Rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: May 1, 2018
Disclaimer: I received a free ARC copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The dark-skinned Lagrimaris and light-skinned Elsirans have lived separately for centuries, with only a magical barrier keeping them apart; now, the barrier’s about to fall, and if Jasminda doesn’t stop it, it’ll mean war.
Elsira is home to light-skinned, non-magical folks, and Lagrimari is home to dark-skinned folks blessed with Earthsong. The only thing that separates them is a magical barrier, which disallows travel between the two—except during a breach, which inevitably leads to major wars.
Jasminda is an Elsiran, though her father was a Lagrimari, and her fellow citizens fear her dark skin and Earthsong. All except Jack, an injured soldier that stumbles into her path, and with him comes alarming news: the barrier between the regions is already failing. He needs Jasminda’s help—and more importantly, her Earthsong—to help him keep that from happening.
☙ L. Penelope does an absolutely fantastic job of translating real-world societal issues into a fantasy setting and making it feel real and authentic. I was actually really surprised at how well this was done. The biggest one that jumps out is the obvious racial tensions between the dark-skinned Lagrimaris and light-skinned Elsirans, adding to that the fact that Jack and Jasminda are an interracial couple. The interactions in society beautifully mirror the real world, but also fit very naturally in the fantasy setting, so I didn’t feel like I was reading a narrative of life with magic randomly sprinkled in. The struggle felt genuine, and it was easy to relate to all the powerful issues discussed (of which, racial tension is merely one, though there are many others).
☙ There’s a good amount of diversity in this, with a lead character of color, a white love interest, and even a lesbian couple (though, admittedly, they’re background characters). The most important thing is that nobody is necessarily painted as the “big bad guy.” Everyone’s at fault. Everyone sucks. They all need to go find a bench somewhere and hold hands until they can get along. The prejudices are deep-seated, but the fear behind them on both sides is real, and it was easy for me to understand the different perspectives, even if I didn’t agree with or like them.
☙ There’s a great cast of characters, and not only are they badass when they need to be, they also have their flaws and doubts. Actually, Jasminda has a pretty big flop early on in the book that shakes her confidence. She’s not this all-powerful Earthsinger, and she knows it, but you know what? You’ve got to work with what you’re given, and she does. I liked that early fail to set the tone of things. Despite the characters being in what one might assume were positions of power, they’re both restrained by society and circumstances, and I thought that was a really powerful narrative. They weren’t just fighting inner battles, but raging against society, as well.
☙ Each chapter begins with a bit of folklore, and these were beautiful and poetic, and I would just buy a book full of these if it were offered. It was something I looked forward to for every chapter, because they were just really short quips, maybe five sentences tops, that imparted a nugget of wisdom in a witty and, well, folkloric way. They were a lot of fun to read.
☙ Though it’s the first book of a series, it doesn’t end on any cliffhanger and could be a standalone. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for sequels, because it sets up the world and the struggle nicely, and I can imagine quite a few directions the story could go from here. It was sort of a nice change to have the first of a series not end on a massive cliffhanger, though.
☙ The plot feels chaotic; things are all over the place, and more than once, I had to go back because I had been lost somewhere. I think this is a byproduct of this being chock full of action. It’s often one thing to the next, always something happening, and there are multiple storylines and plots woven through it and different points of view. It just felt like a lot, and at times, it was downright hard to follow.
☙ I’m really just not a big fan of insta-love; insta-attraction, sure, but it takes more than two weeks to fall in love with someone, people. If that’s your trope, then this is your book. You’ll probably love it. I need a little more meat to my romance, personally. I felt like everything moved incredibly fast, and I just couldn’t get that into it.
☙ Speaking of romance, I didn’t expect there to be so much sex … or how detailed it would get. Also, trigger warning for attempted rape. Now, I’m not talking full-on erotica at all, and it wasn’t bad, but sex scenes in general just aren’t my thing. I felt like it came out of nowhere and I hadn’t realized the book was going to go in that direction. This isn’t the book’s fault; it was more my expectations going in versus what ended up being reality.
I actually hadn’t heard a lot about this book before I picked it up, just a big in passing, and that sort of surprises me considering that of all the diverse books I’ve read so far this year, this one has probably felt the most natural. At no point did I think, “Well, this character’s clearly X marginalized group for publicity.” The characters just were who they were, but it had a massive impact on how they interacted with society and each other, and it was just so refreshing to have the characters acting so genuine in that way. I wouldn’t say Song of Blood & Stone is a thrilling read or a page-turner; there were plenty of times I set it down, and I wasn’t dying to get back to it. It was a good read, however, and I’m looking forward to the sequel. I also really want L. Penelope to write a book of collected folklore based on the snippets from the beginning of the chapters, as I would totally buy that!
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