Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving.
Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her-who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves-Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. While both Hal and Breon are white, Lyss’ dark skin and wheaten hair indicate her mixed ancestry the many supporting characters represent “a quilt of faces of all colors, all ages, and every social class.” Despite the absence of any overarching narrative arc, the hurtling pace keeps the pages turning through heated battles and embraces, daring plots and escapes, right up to the abrupt cliffhanger ending.īy no means a stand-alone but-like the entire saga-essential for any epic-fantasy collection and catnip for lovers of the genre.Īfter surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself. Lyss and Hal are both blunt, honorable, war-weary soldiers whose mutual recognition of a kindred soul across battle lines lends conviction to their star-crossed romance even as Breon’s charming braggadocio and painful naiveté supply an appealing foil. Readers eager for updates on Ash and Jenna ( Flamecaster, 2016) may be frustrated by the scant tidbits here, but they’ll be more than satisfied with the author’s distinctive, immersive worldbuilding, dense plotting, and complex characterization. Halston Matelon, a potentially useful pawn, and the magemarked street busker Breon, roped into an assassination plot that may lead back to the latest sinister threat to the Realms. Her unexpected victories include capturing one Capt. The storyline shifts to the reluctant princess-heir of the Fells in this second chronicle of the next generation of wizards and warfare in the Seven Realms.Īlyssa ana’Raisa is not yet 16 but already a seasoned officer in the endless war against Arden.
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