Jeremiah Yuda Umam

The Ones We Burn

Book by Rebecca Mix

DETAILS

Publisher : Margaret K. McElderry Books (November 1, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 480 pages ISBN-10 : 1534493514 ISBN-13 : 978-1534493513 Reading age : 14 years and up Grade level : 9 - 12 Item Weight : 1.4 pounds , An instant New York Times bestseller! Love and duty collide in this richly imagined, atmospheric young adult debut about a witch whose dark powers put her at the center of a brewing war between the only family she’s ever known and the enemy who makes her question everything. Monster. Butcher. Bloodwinn. Ranka is tired of death. All she wants now is to be left alone, living out her days in Witchik’s wild north with the coven that raised her, attempting to forget the horrors of her past. But when she is named Bloodwinn, the next treaty bride to the human kingdom of Isodal, her coven sends her south with a single directive: kill him. Easy enough, for a blood-witch whose magic compels her to kill. Except the prince is gentle, kind, and terrified of her. He doesn’t want to marry Ranka; he doesn’t want to be king at all. And it’s his sister—the wickedly smart, infuriatingly beautiful Princess Aramis—who seems to be the real threat. But when witches start turning up dead, murdered by a mysterious, magical plague, Aramis makes Ranka an offer: help her develop a cure, and in return, she’ll help Ranka learn to contain her deadly magic. As the coup draws nearer and the plague spreads, Ranka is forced to question everything she thought she knew about her power, her past, and who she’s meant to fight for. Soon, she will have to decide between the coven that raised her and the princess who sees beyond the monster they shaped her to be. But as the bodies pile up, a monster may be exactly what they need. Read more

REVIEW

Ranka has known for a while now that she'll have to move south to marry the human prince, but she doesn't want to-- she doesn't want to leave her coven, she doesn't want to leave her home, and she doesn't want to reduce herself to the weapon she's been trained to be. But when her closest friend goes missing-- yet another witch mistaken for Ranka-- she embraces her duty. She'll go south, marry the prince, kill him, and rescue her friend in the process. But when she gets to Isodal, she finds a prince and princess at odds with her expectations of them. And there's something else, a rot that's brewing in the city, a concentration of the plague that's targeting witches all over the country. Ranka is forced to make a decision: work with the twin heirs to the throne in their pursuit to better the world, or work with the witches back home in theirs. From the beginning, I absolutely loved this book. Ranka's blood magic is fascinating and heartbreaking, and her position in both her coven and the world isolates her while elevating her above everyone else. The world, the magic, and the characters are lush, while being grounded in problems that feel very real. The group of people at the castle-- Ranka, the royal twins (Galen and Aramis), and Percy, the ambassador from one of the isles-- have a really wonderful dynamic that made me both laugh and cry at various moments. The Ones We Burn also does a beautiful job at tackling abuse, and what it means when the people we're close with, the people we love, the people who are supposed to love us, hurt us for their own gain. There are a few lines in particular that are exactly the words I wish someone had said to me years ago, and reading them both broke my heart and inspired me to keep choosing myself, to keep telling myself that I deserve to heal. The Ones We Burn is a fun read, but it is also a deeply powerful one, and I will forever be grateful to Rebecca Mix for writing it, and for putting it out into the world.

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