Review by Booklist Review
The Defender of Fairie is back and as confused as ever. Sure, Aliera has her magical weapons and a loyal (if dumb) sidekick in her lab partner-troll defector, Avery, but what next? Well, it isn't long before adventure finds her. While locked away in a troll holding cell, her best friend and cousin is kidnapped. It's up to Aliera to save her, and it all comes to a head in an epic battle that tests loyalties and reveals some interesting history about her selection as Defender. Fans of Yolen's fencing fantasy, Foiled (2010), will not be disappointed by this sequel, featuring more of Cavallaro's cool, mostly monochromatic art.--Jones, Courtney Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Yolen's smart, introspective, foil-wielding Aliera Carstairs returns, this time to thwart the Dark Lord's plot to kidnap her beloved cousin. The Dark Lord wants the Defender's weapon-that's Aliera's sword, the one with the hokey-looking jewel at the base that Aliera's mother picked up at a tag sale. It's this marriage of the mundane and the magical that gives this sequel to Foiled its most winning moments; Aliera has to squeeze her feats of derring-do in between high school math tests and fencing practice. Cavallaro uses a pallid gray-green palette for the New York City landscape in which Aliera lives her everyday life and rainbow colors for the magical beings that trail her. The story line has heart and intelligence, and Yolen successfully weds faerie lore to cinema-style plot twists; the only weak spot is the occasionally clunky dialogue: "You've watched too many cheap movies, Aliera," her nemesis tells her. "You sound like every cheap villain in them," is Aliera's banal retort. Yet Aliera is such an engaging hero that fans will gladly overlook the deficit. Ages 11-up. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. Illustrator's agent: Joe Monti, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Jan.)? (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Yolen continues Aliera's journey in this follow-up to Foiled (First Second, 2010), which fleshes out more of the faerie world the young fencer has now become a part of. A quick sequential recap of the first story appears at the beginning to make this book accessible to new readers. Aliera has recently come to terms with her new role as Defender of the Faerie. She has discovered that her classmate Avery is actually a magically glamoured troll. He keeps following her around and cryptically promising to tell her more about her destiny. It's a shame that knowing his real identity doesn't make her think he's any less cute. Despite a chance encounter with Baba Yaga while riding the bus, Aliera attempts her normal routine: school, fencing practice, and visiting her cousin Caroline. A band of surly trolls is intent on getting her mystical practice foil, however, and plot to kidnap her and Avery at Grand Central Terminal. Barely escaping unscathed, Aliera learns that Caroline has been kidnapped. Color is used sparsely throughout Cavallaro's fantastic art, helping to highlight the surreal surroundings Aliera keeps getting thrown into. For example, she is in gray tones until she uses her foil to become invisible, which changes her hue to a darker shade of yellow. In dialogue-heavy panels, it can be difficult to tell which character is speaking. Still, the story itself provides a strong female protagonist who will leave readers clamoring for more.-Ryan P. Donovan, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Foiled's (rev. 7/10) feisty heroine, Aliera Carstairs, makes a return appearance, ready to "save Faerie from the big bad guys. The really big bad guys. You know, ogres and witches and trolls. Oh, my!" But, of course, there's also high school and fencing class, and "balancing the mundane world with the mystical" isn't exactly easy-breezy. To make matters more complicated, Aliera's got an unwanted bodyguard: Avery Castle. He's a high school hottie in daylight, but as darkness falls, he morphs into a troll. And although Avery has pledged to protect her, how can Aliera, Defender of Faerie, bring herself to trust a troll, especially when her cousin Caroline's life may be on the line? As Aliera quarrels with Avery about, well, everything, their back-and-forth thrust and parry is a clever verbal analog to actual fencing. Yolen repeats this comparison and even winks at its appearance in movies like The Princess Bride during Aliera's showdown with the Dark Lord, who is not only the leader of the trolls but, in an unexpected twist, the real betrayer of Aliera's trust. Throughout the graphic novel, Cavallaro plays with contrast, interrupting his muted gray palette (Aliera is colorblind) with bursts of bright color whenever fantastical creatures or objects appear on the scene. tanya d. auger (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
En garde! Gear up for more sword fights and trolls as well as an appearance from Baba Yaga in this swashbuckling sequel. Picking right up where Foiled (2010) left off (though with enough back story for new readers to comfortably jump in), Aliera Carstairs, the sassy, sword-fighting, take-no-prisoners heroine, is still battling trolls as the last Defender of Faerie. Avery Castle, the hottie who turned out to be a troll--literally--is now bound to Aliera as her vassal, causing her more headaches than heart flutters. The unlikely pair must find and battle the Dark Lord, whose identity, when revealed, isn't quite the shocking twist it was set up to be. Cavallaro keeps the stylized sensibility he established in the previous volume, rendering our world a washed-out grayscale landscape and juxtaposing it against the vibrant--though invisible to humans--world of Faerie. Given that each chapter is named for a type of fencing move, it's too bad there is no glossary to help those unacquainted with the sport understand what is undoubtedly a careful authorial nuance. This minor flaw aside, the book offers a lot of fast-paced fairy-tale fun, and Aliera is both admirable and easy to relate to for her fierceness and foibles. A mysterious prophecy of things to come at the conclusion results in raised eyebrows and impatience for Volume 3. (Graphic fantasy. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
