Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character.
But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. The complicated worldbuilding piles on the jargon, but Zephyr’s narration hooks readers with snappy, hilarious one-liners.
Far more compelling are Zephyr’s struggles to accept herself as a hero, considering she’s failed her Trials to become a Harpy warrior. The romantic plot is the least successful element of this character-driven story. They form a ragtag team to keep her alive so she can thwart a terrible plot against the vættir. Knowing the Æthereals will surely kill her soon, Zephyr escapes Tartarus with the help of Cass, her enigmatic friend and protector (who everyone they meet says is a liar and betrayer), Tallon, an attractive childhood friend, and his brother, Blue. Zephyr’s forbidden, dark power enabled the kill and, she learns, marks her as the prophesied Nyx, a champion of “shadow vættir,” who maintains balance and protects vættir from Æthereal tyranny. In retaliation, Zephyr killed Whisper’s Æthereal executioner-a supposedly impossible act-and has been sentenced to eternity in the worst part of the Underworld, Tartarus (where the weather is crappy-literally). A reluctant Harpy discovers her destiny in an elaborate Greek-mythology–based fantasy.Īs the book opens, readers learn that Zephyr’s sister, Whisper, was killed for her forbidden romance with Hermes Harpies are vættir-partly human, therefore lesser-and are not permitted to intimately fraternize with full gods, called Æthereals.
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