'The Brilliant Death' is a thrilling YA fantasy that revolves around magic and much more important topics - like being yourself, no matter who or what that might be. This is kind of a hard book for me to review because there's so much going through my mind about it. There are layers to the story, which is a big reason why I enjoyed it. On the surface, the story is about magic in a place that has turned against it. The setting seemed to reflect on Italy and a lot of the words felt Italian to me. I really liked that part of it. It was different than other fantasies where it feels like everything happens in deserts or weird places that are hard to see in your mind. This was easy to bring to life for me by the author's vivid imagery and detailed descriptions. It felt like I was right beside Teo the entire time and experienced everything alongside her. The main plot was about Teo's father being poisoned, along with the other four major families rulers in an attempt to bring about a new country that was based on unity and allegiance. Teo is a strega (a person with magical abilities) and has used her gifts to help protect her family for most of her life. I liked the way Teo describes her magic - how it speaks to her, how it feels when she uses it, and other interesting things. I found that to be utterly intriguing and I wanted to know everything I could about the strega and their different types of magic.
Teo was a fantastic main character. She was fierce, determined, loyal and devoted to her family, smart, and an overall powerful woman. She has magic, but has only known how to use it in one way - to change people or things into other things - but she has to figure out a way to physically change herself into a boy in order to face the leader of the country. Enter Cielo, whose character is hard for me to describe. Mischievous, smart, good at magic, and also fierce and determined to find out what's going on with the missing streghe in the country and what happened to his mother years ago. Cielo's character is completely fluid - he/she can transform into anything including other genders, animals, and even weather. I found that magic to be fascinating and I loved learning about it. I do feel that the author put a lot of emphasis on Cielo changing back and forth between female and male. Which also made the story have a element of LGBTQ, which is fine and part of the more important layer of the novel about being who you truly are and accepting yourself for who that is. I got that message loud and clear from both Teo and Cielo, their feelings for one another and their relationship as it changed and grew - but it just felt a little forced how they kept changing genders. That's the only issue I personally had with the story - and it's only my opinion and doesn't reflect back on the writing or the author in any way. I'm sure other readers won't find an issue with this, but I wanted to note it because it did bother me a bit just because it seemed overused to prove a certain point. Overall, this was a great book and I definitely recommend it to fans of the genre as well as readers looking for diverse characters and diverse stories that stand out from the rest.
Teo was a fantastic main character. She was fierce, determined, loyal and devoted to her family, smart, and an overall powerful woman. She has magic, but has only known how to use it in one way - to change people or things into other things - but she has to figure out a way to physically change herself into a boy in order to face the leader of the country. Enter Cielo, whose character is hard for me to describe. Mischievous, smart, good at magic, and also fierce and determined to find out what's going on with the missing streghe in the country and what happened to his mother years ago. Cielo's character is completely fluid - he/she can transform into anything including other genders, animals, and even weather. I found that magic to be fascinating and I loved learning about it. I do feel that the author put a lot of emphasis on Cielo changing back and forth between female and male. Which also made the story have a element of LGBTQ, which is fine and part of the more important layer of the novel about being who you truly are and accepting yourself for who that is. I got that message loud and clear from both Teo and Cielo, their feelings for one another and their relationship as it changed and grew - but it just felt a little forced how they kept changing genders. That's the only issue I personally had with the story - and it's only my opinion and doesn't reflect back on the writing or the author in any way. I'm sure other readers won't find an issue with this, but I wanted to note it because it did bother me a bit just because it seemed overused to prove a certain point. Overall, this was a great book and I definitely recommend it to fans of the genre as well as readers looking for diverse characters and diverse stories that stand out from the rest.