The Devourer

December 15, 2024
A teen pirate on a quest for vengeance and vindication captains her own ship. Adrasteia Dantes has spent the better part of a year chasing Cameron, her half brother, after he brutally assaulted their father and absconded with her birthright: a treasure map for the first pirate king's grave. Fueled by her anger and need for revenge, Adra pushes her mostly female crew to their limits, restrained only by her soft-hearted quartermaster and best friend, Merrin Petra. But when their pursuit leads them to a string of four ships with the entire crew (save one mysterious, beautiful girl) dead under eerie circumstances--"drowned in dry air"--it becomes clear that the magic that once just trickled into this world from beyond the veil is now pouring in. Adra knows all too well the power of magic; she lost part of her arm in her first run-in with it. Torn between protecting her crew and exacting her revenge, Adra strikes a dangerous deal with the Devourer, the very creature they fear. Ames' prose has moments of brilliance and her characterization of Adra as a complicated anti-hero is well done. However, the underdeveloped and anticlimactic delivery of the backstory will leave readers with an odd sense that this is the middle of a series rather than a stand-alone title. Most characters read white. A swashbuckling, Sapphic fantasy on the high seas. (map, dramatis personae)(Fantasy. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2025
Grades 9-12 After years on the sea together, Adra is stunned when her half brother Cameron betrays her and their father, absconding with a map that leads to an invaluable treasure. At the helm of the Worldeater, she chases him across the sea with dreams of vengeance and a crew of found family, shocked to discover a girl named Quinn has been impersonating Cameron once she finally catches up. Meanwhile, the veil separating the gods' magical world from the human one has begun to fray, and dangerous complications are arising as the connection between the ship-sinking creature known as the Devourer and Adra's map unravels. A humorously antagonistic romance between the two pirate captains brightens a dark narrative exploring the things that happen when humanity is stripped from us and what we owe to those who have wronged us. Adra is a thoroughly enjoyable antiheroine, sharp in both tongue and mind, and her swashbuckling adventures should be a first purchase for collections where pirate tales are popular.

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