Starred review from April 1, 2014
Calliope Margaret LeRoux deMinuit, half-human and half-Unseelie, Heir to the Midnight Throne, can save or destroy all of fairykind. Now that Callie and best friend Jack have rescued Callie's parents, everything's going to be just fine, right? Jack, Callie and her parents reach Depression-era Chicago, struggling against dangers both magical (cold iron, which has a worse effect on Callie's Unseelie father, Daniel LeRoux, than on half-fairy Callie) and mundane (the racism of Jim Crow, which endangers dark-skinned Daniel more than light-skinned, half-white Callie). After all the time she and Jack have spent fighting to escape the Seelie and Unseelie courts while rescuing Callie's folks, she's confident and independent. But her father is ancient, powerful and protective; Callie hates how Daniel's "ordering [her] around like a little kid." Zettel beautifully places this age-old generational conflict into her distinctive world. Callie and Jack want to help the Halfers, half-fairy elemental creatures composed of paper, electricity and other urban magics; Daniel calls them "Undone" and orders Callie to stay far away from the strange magic he despises. Ultimately, all the powers that be want to use Callie's magic to win the war for their side, and nobody cares what happens to Callie, Jack or the Halfers, raising the stakes to frighteningly high levels. Callie and Zettel bring this stellar trilogy to a satisfyingly sentimental conclusion. (Fantasy. 12-14)
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April 1, 2014
Gr 6 Up-In this final book in the series, Callie's 16th birthday is marked by warring fairy kingdoms fighting for control of her magical gift: the ability to open gates between worlds. Set during the Great Depression, the fast-paced action takes readers from Los Angeles to Chicago to the very heart of the fairy world. Callie is the biracial daughter of a fairy prince and a devoted human mother, and in Chicago, she meets the "Halfers," beings neither human nor fairy. With her characteristic kindness and sense of justice, Callie befriends the shunned Halfers and realizes that her choice of allegiance is not just between the fairy and the human worlds. The ingenious, sensitive description of the Halfers, who live in magical shanty town for exiles, is particularly affecting, with a paper bag girl and a rat-faced boy. The setting, premise, genre-blending, and themes of race and acceptance sound like the makings for an overcrowded book, but Zettel pulls it off. Her strong characterizations, historical detail, and carefully constructed fantastic elements create a high-energy literary fusion that fans will devour.-Martha Baden, Prescott Public Library, AZ
Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2014
Half-fairy, half-human Callie (Golden Girl; Dust Girl) has reunited with her family, thus starting a war between the two fairy kingdoms. Fleeing Los Angeles for Chicago, Callie realizes that to end the war she must stand and fight. Zettel brings the street life, locales, and culture of jazz-age Chicago into the imagery of her fantasy, packing the story with incident and adventure.
(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
May 1, 2014
Half-fairy, half-human Callie LeRoux (Golden Girl, rev. 7/13; Dust Girl, rev. 6/12) has reunited with her family but in doing so has started a war between the two fairy kingdoms, the "midnight Unseelies and the shining Seelies." Callie, her friend Jack, and her parents manage to flee Los Angeles, but by the time they've arrived in Chicago, Callie realizes that the only way to resolve the war is to stand and fight. This is also when she discovers the downside of having an authoritarian Unseelie fairy prince for a father, not to mention an aptitude for calamitous decision-making herself. It's not until she has (deservedly) earned the name Bad Luck Girl that she can see her way to cooperating with a plan that ends in triumph. Zettel brings the street life, locales, and culture of jazz-age Chicago into the imagery of her fantasy, packing the story with incident, adventure, and even, on the sidelines, information. Of her fantastical creations, the Halfers are particularly memorable -- "half anything and everything and half magic all shook together and coming up alive." The plot, with its various conflicts, loyalties, and parties, is an intricate, overly busy tangle, but the story maintains momentum through Callie's consistent obstinacy and the author's enthusiasm for her setting. deirdre f. baker
(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)