Much more cheek in this one than the last—and it’s fun for all that and the intertwining relationships, friends and foes, and a slew of people I want to love but no one is sure who can be trusted—not even me. Kept me engaged with the secrets and insinuations and all the coiling death threats. I just didn’t know what way this was going to go—and all the myriad plots braid together to make for a very readable adventure. 

 

Again, another YA that’s not super literary or poetic in any way, but it’s all plot and adventure, and plenty of it, with more talking animals. Characters have unique voices and the four main voices, coming through with differing narrative styles, work with one another to move thighs along, even when they are working against each other. 

 

Major philosophical questions raised: Who is real and what is real and what makes a person real? Major political questions raised: Who should lead—the people or a sovereign? And how should that be decided? But who decides? All the complex questions are explored from various perspectives, creating empathy and understanding on all sides, but not quite resolving the political and social dilemma—and meanwhile, the islands are sinking, enemies are rising, and time is running short. 

 

I appreciated the allegorical confrontation of selfish motives in leaders, those who have arrived to positions of power and yet ‘serve’ only as a salve to the stinging bitterness that propels their grasp at revenge; it was refreshing to see their bitterness outed—and second chances offered. Whether these were taken, I’ll leave you to read… the contrast was drawn clearly to well-intentioned leaders and the difficult decisions made by them, sometimes wrongly interpreted, on behalf of their people. The isolation of leadership stings on a seat of power, but the love for the people, when chief motivator, wins the long battle. 

 

The surprise at the end was very unexpected… 

 

If in the first I wasn’t racing to pick up the 2nd, at the end of this one, my curiosity is adequately piqued…