Realm of Ruins by Hannah West is a wonderfully imagined young adult fantasy with a very loose fairy-tale connection of Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. There is a lot of really great world-building here, as well as a fabulous magic system that I thought was really neat.
In this world of Nissera, potential magic users trained and possessing an elicrin gift are authorized to go into this magical Water. Usually the Water endows the person with a stone that enhances their power, but sometimes the Water finds them unworthy and kills them. The main character, Valory Braiosa, wants more than anything to acquire a power that will allow her to go into the Water, but she is uncompromisingly ordinary. However, in a twist of fate, Valory dares touch the Water without permission, and in the destructive aftermath she finds herself possessing a power she can hardly control. The story follows Valory as she is accused of treason and treachery, and she has to flee to try and reclaim her good name. But when an ancient evil comes back to life, the power flowing through makes her the only person who can stop it.
There was a lot I liked. However, I did find it fairly violent, and there was a bit of sexual content that I thought was a bit too much, which affected by enjoyment of the book. This novel is recommended for older readers due to the sexuality, and the underlying threat of impending violence that is a constant. The voice and style of this book reminded me slightly of Starcrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce, but more adult.
Review of an Advance Reader’s Copy
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Holiday House
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 1 mild obscenity; 6 derogatory names; 5 scatological words; 2 anatomical terms.
Violence/Gore: Innumerable incidents of violence and gore, including but not limited to: Many instances of people being threatened with words and/or weapons and/or magic; many instances of characters being hurt and/or wounded and/or killed by weapons and/or magic; report of a man being wounded and ultimately killed by a wild animal; a character is put on trial and accused of causing accidental death on another; a girl strikes a boy; a character’s power transforms another character into a monster; two characters break a seal imprisoning a long-trapped evil; characters flee from impending natural disaster; report of characters weaving a spell to trap an evil tyrant by using human sacrifice and torture; in an extended scene, characters are ambushed and attacked by blighted enchanters, some characters use spells to tear people apart, a man skewers an enchanter through the stomach, characters are killed by various weapons, a character snaps someone’s neck, and a character uses magic to snap multitudinous bones; a boy reveals the downfall of a king and people rising up to follow a tyrant in exchange for immortality; a girl rushes at another girl with the intent to injure her; a character is tortured; a character loses a finger; in an extended scene, townspeople are slaughtered with weapons, a character falls into a ravine, characters stampede, trampling and killing each other in their desperation, a girl sees impaled bodies on pikes, characters are enchanted to be unwilling fighters, a character stabs someone in the jugular, a girl is threatened and breaks someone’s arm with her power and kills soldiers blocking her path; a man feeds sea-maidens to a deep water monster; a character is compelled by magic to leap from a window to her death; a girl stabs a man in the heart; a character rips a girl’s stolen magic from her and kills her; in an extended scene, a character snaps the spines of two soldiers, a girl reports killing someone, a character kills all guards in her path and accuses an uncle of conspiracy, a girl is attacked by guards and uses her power to kill them all, a character tears out a man’s stolen power and kills him, a man attacks a girl, knocks her down and kicks her in the face, and a girl stabs a man in the neck.
Sex/Nudity: Many instances of sex and nudity, including but not limited to: male and female characters occasionally hold hands, kiss, and caress each other; mentions of pleasure houses; a character comes into a room with barely-dressed girls, and one girl straddling a bare-chested man; a woman claws at a man bare chest and covers his neck in kisses; a woman covered in sheer fabric sleeps at a desk; a man kisses a woman, biting her lip and seizing her breasts; a girl peels away a young man’s tunic to scrutinize his wounds; a girl wears a sheer dress with convenient embroidery at her breasts and pelvis; a sea-maiden runs her hand up a girl’s thighs, expressing a wish for legs (not sexual); a sea-maiden violently transforms and is left naked in the aftermath; a man mentions a woman’s nakedness and covers a nude woman with a coat; a man opens a girl’s tunic to her sternum; a fairy wears a gown that artfully conceals her essentials; women are stripped to bathe; mention of copulation between humans and fairies; two women flirt (sexual); a woman presses her hips into a man and caresses his neck and chest; several incidents where characters touch and caress rather intimately (sexual); two women kiss and grieve to part; a woman recollects a man peeling her clothes off (never explicitly shown); two women swear to be each other’s lovers; a woman is pregnant with an illegitimate child.
Mature Subject Matter:
Gender identity issue, death of a friend, deaths of family members, suicide, threat of war, abandonment, implied use of contraception.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
Mention of honey-mulled wine; characters sometimes drink wine; a girl jokes about being passed around a dance floor like a last bottle of mead; a man smells like strong spirits; mention of sloshing wineskins; characters drink wine; a girl drinks wine; a man offers a girl a goblet of brandy; a man smells of ale; a young man downs ale and invites a girl to drink a flagon of wine with him; a girl offers a boy a glass of wine and pours herself a glass; a man jokes about surviving on wine and brandy; a man cradles a jug of brandy; a girls transforms her tea into wine; mention of a woman liking good ale; a girls tells someone to go back to her noonday drinking; a drunken man spills wine on a girl.
