Poison’s Kiss, by Breeana Shields, 295 pages.
Confession: I did not have time to read this book before it
was time to pick finalists for the Whitney Awards. In fact, it remained the
only young adult fantasy finalist I hadn’t read.
And this book is going to get my vote as best young adult fantasy
novel in 2017.
I know there are favorites in the category – Blood Rose
Rebellion being the top contender, at least as I peruse social media. And I
liked Rosalyn Eves’ story. But Poison’s Kiss . . .
Why is this my topper?
It’s a demonstration of the banality of evil.
For a very long time, you get the feeling there’s only one
evil character in the book – Gopal, the creepy tender of Iyla and Miranda. And
even his creepiness comes out in fits and starts, startling the reader with
each reveal.
Then you come to realize that there are other evil
characters, even if they don’t really consider themselves to be evil – because
like Hitler’s Nazis (I’m borrowing the “banality of evil” phrase from Hannah
Arendt’s book “The Banality of Evil”) these characters believe they’re acting
in the best interest of the powers that be, not knowing, of course, that the
powers they work for are the evil ones afoot.
Shields also successfully creates a rivalry – not a
friendship, and you get the feeling it’ll never really be a friendship, even if
these two characters were together for a thousand years – that balances on the
perception of evil that each sees in the other. Miranda and Iyla will likely
associate with each other for the rest of their lives, each believing the evil
in their past and present is kinda the fault of the other.
Sheilds’ characters are what pop out in this novel. They’re
complicated. Certainly not sugary. I’d like to hear more from them.
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