Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: Elysium Girls
Author: Kate Pentecost
Book Series: Standalone?
Rating: 3/5
Diversity: LGBT f/f moments
Publication Date: April 14, 2020
Genre: YA Fantasy
Recommended Age: 16+ (violence, slight gore, romance, magic, and dust)
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Pages: 400
Amazon Link
Synopsis: In this sweeping Dust Bowl-inspired fantasy, a ten-year game between Life and Death pits the walled Oklahoma city of Elysium-including a girl gang of witches and a demon who longs for humanity-against the supernatural in order to judge mankind.
When Sal is named Successor to Mother Morevna, a powerful witch and leader of Elysium, she jumps at the chance to prove herself to the town. Ever since she was a kid, Sal has been plagued by false visions of rain, and though people think she’s a liar, she knows she’s a leader. Even the arrival of enigmatic outsider Asa-a human-obsessed demon in disguise-doesn’t shake her confidence in her ability. Until a terrible mistake results in both Sal and Asa’s exile into the Desert of Dust and Steel.
Face-to-face with a brutal, unforgiving landscape, Sal and Asa join a gang of girls headed by another Elysium exile-and young witch herself-Olivia Rosales. In order to atone for their mistake, they create a cavalry of magic powered, scrap metal horses to save Elysium from the coming apocalypse. But Sal, Asa, and Olivia must do more than simply tip the scales in Elysium’s favor-only by reinventing the rules can they beat the Life and Death at their own game.
Review: For the most part this book was ok. The characters were complex and well developed. The author did great to include diversity in her novel and make the content LGBT friendly. And the book had a good pacing. The story was also intriguing and there was a great voice that the author had when speaking through the main character.
However, I had a lot of issues with the novel. The plot was confusing and there was very little world building. The magic system (yes there’s magic, it didn’t seem like there would be when I picked this book up) wasn’t explained fully and it didn’t really fit in with the world that I understood it to be. The history and background information was muddied and unexplained, which made it really hard to understand where the characters were coming from and how they were coming to the conclusions that they did. The romance also felt forced to me, like it just felt really off. There was also POV switching, which I don’t mind, but the tenses did change and that also made for a confusing read on my end.
Verdict: Overall, I think the book is good and interesting, but I think it definitely needed another round of edits. However, I did have an ARC so it should have went through another round or so before final printing. Hopefully, the issues have been ironed out in it.
BOOK INFORMATION
Elysium Girls
by Kate Pentecost
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: April 14th 2020
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Synopsis:
In this sweeping Dust Bowl-inspired fantasy, a ten-year game between Life and Death pits the walled Oklahoma city of Elysium-including a girl gang of witches and a demon who longs for humanity-against the supernatural in order to judge mankind.
When Sal is named Successor to Mother Morevna, a powerful witch and leader of Elysium, she jumps at the chance to prove herself to the town. Ever since she was a kid, Sal has been plagued by false visions of rain, and though people think she’s a liar, she knows she’s a leader. Even the arrival of enigmatic outsider Asa-a human-obsessed demon in disguise-doesn’t shake her confidence in her ability. Until a terrible mistake results in both Sal and Asa’s exile into the Desert of Dust and Steel.
Face-to-face with a brutal, unforgiving landscape, Sal and Asa join a gang of girls headed by another Elysium exile-and young witch herself-Olivia Rosales. In order to atone for their mistake, they create a cavalry of magic powered, scrap metal horses to save Elysium from the coming apocalypse. But Sal, Asa, and Olivia must do more than simply tip the scales in Elysium’s favor-only by reinventing the rules can they beat the Life and Death at their own game.
BOOK LINKS
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47540611-elysium-girls
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2OFqDdA
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elysium-girls-kate-pentecost/1132830624?ean=9781368041867#/
Google Books: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Elysium_Girls.html?id=fgGpDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Kate Pentecost was born and raised on the Texas/Louisiana border, where ghosts and rural legends lurk in the pines and nothing is completely as it seems.
She holds an MFA in Writing for Children &Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was recently nominated for a Rhysling award for her poem “Small Town Witches.”
Her debut novel, Elysium Girls, is forthcoming from Disney Hyperion in 2020 in print and audio formats.
She is obsessed with the Romantic Poets and can be identified by the enormous tattoo of Percy Bysshe Shelley on her arm. She lives in Houston (H-Town, Space City, etc.)
AUTHOR LINKS
Website: https://www.katepentecost.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17712741.Kate_Pentecost
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pentecostelle
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katepentecost/
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