From the Publisher
"A heartrending, must-read fantasy about youth searching for home and learning to survive a world not designed for them." — School Library Journal (starred review)
"Both a mesmerizing fantasy adventure and a haunting meditation on shared trauma." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A thorough and gut-wrenching exploration of finding reasons to move forward after devastating loss and darkness and how community and connection can breed hope that will linger with readers long after the last page." — Booklist (starred review)
"Teeming with frank examinations of war, violence, PTSD, imperialism, colonialism, and all they entail, this somber fantasy will challenge readers mentally and emotionally." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Inventive." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-12-16
Cast adrift after the war that they were created to fight, seven magical warriors search for meaning in the defense of a mountain village.
In a tale explicitly inspired by the Kurosawa classic Seven Samurai, the seven teens—six use she/her pronouns, and one uses they/them —are drawn together by a variety of acknowledged motives: duty, fulfillment, the promise of spoils. But what keeps them together is their brutal history and the kinship it has forged. Yanked from their homes at age 5, kindlings have been shaped into killing machines, expert both in ordinary weaponry and in summoning the blazing balar magic that literally burns its wielders out by their late teens. Chee assembles a cast that is both clearly individuated and collective. With the character perspective shifting chapter by chapter, the consistent use of the second person and occasional occurrences of us or we emphasize the group identity. Sentences frequently end in em dashes, strung in truncated paragraphs that highlight the kindlings’ feelings of brokenness; parenthetical statements express uncomfortable truths: “You believed in the code. You would’ve killed for it— / (You did kill for it.) / You would’ve died for it— / (You almost did—).” A complex cosmology lends texture to a world that features racial, sexual, and gender diversity; the kindlings share a common phenotype, with “angular” eyes, straight black hair, and skin in shades of brown or tan.
Both a mesmerizing fantasy adventure and a haunting meditation on shared trauma. (map) (Fantasy. 13-adult)
PAPERBACK COMMENTARY
School Library Journal Best Book
Kirkus Reviews Best Books
New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
Indigo Best Book of the Year
Rainbow Book List
Booklist Editor’s Choice: Books for Youth
