This book starts out as your regular fantasy with Thelia being a lady in the castle with no real power but sort of friends with the queen-in-waiting Corene. The two of them start off fighting over Bayled ( a foreign visiting prince)but he is betrothed to Corene and turns out to actually really like her. There is a rumour that some elves are on the march to attack the castle so Bayled is sent off by the current King to head them off before they get to the castle. Enter Parsifal (or Percy) who is Thelia's cousin who is in love with her and who tries to keep things calm while Thelia has nightmares of horrible elves storming the castle. Then enter Sapphire and things get interesting. Sapphire is an elf (who is neither he or she )and unlike Thelia has been brought up to think, is actually a very beautiful looking, caring intelligent being who thinks that the elves are attacking the castle to right an ancient wrong in the magic. Sapphire believes that once this is done, the elves will all retreat back home.

When Sapphire and the elves get to the castle however, it turns out that the commander of the elves has hatched a plot with the people of Bayled's nation to overthrow the castle and get rid of everyone in the castle. So Sapphire agrees to help Thelia, Percy and Corene try and stop this happening and/or escape.

I think this is what is known in the trade as Queer Fantasy. As the elf Sapphire is neither he nor she, they can thus can have relations with both male Percy and female Thelia human characters in the novel (which they do) which kind of stretches the credibility a bit for me regarding jealousy etc.

Anyway, if you have hung in long enough to get to this bit then you'll know by now that this is a fairly silly fantasy novel that certain teenagers will love. ( )

Whatever this is, whatever we are...this world can't bear us.

Look, some books are not out here to be enjoyed by the vast masses. Some of them are fishing blindly for a specific audience. And luckily for both of us, that audience is meeeeee.

really though, Goodreads. what is happening here? i'm never ever in the "actually i liked it a lot what book did YOU all read?" minority.

Without a doubt, this book is out there. It included a ton of aspects that are rare in this starving genre (I love you YA fantasy but I'm so TIRED)... Polyamory, characters that are just straight-up petty, inter-species romance, incest, a constant uncomfortable crassness? Blowing up corpses?!?! Not all my favourite things, but if it wanted to be memorable, it worked.

I honestly think that's what I liked most. Plot-wise, it's a little shaky, but I enjoyed the novelty of what was essentially a prison-break story. Don't expect intrigue and plotting and trickery. It's very much about the characters and the kisses and the uglier parts of your stunning lady-assassin MC getting chained up in a dark prison with a hot prison guard (hello, lots of descriptions of chamber pots). Thelia, Parsifal, and Corene were childish, greedy, scathing and just, honestly, bullies. There Are No New Best Friends Here. But I appreciated that it tried things I'd never seen before, and it felt like it was walking backwards into hell whilst flipping me the bird.

BUT I do wish it harnessed a bit more of that attitude, because it wasn't quite dark n deep n sentimental and it wasn't quite completely irreverent, so it landed it in a spot that I think soured it for everyone. Or at least was a part of the souring. idk guys i thought the cousin-incest was a super weird choice too but also i do not expect these trashy characters to be good examples so yikes

So...mechanics. I never want to be subjected to so many first person POVs ever again. A handful of plot threads were dropped. Who tf was Bayled and why did I deal with him when Corene was RIGHT THERE, BEIN' PETTY AND BEAUTIFUL. (Ok, Bayled was a nice breath of fresh air because he was a decent and kind doormat, but I don't think he was utilized to his full potential.) I wasn't too distracted by this as I enjoyed the writing and the characters so much.

Overall, I enjoyed it and once I really got started I couldn't put it down. It isn't nice, it isn't polite, and it certainly isn't sanitary, but I'm glad I got to check it out and learn all about castle sewers. ( )

https://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/castle-of-lies-kiersi-burkhart/

Backstabbing, plotting, sword wielding, and magic abound in Castle of Lies, Kiersi Burkhart's forthcoming Young Adult fantasy adventure. Told through four points of view, the story is a race against time that gracefully weaves in elements of acceptance, understanding, and empathy.
It took me a little bit to get into this story (I'll explain why in a minute) but the ride was definitely worth the rocky start.
The start of the book is a little disjointed. The story flips through slightly too many points of view, though that's only really a problem in the beginning. By the end, the flipping back and forth creates a far more well-rounded story.
The other downside, for me, was that most of the characters were fairly unlikable. The four main story tellers had my heart but everyone else was pretty horrible. I suppose, in a sense, that made cheering for the protagonists that much more likely.
All of that said, the positives, outweighed the negatives. There was a strong theme of forgiveness on a larger scale. Yes, there was some personal amend making but the element that captured my heart sat squarely in macro redemption. In a moments when we are so completely incapacitated by large swaths of Hate for entire populations, Burkhart's ability to see goodness in our "enemies" warmed my little soul. ( )