Dear readers, I knew that I’d been struggling to find time to write reviews, what with trying to spend out my library budget before the end of the year and spending lots of time discussing the wonderful books I’m reading with my Cybils committee, working on the terribly difficult task of narrowing down our list of books to make sure you all can have a shortlist of a manageable size. It was still a shock to me to see that it’s been nearly a month since I’ve posted here. We’ll see if I can write any more reviews before the big reveal of the finalists on January 1!

Here are two epic fantasy stories, one with a classic medieval European-like setting, and one contemporary.

Splinter and Ash by Marieke Nijkamp. Read by Vico Ortiz. Greenwillow Book, 2024. ASIN B0CQPKHQTW. Listened to audiobook on Libby.  

Once upon a time, the course of a kingdom was changed when two young outcasts met. Princess Adelisa grew up in the countryside, learning to do the chores around the manor house as well as history and politics, known to everyone only as Ash. But now in the capital city of Kestrel’s Haven, she’s unprepared to deal with the once loving old brother who now only has harsh words and the nobles who whisper that her needing a cane means that she can’t be a real princess. Ash meets Splinter in the snowy castle gardens escaping the Winter’s Heart ball. Splinter, wearing a squire’s leathers and a girl’s mask, doesn’t identify as either a boy or a girl – but is willing to stand up for Ash.

Thus, a partnership is born. Ash arranges for Splinter to be her personal squire. And what starts out just as a way for each of them to have someone they know is on their side in the cut-throat court turns into a battle for the kingdom as they learn of a plot to overthrow the queen, run by people colluding with the neighboring kingdom that theirs is already fighting. Hindered both by the kingdom’s enemies and those who should be on their side, Splinter and Ash will have to find the strengths in what everyone else considers to be their shortcomings to survive, finding some true allies on the way.

This has obvious ties to the Sir Callie books, though while a lot of Sir Callie’s fight is for queer youth to be accepted, here the struggle is more clearly for the kingdom with lack of acceptance of Splinter’s identity and Ash’s disabilities working as obstacles. I came up with thinking that this feels like an updated Tamora Pierce book all on my own, only to feel rather less clever when I saw that the official copy says that as well. Still, if you love stories of fierce and strongly characterized underdogs insisting on being their own glorious selves in spite of everyone telling them otherwise and building strong friendships – this is a lovely one.

Nox Winters and the Midnight Wolf by Rochelle Hassan. Read by Jacob McNatt. HarperCollins, 2024. ISBN 978-0063314573. Listened to audiobook on Libby. 

Nox and his twin Noah had never been separated until Noah came down with a mysterious illness. After giving up on doctors, their mother sent Noah to a childhood friend turned doctor, who still lives in the tiny Maine town she left as a teen. Now, finally, Nox and Noah are together again – and Nox hates it. Noah is a shadow of the social prankster he used to be, too ill to go to school. Nox doesn’t trust the friendliness of his hosts or their prickly teen daughter, Thea, who seems to know the new Noah better than he does. But when he sees Noah attacked at night by a ghostly wolf and not wake up again, Thea insists on coming into the woods with him to find a way to wake Noah up again. Perhaps helping Noah will also solve the mystery of the many people that have gone missing near the woods over the years – and help her figure out where her parents are going in the middle of the night.

But what starts as a journey through an ordinary wood behind the house quickly turns into quest through the Nightwoods, where a jackalope is the least surprising thing they find. Nox will need to figure out who he can and can’t trust very quickly. The Midnight Woods has – or at least had – three gods who rule it. One of them has caused Noah’s illness – or is it a curse? – and will have to be found and bargained with. But the Woods don’t take kindly to strangers, shifting paths and setting traps, and neither do its residents, whether wholly supernatural or partly or formerly human. And saving Noah might just change life for the better for everyone in and around the Nightwoods.

I found this a satisfying journey on multiple levels. Nox gains self-confidence and learns a little about dealing with others without reacting fists first, as had been his habit. Family secrets are also uncovered, friendships made. The Nightwoods themselves are just a little outside of comprehension. Though life is on the line and monsters are lying in wait, there is humor and warmth to balance, and enough twists to keep it interesting. Even though the starting setting is clearly our world, it has the same mystical feeling that I loved so much in the author’s previous middle grade book, Prince of Nowhere. I’ll be on the lookout for the sequel, and now want to look into Hassan’s YA trilogy as well. Have any of you read The Buried and the Bound? If so, I want to know what you thought of it!