But Rowan doesn’t want to be a dirty little secret and doesn’t see why Cass can’t be honest about this part of her life. Pansexual Taylor is a gamer, a little bit punk, White like Cass, and so, so great-but she still can’t help comparing her to Rowan, Cass’ online best friend and role-playing ship partner. But on the other hand, Cass is finally dating her amazingly cute longtime crush, Taylor.

Also, her mom has suddenly left Minneapolis and moved to Maine to be with a man she met online. And sure, maybe she’s missed a college application deadline. Now, turning to her role-play friends to cope with her fighting parents, she worries that people will judge her for her fannishness and online life. Back in middle school, she had what she calls a gaming addiction, playing “The Sims” so much her parents had to take the game away. Part exciting adventure, part thoughtful coming-of-age novel, this story retells and overturns familiar tropes.Ĭan a 17-year-old with her first girlfriend prevent real-life folks from discovering her online fandoms?Ĭass is proudly queer, happily fat, and extremely secretive about being a fan who role-plays on Discord. The exploration of complicated family dynamics is a particular strength, especially the challenging of the evil stepmother cliché. Despite a few hiccups in the logic of the magic, the author cleverly maintains the basic structure of this well-known European folktale type while weaving in rich elements of Asian mythology, including dragon pearls and the goddess of the moon. Readers here revisit the East Asian–inspired world established in Lim’s The Blood of Stars duology. She must learn to survive on her own and use her wits and hard-won experience to save both her family and country. Shiori is whisked away and coerced into silence, for every word that escapes her lips will mean the death of one of her brothers.

As a consequence, her six brothers are cursed into assuming the form of cranes by day. Things take an even worse turn, however, when she uncovers her stepmother’s secrets. Her emerging talents in forbidden magic and a run-in with a young shape-shifting dragon help to pass the time before she is doomed to relocate to the cold North. About to turn 17 and be married off to a third-rank barbarian lord, Shiori desperately looks for ways out of the engagement. Shiori’anma, Princess of Kiata and eldest daughter of Emperor Hanariho, is the intrepid protagonist in this folktale retelling.

Six crimson cranes book 3