Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up--After braving the Shiv Road and learning more about her power over Winter, Sylvi and her friends are on the run from the Majority. Sylvi comes up with a plan to avoid war, which takes them back to where everything began. Sylvi's romance with Kyn is entangled with a curse binding them together. The unique Mad Max: Fury Road meets Frozen worldbuilding and adrenaline-infused writing style are not enough to counter the simplistic plot elements--like the underdeveloped Majority villain--as a complex story devolves into a superficial adventure with an abrupt ending. VERDICT This duology had a strong start that faltered at the finish line. A secondary purchase for collections that own the first book.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In this sequel to Winter, White and Wicked (2020), Sylvi's band of rebels returns to fight for their future--using Winter as a weapon. After Sylvi discovers the truth about who she is and the power she holds over Winter, she, her brother, Mars, and her revolutionary friends are on the run from the Majority. As they cross the Kol Sea on their way to meet the king of Paradyia, hoping he will lend his army for their fight against their oppressors in Layce, Sylvi comes up with a different option, one that could avoid an all-out bloody war. It's a daring and dangerous plan that sends them home, back to where everything started. In the meantime, the curse-bond between Kyn and Sylvi starts to take a toll on their budding romance, and Sylvi's long-lasting, turbulent relationship with Winter comes to a standstill. This volume sees Sylvi embracing her role as the chosen one and the de facto leader of a revolution--but not without some thoughtful rumination about her feelings for Winter, easily the highlight of an otherwise superficial story that doesn't flesh out the Majority as a villain and relies on a deus ex machina infodump for its denouement. The fast-paced, plot-driven narrative leads to a rushed, simplistic resolution to a story hundreds of years in the making. The main characters read White; racial diversity exists in the world. A flat and compressed duology closer. (map) (Fantasy. 12-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
