Bright Ruined
Things
By Samantha Cohoe
Publisher: Wednesday Books (February 15, 2022)
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN-10: 1250768845
ISBN-13: 978-1250768841
Reading age: 13 - 18 years
Grade level: 7 - 9
Publisher’s Blurb:
The only life Mae has ever known is on the island, living on
the charity of the wealthy Prosper family who control the island’s magic and
its spirits. Mae longs for magic of her own and to have a place among the
Prosper family, where her best friend, Coco, will see her as an equal, and her
crush, Miles, will finally see her.
But tonight is First Night, when the Prospers
and their high-society friends celebrate the night Lord Prosper first harnessed
the island’s magic and started producing aether – a magical fuel source that
has revolutionized the world. With everyone returning to the island, Mae
finally has the chance to go after what she’s always wanted.
When the spirits start inexplicably dying, Mae realizes
that things aren’t what they seem. And Ivo, the reclusive, mysterious heir to
the Prosper magic, may hold all the answers – including a secret about Mae’s
past. As Mae and her friends unravel the mysteries of the island, and the
Prospers’ magic, Mae starts to question the truth of what her world was built
on.
In this YA fantasy, Samantha Cohoe wonderfully
mixes magic and an atmospheric setting into a fantastically immersive world,
with characters you won’t be able to forget.
This story,
loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, is not a happy book. It is
filled with not-happy people. Powerful. Wealthy. Beautiful. But not happy. In
fact, for all but Mae, that wealth and power are directly related to their
unhappiness. Some of them stay unhappy throughout; others are able to see the
destructive spiral they are in and escape it.
Magic. One intense
kissing scene where some clothes come off, but nothing else happens. References
to sex, drinking, and drug use. A gun. A murder. Blackmail of various types. One
character is lesbian.
Those who like
retellings (however loose) of Shakespeare. I think if you like The Great Gatsby
and its commentary on wealth, you’d like this. I don’t know if the moral
about the destructive nature of wealth and power is intended, but it is
certainly there. There’s a little bit of romance.
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