Who let me sleep on this book for so long??!! A dark YA adventure novel with a gender-bent Count of Monte Cristo premise! Dual POV! Opulent city-street parties and tea houses, coupled with sinister gambling houses and a spreading plague! Now I need to get my hands (or ears) on the sequel!

Unpredictable moments and deception abound in another addition to the fantasy duology genre, Scavenge the Stars. A fresh and imaginative retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, Tara Sim provides a new lens for discussions of identity, revenge, and hope. Sim crafts a fantasy world where you feel immersed immediately, and one you won't want to leave until you, like Amaya, know exactly what set her on her path to revenge and fortune. By alternative points of view between the two main characters, utilizing descriptions that engage all the senses, and expertly writing both vulnerability and strength, Tara Sim creates characters that are as lovable as they are flawed, in a world you won't want to leave. 

Tara Sim is a YA fantasy author who can typically be found wandering the wilds of the Bay Area in California. She is the author of the Timekeeper trilogy, which has been featured on Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, and various media outlets. When she's not chasing cats or lurking in bookstores, she writes books about magic, clocks, and explosives. 

When Amaya rescues a mysterious stranger from drowning, she fears her rash actions have earned her a longer sentence on the debtor ship where she's been held captive for years. Instead, the man she saved offers her unimaginable riches, a new identity, and the promise of retribution against Kamon Mercado, the powerful merchant who ruined Amaya's family and stole the life she once had. Cayo Mercado, heir to his father's empire, is well acquainted with the grit beneath the grandeur of Moray. In this opulent coastal city-state, where the corrupt Slum King pockets gold from desperate gamblers and deadly ash fever spreads like rot, Cayo is desperate to shake his disreputable past. But when his sister falls ill, Cayo will do anything to save her life—even if it means making a deal with the Slum King. As Amaya and Cayo become entangled in a dangerous game of deception—one of them set on protecting the Mercado family at any cost, and the other set on destroying it—they find themselves unexpectedly drawn to one another. But the more Amaya discovers about her past, the more she realizes she must trust no one . . . The first novel in a sweeping fantasy duology, this gender-swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo is packed with high-stakes adventure, romance, dueling identities, and breathtaking betrayals, all brilliantly woven together by acclaimed author Tara Sim. 

Amaya's story has a lot to do with identity. In some ways, there are three versions of her. The first is the Amaya she was before she became Silverfish; the second is the Amaya she was as Silverfish; and the third is the blend of the Amaya she wants to be in the present of the novel. But not only is she consumed with how she wants to reconcile her definition of herself with her previous selves—she is also consumed by discovering the history of her parents and where she came from, and how she ended up having split identities in the first place. Amaya is also determined in her quest for revenge, and her quest for understanding her identity intersects with that goal often during the novel. Once she's able to come to terms with who she is, and who to lay the blame of the actions on, is when she's able to finally understand herself and her purpose. This is a truly powerful narrative, especially for young adult readers who are also consumed with the quest for identity. Sim does a wonderful job incorporating the joys and sorrows of identity, while also making her female heroine both strong and vulnerable. Amaya is a wonderful female heroine for young adult readers, and they will no doubt be impressed by her story and want to know more after finishing Scavenge the Stars. 

Cayo, too, is juggling under the weight of his family's reputation, his sister's illness, and the new feelings he has towards the new countess in town. His story unfolds by the use of alternating point of view chapters, beginning with Amaya and switching to Cayo. The timing of these point of view chapters can be deceptive at first, and it makes for a very entertaining first shocking reveal. As Cayo's and Amaya's stories intersect and conflict with one another, as they thwart and help each other, we learn that they are essentially undergoing the same kind of transformation. Cayo, despite having a family name and responsibilities, also struggles under the weight of identity, and who he truly wants to be. Not unlike Amaya, Cayo is driven by a kind of revenge as well, making the two characters more alike than they make think. I wish we got to understand Cayo's and Bas's relationship a bit better, which would have made some of Cayo's earlier scenes more vulnerable and dramatic. Overall, though, Cayo is also as dynamic and intriguing a character as Amaya, and no doubt readers will be excited to see how he is able to support his sister and potentially reestablish his family name in the sequel to this story. 

Moray, the city where Amaya's and Cayo's stories take place, is dangerous, glittering, and poisoned. When I'm reading, I feel like I can smell everything around me, I can see the glittering and dilapidated buildings. When Amaya was describing scenes on the Brackish I could taste the brine and feel the small fish gutting knife in my own fingers. In the countess's house, too, I felt like I was right in the middle of the party action, spreading gossip with only a finger two around a champagne flute. Sim has a lot of skill with her ability to make readers feel completely immersed in her fantasy world in this way. Her ability to capture all of the senses while writing was amazing. On a larger scale, though, I was sometimes lost with where Moray was situated in this world of empires and impending war. That could be because I usually read a lot of fantasy books that have maps, where it's easier to ground myself in the fantasy world. But I think what also played into this was the lack of clear-cut and detailed descriptions around each of the empires and the tensions surrounding them until later in the book. However, I was glad that Sim opened each chapter with small quotes from different books that would have circulated in her fantasy world, some of which came from the empires that were sometimes hard to visualize. Even if we couldn't see the empires on a map or quite understand the tensions that existed between the empires and city states, we could at least get a feeling or a vibe from the literature she chose to present at the beginning of chapters. 

For fans of The Count of Monte Cristo, Scavenge the Stars will certainly feel imaginative and wholly original, spinning a famed story into something entirely new. I believe it is a pretty loose retelling, but I am not entirely familiar with The Count of Monte Cristo to say so for sure! However, Scavenge the Stars definitely has a retelling feel to it, as seen by the beats of the pacing and some of the larger points in the story (such as the acquired fortune, search for revenge, and elements of deception). Even those unfamiliar with The Count of Monte Cristo will enjoy the threads of deception and the great reveal at the end of the novel—it was shocking to me! Unpredictable moments abound, and deception and fortune plays a huge role in this novel. 

Luckily for readers, this isn't the ending of Amaya and Cayo's story. The sequel, Ravage the Dark is out now, wherever books are sold!

*This review can also be found on my blog, toreadornottoreadnm.blogspot.com*