The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass

May 1, 2020
A teenage assassin turns on her master to free herself and save the world from power-hungry witches. Eli's mother made her out of holly berry, spiderweb, wood, human, and other, unknown, components that she means to discover. The human parts of Eli help her travel between worlds undetected--one of monsters unbound by time and another of humans threatened by life-devouring ghosts. With the help of her seven magical daggers--and nothing and no one else--Eli hunts ghosts on the orders of the mysterious Coven that rules her home. If they ever decide she's no longer of use, the Coven can also order her unmade, returned to her separate ingredients. When a mission goes wrong and Eli accidentally kills a human, she finds herself entangled in the conspiracy of a rogue witch. High stakes and a ruthless protagonist propel the plot at a fast pace. At times, sudden shifts make the story hard to follow, but the ragtag trio of main characters is worth sticking by nonetheless. Eli, who is white, joins forces with Cam, a queer, mustachioed, Vietnamese Canadian man, and Sen, a motorcycle-riding nonbinary person with spiky purple hair, golden-brown eyes, and dark brown skin. In the midst of this dark, murderous fantasy, debut author Jerreat-Poole explores complex themes of oppression, abuse, belonging, and identity. A raw and chaotic force of magic. (Fantasy. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2020

Gr 9 Up-Eli is an agent of death, the creation of a witch named Circinae who formed her from rose thorns, glass, quartz, and human bone to do the bidding of the Coven and to consolidate her power. In this fantasy debut, Eli begins to question her roots and her identity as an assassin while coming to terms with her feelings for childhood friend Tav, a human whom she encounters on a mission and to whom she is instantly drawn. With Tav at her side, Eli challenges Circinae in her search for answers and must make the ultimate choice of where her allegiance lies. Jerreat-Poole brings readers on a wild ride with Eli as she grapples with her role as an assassin and travels between the City of Eyes and the City of Ghosts, the contemporary human world where she is concealed by her glamour. The novel is rich with diverse characters such as Tav, who is dark-skinned and nonbinary, and understands that "cops follow you like shadows and teachers and friends refuse to use their pronouns." VERDICT While readers may yearn for more world building, the tight plotting and myriad details will carry teens along on an imaginative adventure.-Gillian D'Ambrosio, Rutgers Univ., NJ

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 24, 2020
In Jerreat-Poole’s imaginative fantasy debut, teenager Eli masquerades as a white human girl, but is in fact a deadly assassin whose form was crafted by a witch out of “beetle shells and cranberries and uncaring function.” Eli’s task is to hunt down and kill ghosts who still roam the human world in illusory bodies, but when a job goes horrifyingly wrong, she realizes that someone chose a live person, not a ghost in disguise, for her mark. No longer able to trust her witch mother, or the Coven that rules her city, Eli allies with a renegade faction of diverse witches whose members include a gay Vietnamese Canadian character and a brown-skinned nonbinary individual. The rebels aim to destabilize the Coven, which intends to close the all-important portal between the human and magical worlds; though Eli agrees to assist the rebels, the decision may cost her her life. The novel’s narrative structure relies upon confusing temporal shifts, producing a somewhat disjointed plotline, and frequently labored prose, but inventive worldbuilding and intriguing characters complement the fantastical setting. Ages 15–up. (Oct.)■

September 1, 2020
Grades 10-1 Eli wasn't born. Stitched together out of beetle shells and cranberries and a witch's greed, she was made by her witch-mother and the Coven to assassinate ghosts in the human world. Her humanness allows her to travel effortlessly between the two worlds, killing with seven living blades and moored by the knowledge that the Coven that rules her own monstrous home world can also have her unmade. When one of Eli's missions goes wrong, she accidentally kills a human, leading her to a group of witch and human renegades who are working against the Coven. The renegades task Eli with capturing the Heart of the Coven, which means betraying her witch-mother and risking everything to earn freedom. While the plot in this action-packed, poetic novel sometimes transitions too quickly, the characters' relationships are entrancing and draw the reader back to the heart of the story, which explores chosen family, identity, equality, and humanity. Jerreat-Poole's fantasy debut is a dark, chaotic look at what each of us is made of.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)