy to his Half Upon a Time series. Honestly, I did not know that this was connected to the before mentioned series until the end of the book and it stand alone from it's predecessor. Kids who read the first series will be the natural audience, as will fans of Chris Colfer and Michael Buckley. I enjoyed the story very much and felt that Riley twisted common fairy tail tropes in a fun and original way. Lina is a bold, kind and daring individual who, though impulsive at times, attempts to fix her mistakes and leads with her heart. Jin is a bratty tween who, though wielding great power, is still learning how to manage it responsibly. He offers comic relief and exhibits room for character growth as the trilogy continues. Readers will guess the true identity of the evil Golden King and I suspect that his arc will get that much more interesting as well. The two storylines are distinct and written clearly in alternating voices, offering different views of the plot, which come together by book's end. The story moves quickly with a lot of action and interesting characters, sure to satisfy fans of the twisted fairy tale subgenre.
No comments:
Post a Comment