Breaking Badlands

Starred review from September 1, 2021

Gr 3-7-In this third installment, readers find heroine Indira in need of a break from the action and from her increasingly complicated love life. While vacationing at the Chapter Break Resort, Indira is whisked away by a group of Anti-Heroes with a surprising plea for help; they have discovered that Bainrow, the head of Antagonist Academy, is planning on performing a Final Boss Protocol on all antagonists. If he were to succeed, each and every bad guy would be "powered up": There would be no more petty villains or small revenge plots, just pure evil! The result? Dull stories, a bored readership, and thus threats to the very existence of Story. The only way to stop this treacherous plan is for Indira to take on the guise of evil, infiltrate Antagonist Academy, join a crew, and start competing in a nightly virtual competition called the Badlands. What could go wrong? VERDICT Reintgen is a masterly storyteller and blends gaming lingo with fantasy lore deftly. His love for the fantasy genre and literature overall shines through, and the romance angle is suitable for younger audiences. Strongly recommended for purchase.-Amy Nolan, St. Joseph P.L., MI

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2021
In the final installment of the Talespinners trilogy, Indira Story must travel incognito to the town of Fester to save the world of Imagination from the threat of supervillains. Though Indira is on a much-needed break between books, she is exhausted by the constant attentions of Phoenix and Everest, one of whom she must choose to be her love interest. When the tension between the two boys inevitably boils over and they get into a fight, Indira schedules a much-needed vacation at the Chapter Break Resort. While on vacation, Indira spies something odd: a monkey in her mirror. The monkey--or rather, the person in a monkey mask--then teleports her to a secret meeting of Antiheroes who invite her to go on a quest to steal the Gemini Scepter from the evil demon Bainrow at Antagonist Academy, his school for villains. She must succeed in doing this before he can cast a spell to transform villains into supervillains and potentially ruin all stories for good. The plot is fast-paced, full of surprises, populated by likable and memorable characters, and just as funny as previous entries. The novel's underlying messages about what makes a character bad, good, or even great and about how people have the power to intrinsically change long-standing institutions are thought-provoking. Most characters read as White; previous titles indicate that Indira has brown skin, but her ethnicity is not expanded upon. Literally and literarily hilarious. (Fantasy adventure. 8-12)

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