Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Hawksong is a high-fantasy YA novel with a slow-burn romance and political intrigue that manages to do more in a little over 200 pages than many 600 page novels. It focuses on two shapeshifter kingdoms and their war that has lasted so long no one even knows how it began. Danica Shardae, the last remaining heir to the avian throne, and Zane Cobriana, the heir to the serpiente throne, are desperate to end the war between their kingdoms. Both have lost many family members and loved ones over the years and there is no righteous side, only a cycle of revenge. When a third-party mediator suggests that Danica and Zane unite their warring kingdoms through marriage everyone is skeptical, but Danica and Zane’s love for their people make them consider the unimaginable.

This book is amazing in terms of character, plot, and world-building. Danica and Zane are steeped in their respective cultures and this creates complex and dynamic characters as they are challenged to overcome their prejudice and learn to live in each other’s world. Their successes and failures at adapting is what adds the tension to the plot—oh, and assassination attempts. Those cause tension too.

One aspect of the world building that I would critique is that Atwater-Rhodes decided to set this novel in our world without any explanation or connection. There is a Chinese pillow mentioned, then later we learn the origins of the shapeshifters are from Egypt, and they briefly mention the human world. Besides these puzzling moments, there’s no real explanation of how these large and complex kingdoms of animal shapeshifters exist inside the human world. That being said, it’s rarely mentioned and doesn’t affect anything, so while it is puzzling I choose not to let it bother me.

One reviewer remarked that since this book is pre-Twilight the way the romance is written perhaps wouldn’t feel as exciting to current YA readers. That may be true, but I’m fascinated how each era tells stories in a different way. We can’t tell a story like they did in the early 2000s just like they couldn’t tell a 2010s story. It’s not good or bad, it’s just the nature of storytelling. For better or worse, the publishing world today wouldn’t print such a short high fantasy novel. From my perspective, because pre-Twilight YA is so different from now, that makes this story even more refreshing.

One of the most astounding things about this novel is that it stands the test of time. There are books that I loved as a teen that just weren’t as good on a second read, but this book—the characters, the cultures, the plot—is still as addicting as it was when I first read it during the ice storm that hit the Midwest more than a decade ago.… (mehr)