Bad Luck Girl

Starred review from April 1, 2014
Calliope Margaret LeRoux deMinuit, half-human and half-Unseelie, Heir to the Midnight Throne, can save or destroy all of fairykind. Now that Callie and best friend Jack have rescued Callie's parents, everything's going to be just fine, right? Jack, Callie and her parents reach Depression-era Chicago, struggling against dangers both magical (cold iron, which has a worse effect on Callie's Unseelie father, Daniel LeRoux, than on half-fairy Callie) and mundane (the racism of Jim Crow, which endangers dark-skinned Daniel more than light-skinned, half-white Callie). After all the time she and Jack have spent fighting to escape the Seelie and Unseelie courts while rescuing Callie's folks, she's confident and independent. But her father is ancient, powerful and protective; Callie hates how Daniel's "ordering [her] around like a little kid." Zettel beautifully places this age-old generational conflict into her distinctive world. Callie and Jack want to help the Halfers, half-fairy elemental creatures composed of paper, electricity and other urban magics; Daniel calls them "Undone" and orders Callie to stay far away from the strange magic he despises. Ultimately, all the powers that be want to use Callie's magic to win the war for their side, and nobody cares what happens to Callie, Jack or the Halfers, raising the stakes to frighteningly high levels. Callie and Zettel bring this stellar trilogy to a satisfyingly sentimental conclusion. (Fantasy. 12-14)

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2014

Gr 6 Up-In this final book in the series, Callie's 16th birthday is marked by warring fairy kingdoms fighting for control of her magical gift: the ability to open gates between worlds. Set during the Great Depression, the fast-paced action takes readers from Los Angeles to Chicago to the very heart of the fairy world. Callie is the biracial daughter of a fairy prince and a devoted human mother, and in Chicago, she meets the "Halfers," beings neither human nor fairy. With her characteristic kindness and sense of justice, Callie befriends the shunned Halfers and realizes that her choice of allegiance is not just between the fairy and the human worlds. The ingenious, sensitive description of the Halfers, who live in magical shanty town for exiles, is particularly affecting, with a paper bag girl and a rat-faced boy. The setting, premise, genre-blending, and themes of race and acceptance sound like the makings for an overcrowded book, but Zettel pulls it off. Her strong characterizations, historical detail, and carefully constructed fantastic elements create a high-energy literary fusion that fans will devour.-Martha Baden, Prescott Public Library, AZ

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.