Book 3/3

I’m past the middle of ‘The Scarecrow Queen’ → The Sin Eater’s Daughter #3. Every time I open the book, I can’t stop reading. I love it when this happens!

One of the reasons I’m enjoying this series so much is how balanced it is. There are strong women, but also evil women. There are young and old characters. Men are also good and bad. There is diversity, without it being forced into the narrative. The protagonists are also so complex - they’re mostly teenagers or young adults, and Melinda Salisbury captures all the sad and happy moments and allows her characters to feel everything with the intensity that only youth can have.

Sometimes in YA Fantasy, you have teenagers who either act chaotically or too simplistically (one example of this would really be the Twilight films*). This is not the case with Twylla and Errin and Lief and Merek and everyone else in these books. They’re figuring things out and that’s perfect. Like teenagers do. Even when romantic relationships come up, there’s no real pressure to choose - if you’ve read any YA, you know what I’m talking about. The focus is on observing how these young people develop and discover themselves.

*I haven’t read the Twilight books, so I’m not sure how the characters are portrayed there. Also, don’t get me wrong, Twilight is part of my teenage years and I still re-watch them from time to time, but they are objectively bad, especially from a character development perspective.