Grammy Award–winning artist Keys co-authors a YA superhero graphic novel bearing the title of her hit song. This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.īlack is building a complex mythology now is a great time to tune in. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her.

Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril.

Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Jude-broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness-has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. YA)īlack is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy. Like the finest chocolate, a rich confection of darkness, subtlety and depth, bittersweet and absolutely satisfying. Elegant prose and precisely chosen details deftly construct two very different worlds, hinting at layers beneath the glimpses the tale permits attentive readers will hear echoes of classic tales, resonant with implications about the meaning of stories, of faith and of freedom. Claudia and Finn and their assorted companions are complex and comprehensible, engaging reader sympathies even as they mislead and betray each other. Their separate quests gradually intertwine with increasing suspense, cresting in a series of shocking reversals and revelations. In parallel narratives, each discovers a chance of escape in matching crystal keys. Claudia has known nothing but luxury as the daughter of Incarceron’s Warden but she dreads her imminent marriage to the caddish prince of the Realms, which are trapped in a static reenactment of a pre-technological past. Finn cannot remember anything before awakening in the vast sentient prison called Incarceron, but he is sure that he comes from outside its hellish confines. A far-future thriller combines riveting adventure and masterful world-building with profound undertones.

Incarceron series book 3