This was a beautifully crafted story and tbh I wish I read it in audio now because of the format it’s written in(oratory format! crucial, considering the cultural ties to Black storytelling passed through generations) but I genuinely wouldn’t have had the time if that was the case, I’m already juggling two other audiobooks right now. Still, it took me a while to get through this, but I’m glad I got to savor it, because I haven’t done that with a book since March?!

Audre and Mabel’s bond was so sweet. It developed naturally over the course of the novel, which was refreshing to read, and you could tell there was an honest romantic love between them, not just attraction. I smiled a couple of times when they’d joke with each other and share some of the more emotional moments of the story. And Mabel’s friend group!!! I love that they accepted Audre so quickly, and honest to god they bounced off of each other well. An accurately-written teenage friend group lacking the drama I’m used to usually reading about.

I wasn’t expecting Afua to have his own POV chapters, I thought he’d only be referenced by Mabel! But I thought his storyline was handled well, it’s extremely rare for me to find sympathetic and developed incarceration stories in the books I pick up(for the moment), and also his passages felt like something I’d be able to read in a solid book located on the shelves of bookstore owners or ordinary folks who were revolutionaries in their prime. Felt like I could smell the dust on Mabel’s copy of Afua’s titular published book. 

Goodness though, as much as I rooted for Mabel’s hope in holding onto her life, and Audre’s hope for finding community, “The Stars And The Blackness Between Them” really pulled on my heartstrings!! Though I can’t say I full-on cried, I teared up a couple of times. Mabel especially feels like a character that can exist outside of fiction, who can be a person I see on a sidewalk or in a hallway one day. 

I’m outside of the target demographic of this book: while I am queer, I’m also White, but I appreciate how this distinctly felt written for a Black and queer audience. Of course, that meant there were some references that didn’t come to me as naturally, or jokes not meant for me to laugh at, but I am glad that readers within that group can have a book undeniably queer, spiritual and Black like this one. One that is emotional, but in a variety of ways, not for the sake of only showcasing trauma.

However, the reason this isn’t at a 5.0 is because a) although this is an OwnVoices novel, a couple of Trini reviewers expressed concerns and criticisms regarding some of the rep of their culture(to my understanding the author is also American, but also, you cannot expect one author to be the voice of an entire marginalized group and sometimes that rep can be flawed!), b) some of the magical realism elements threw me off? Nothing against the genre, it’s one of my favorites, but there wasn’t much consistency whenever those elements were brought up and because this was a mostly contemporary story it could be sometimes confused for metaphor. Because of that, my feelings on the ending remain mixed.

Personally, I’d recommend this! Although there’s an award on the cover I don’t see many people talking about it and it’s kinda disappointing.

All I can say is…huh?!?!

I finished this one because it’s by Anna-Marie McLemore: they’re one of my auto-buy authors, and I love their work even if their prose isn’t for everyone and some of their YA writing can get trope-y. And there were a couple of interesting concepts in this book. Between that and a some moments I genuinely liked, I can say my reading experience wasn’t excruciating, it ranged from okay to good most of the time even if I lost half the plot 3/4ths in. Although, I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this book to anyone. 

But aside from the queer and disabled rep, there isn’t anything I found in this story worth sticking with me. The political conflict/intrigue? I enjoy stories with sci-fi or fantasy kingdoms involved in that(you can thank “The Kindred” by Alechia Dow for making me realize that!), but beyond some clear cultural inspirations, neither kingdom felt properly developed. All we know is that they’re close to each other geologically(and their monarchs were probably close with each other at some point), and they were warring when nobody wanted to. But what about the history behind the war?? We never got an answer as to how it started, just that the princesses and princes of Eliana and Adare had to clean up the messes their parents made, but that was wrapped up a little too neatly by the end. (How did everything go to being okay so quickly?!) Some of the decisions made in the beginning really confused me, too, for kingdoms on high alert with each other. And plus, there were so many names, some of which had very little plot importance until the last second, which made a couple scenes very confusing for me as it’s just expected the reader memorizes who everyone is in their varying levels of on-page time?? 

The reveal about the true caster of the curse made little sense to me, there should’ve been more of a buildup to that. I was left baffled, and not in an “I’ve been outsmarted by the author!” way.

(Note about Val: because Val is referred to with she/her or he/him pronouns depending on gender presentation, I will be alternating between the two throughout my review.)

Cade and Val are interesting as characters, but as a romance, they don’t work for me. Cade I could get behind(in the romance), because he’s sympathetic towards Val and even kinda intrigued by her at the beginning, he just can’t interact with her in a totally peaceful way due to the complicated circumstances of his kingdom. But Val went from wanting to hold a knife to Cade’s throat to entrusting him with his life?!?! Although the switch occurred a third through the novel(which I guess could be a solid amount of time for a character to build trust, depending on the story?), it was still abrupt. Towards the end, though, they each have these achingly sentimental and emotional internal monologues about the other which..don’t feel deserved? Which was a shame, because there were a couple moments of the writing that I liked. I can best describe it as there was a clear beginning/set-up(their unease with each other), and a clear end(them learning to trust each other and fix the messes passed down to them from their monarchs during the sleeping curse), but the in-between was a loose thread to connect the two. It felt rushed. Thank god that they technically didn’t *fully* break up in the third act, though, Anna-Marie has a specific breakup trope in their books that gets on my nerves every time it’s used and was *very* close to happening based on the dialogue. 

I’m gonna be honest, a lot of the elements in this book feel as if there was a clear beginning and end but the middle had to be improvised.

Focusing back on the main plot, though: one of the concepts I was most intrigued by was the shapeshifting castle, however, I was let down realizing that it doesn’t fit inside a traditional YA high fantasy book like V&V. It’s distinctly magical realism, meaning it’s one of the only types of magic in this book that isn’t explained or in-depth, and feels very jarring. How do mid-fight travels between rooms and halls work, is it like teleportation or a gradual morph(and does it depend on the perspective, whether you’re part of it or a bystander)? How much of its unpredictability is symbolic for the flimsy connection with the sleeping queen if it was notorious for changing even before the curse? 

Also, I didn’t like the fight scenes. They weren’t lyrical or anything, it was just hard to keep up with the movements and the positions unless someone got an injury of some kind. 

Other things I actually liked: Anna-Marie and Elliot’s writing flowed well together. Yes, they have clearly different voices, but they didn’t *clash* in my opinion. The reveal where Cade pieces together that Gael and Val are the same person stuck with me for some reason, all these different images of him that weren’t even projecting just different facets of the same character led to a pretty interesting line of thought and idk I liked the mental image I got in that scene. (Regarding that, I had no problem distinguishing Cade and Val’s multiple identities and who was who, my confusion came from the plot and not them.) The monks were cool and I liked the gender feels they brought! And that map in the beginning of the book, gorgeous(kudos to the artist)!! 

Other questions I have: Where was the quetzal for a majority of the book and what was its importance to the story? Val couldn’t communicate with it for a majority of the time because it would be hazardous to do so, but dude, keep the critter in your thoughts at least…? (Especially because there was a thing about Val’s quetzal being important to her and loyal.) Why was there two pages at the end about rocks, was that a metaphor for discovering new things or does everyone…really like rocks?!?! 

Overall, a lot of questions, some of which leaving me frustrated and others just a little confused. It’s definitely one of the reading experiences of all time!