Jane Nickerson's Strands of Bronze and Gold
I generally am super into the YA genre of retold fairy tales, so was pretty excited about a book that was going to rework the Bluebeard story, which isn't one I've seen much. Our protagonist, 17 year old Sophie, is sent from Boston after her father's death to live with her heretofore unknown godfather in Mississippi. (This is especially a huge culture shock, as it's 1855 and he has many slaves.) At first she is annoyingly naive and susceptible to his charms, even though he is the creepiest creepster who ever creeped. Eventually she wises up and becomes a lot more interesting, but she doesn't have a lot of choices, as he's her legal guardian and is also extremely controlling. It's honestly pretty horrifying--Nickerson is very effective with the narrative tension. And things don't quite follow the fairy tale--Sophie is given a bit more agency, which is nice. Apparently this is the first in a series; I'm not sure what the rest will cover, but I'm interested in finding out! B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released March 12th.
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