February 2020 – Story-eyed Reviews

The sun of the Chicome people has been destroyed six times. First by water, then by storm, fire, famine, sickness, and beasts. After each apocalypse, the creator goddess allowed one of her divine children to sacrifice themselves to save civilization. The gods paid their blood as the price for the lives of the people, and the people owed them blood in return.

Mayana is a noble descendant of the water goddess and can control water whenever her blood is spilled. She has always despised the brutal rituals of her people — especially sacrifices. She can’t even make it through a routine animal sacrifice without embarrassing her family. Prince Ahkin has always known he would be emperor, but he didn’t expect his father to die so suddenly. Now he must raise the sun in the sky each day and read the signs in the stars. But the stars now hint at impending chaos and the sun has begun setting earlier each evening. Ahkin fears he might not be strong enough to save his people from another apocalypse. And to add to his list of worries, he can’t truly become emperor until he selects a wife.

Mayana and six other noble daughters are sent to the palace to compete for Ahkin’s hand. She must prove she is a true daughter of water and face the others who have their own magical gifts from wielding the elements to the control of animals, plants and healing. And in a society centered on rigid rituals, Mayana must conceal her traitorous beliefs because if she doesn’t make Ahkin love her, she will become a ceremonial sacrifice to bless his marriage. But darker forces are at play and it won’t matter if Mayana loses if the world ends first…

Rich in imagination and romance, and based on the legends and history of the Aztec and Mayan people, The Seventh Sun brings to vivid life a world on the edge of apocalyptic disaster.

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The Seventh Sun by Lani Forbes is a rich, fictional exploration of a culture I don’t see written about often enough. It was descriptive, magical, and kept me reading the whole night through.

This story has so many things going for it: a solid plot, detail-oriented world building, and a religious and magical system that kept me fascinated. In fact, that was my favorite part: the descriptions. Forbes does such a masterful job of painting detailed picture after picture for her readers. Especially in an environment as lush and rich as this, her style pays off in spades.

The main character Mayana is an interesting one to tell her story. In a sometimes brutal and intense world, she is known as someone who is— well, innocent. She is kind and sympathetic and throughout her journey that both helps her and hinders her equally. While I didn’t always relate to her choices, I always understood where they came from and was persistently interested in what she would do next. In particular, her resolve to and kind heart kept me rooting for her until the very end.

The only spot that I wish would have been more fleshed out was the side characters. While still intriguing and interesting, there was so much more that I wanted to know about them. I feel as if I was told who they were more than I was shown who they were. Especially Mayana’s friend Yoli, someone who came off as this badass female warrior, but- lacked the moments in which I wanted to see her assert that personality.

The only exception here is Ahkin, the Prince. His personality is relatively prince-like in what you’d expect, but what I loved about how this character was written is that he was also written with doubt. Doubt that he can rule well, doubt that he’s doing the right thing, doubt that he is enough. This made him feel relatable and real and I enjoyed that the author brought that aspect to a character who could have been very two-dimensional.

The Seventh Sun by Lani Forbes was dark, fast-paced, and thoroughly entertaining. If you’re looking for something action-oriented, plot-driven, and flush with rich, descriptive details of a beautiful world, culture, and society, this is the book for you. Check this title out when it hits shelves soon!

Lani Forbes is the daughter of a librarian and an ex-drug smuggling surfer, which explains her passionate love of the ocean and books. A California native whose parents live in Mexico, she now resides in the Pacific Northwest where she stubbornly wears flip flops no matter how cold it gets. She teaches middle school math and science and proudly calls herself a nerd and Gryffindor. She is also an award-winning member of Romance Writers of America and the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

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A lush, dark YA fantasy debut that weaves together tattoo magic, faith, and eccentric theater in a world where lies are currency and ink is a weapon, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Kendare Blake.

Celia Sand and her best friend, Anya Burtoni, are inklings for the esteemed religion of Profeta. Using magic, they tattoo followers with beautiful images that represent the Divine’s will and guide the actions of the recipients. It’s considered a noble calling, but ten years into their servitude Celia and Anya know the truth: Profeta is built on lies, the tattooed orders strip away freedom, and the revered temple is actually a brutal, torturous prison.

Their opportunity to escape arrives with the Rabble Mob, a traveling theater troupe. Using their inkling abilities for performance instead of propaganda, Celia and Anya are content for the first time . . . until they realize who followed them. The Divine they never believed in is very real, very angry, and determined to use Celia, Anya, and the Rabble Mob’s now-infamous stage to spread her deceitful influence even further.

To protect their new family from the wrath of a malicious deity and the zealots who work in her name, Celia and Anya must unmask the biggest lie of all—Profeta itself.

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I could not wait to pick up this new YA debut. Dark fantasy? Check. Original magic system? Double check. Character driven? Check again. Blending magic and religion and tattoos into one magical concept? Well..yeah, that too. I knew when I read the synopsis of Ink in the Blood by Kim Smejkal that I wanted to be one of the readers on her book tour.

Even better than all of that? I really liked this book.

Ink in the Blood is not your usual YA fantasy story. Not only is the prose dark and beautiful in a way that’s almost poetic, but the concepts are deep and vast and truly ask the reader to think about these things for themselves. I love dark fantasy, and when darker topics are threaded into a magical world, and this book showed off that strength in spades. Smejkal does an incredible job of still keeping the book light and quick, while also exploring some of the dark corners of our minds and our capabilities as human beings.

One of my favorite things about this book has to be the magic system. I was fascinated by this link between tattoos and religion and magic from the beginning, but Smejkal does not her readers down when it came to the meat of that concert. The magic system in this book is creative, original, fresh, and you can tell that the author thought a lot about how it worked and how she wanted it these powers to further the story. I thought it was masterful.

Another of the joys inside Ink in the Blood is the relationship between Celia and Anya. I love seeing more and more LGBTQ+ representation in YA, and especially in fantasy. I love reading stories that are queer stories, but that aren’t about the characters queerness, and this was a great one. Their relationship, and deep friendship, is fierce and relatable, not to mention a great example for all of the strong, young women today.

I’m not personally a huge fan of the circus/performer setting that’s big right now and also is used in this novel, but I will say this: it didn’t stop me from enjoying this book to its fullest. While it does take some time to ramp up into an un-put-down-able story, it does eventually get there and then you’re stuck. By the end of the story, I wanted more.

Ink in the Blood was dark, fresh, original, and full of magic and love and fierce women. If any of these things appeal to you, this book is right up your alley. And if they don’t, maybe try it out anyway. YA is continuing to go in more and more interesting directions and I look forward to seeing what else Smejkal writes for us in the future.

Kim Smejkal lives with her family on muse-satiating Vancouver Island, which means she’s often lost in the woods or wandering a beach. She writes dark fantasy for young adults and not-so-young adults, always with a touch of magic. Her debut novel, INK IN THE BLOOD, will release from HMH in early 2020, with a sequel to follow in 2021. She is represented by Daniel Lazar of Writers House.