Born into a family of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. But each year she fails to call forth her ancestral powers, while her ambitious mother watches with growing disapproval.
There’s only one thing Arrah hasn’t tried, a deadly last resort: trading years of her own life for scraps of magic. Until the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, and Arrah is desperate to find the culprit...
Be still, Little Priestess
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ (4,5)
Thank you so much to the lovely Seji (theartisangeek) for sending this ARC to me!!
It's so weird to think that this is one of the few books I've read with a POC main character. A person who looks like me. I've talked about this on my blog, but I keep thinking about it.
I'm so happy that I got the opportunity to read this book before it's release date!!
Seji also reviewed this book! I will include a link of it, when it's up!
'Kingdom of Souls' is a whirlwind, African fantasy story about a young woman, who would do anything to receive the magic that could safe her people.
Whenever you think that you understand something in this book, Rena Barron tells you no and hits you with a twist. 'Kingdom of Souls' left me incredibly confused and wanting for more. I just have to recover from reading this book! It was so thought out!
Her poetic writing style made the story more magical to me. It's something that I really enjoyed!
What I loved about this book is that the main character isn't doing everything right. She makes mistakes; some bigger than the other.
Throughout the entire book, people were making wrong choices and you also saw what consequences those choices had.
The characters were all well-described and had their own personality.
What actually made me give it 4,5 stars, was because at times, it felt a little hard to get through. I think it's because the pacing was a little slow sometimes. I'm very curious to read the finished copy and if little things changed!
Magic has a price if you're willing to pay.
Rena Barron made a big entrance into the YA genre with her debut novel! In my opinion, this books deserves to be on the NY Times Bestseller List!
I'm excited to read more of her work!
'Kingdom of Souls' comes out on september 3th in the US and on september 19th in the UK. You can already pre-order it if you want to read it as soon as it comes out!
CW: blood magic, an intentional infliction of self-injury in a ritual, challenging familial relationship, death of a child, death in battle scenes, mention of animal sacrifice (not on page), animal possession, and mind manipulation.