ICE MOON

A seemingly impossible mission and a chance to discover her true heritage send foundling Ava on a trek through deadly future wildlands in this hefty sequel to Blood Circus (2023).

Plunging readers back into the action with little recap of earlier events, Victoire pitches her fierce teen into a second Blood Race—an ordeal that will test her survival skills to the utmost, even with help from moody heartthrob Diablo. “I’m ravaged,” Ada emotes with typical rhetorical flourish, “by a desire to push myself, go to the depths of myself, and explore my animal parts.” The author raises the stakes and leaves her protagonist a proud, wild young adult in the wake of what becomes a protracted coming-of-age journey. Strenuous tests and startling visions also bring revelations about Ava’s personal history and background on the way to a climax that combines festive circus elements with gory deaths for a decidedly macabre feel. That pivotal turning point seems a long time coming, though, and the trials that lead up to it too often have predictable outcomes. Still, the previous volume’s contrast between the humanlike Klujns, who live closely with nature and the spirit worlds, and the cruel, authoritarian humans, who hunt them for their meat and crystal claws, comes through sharply and leaves no doubts about who the villains are. Both the Klujn and human casts are racially and culturally diverse.

Grim, gruesome, dark, and deliberate.