Recommended to me by: troisoiseaux
This book is a cross between fantasy, romance, and horror. The four main characters are complex, well-drawn teens, which means they are all irritating in one way or another as they try to decide what they want to be when they grow up. The book is in conversation with The Lord of the Rings, but declines to make the struggle about good vs. evil. It is about death, magic, transfer of power, and (given the title), many different ways to express love. And many different ways to love music.
On the positive side, this book has more than one Black character, and they talk to each other about something besides race. Some of them live in the biggest house in the most chic neighborhood, and some of them live in a house in a middle-class neighborhood. They are not “issue” characters, and at the same time they are impacted by racism as they go about their lives, and they name it when that happens.
At times the book reminded me of Pamela Dean’s The Dubious Hills and at times it reminded me of Patricia McKillip’s Riddle-Master trilogy, but without inspiring the same kind of affection I hold for those. I can tell it’s well done, and it wasn’t my kind of thing. Too much body horror, too much casual violence, too much physical and emotional harm done to and by characters we’re supposed to care about.
Everyone else seems to recommend it highly though!
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