Naondel: The Red Abbey Chronicles Book 2

by Maria Turtschaninoff

Overview

Booklist called Maresi “utterly satisfying and completely different from standard YA fantasy.” Now, Naondel goes back to establish the world of the trilogy and tells the story of the First Sisters—the founders of the female utopia the Red Abbey.

Imprisoned in a harem by a dangerous man with a dark magic that grants him power over life and death, the First Sisters must overcome their mistrust of one another in order to escape. But they can only do so at a great cost, both for those who leave and for those left behind. Told in alternating points of view, this novel is a vivid, riveting look at a world of oppression and exploitation, the mirror opposite of the idyllic Red Abbey.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683351412
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	01/09/2018
Series:	The Red Abbey Chronicles
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Maria Turtschaninoff began writing fairy tales at the age of five. She has been awarded the Finlandia Junior Prize, the Swedish YLE Literature Prize, and two Society of Swedish Literature Prizes. She is also an Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award finalist. Turtschaninoff has a master of arts in human ecology and works full-time as a writer. She lives in Finland.

Editorial Reviews

**STARRED REVIEW**
"This is a beautifully written story that lets us know that no matter how terrible life can be, there is a moment that can change it for the better if only you are willing to take the risk. "

School Library Connection

**STARRED REVIEW**
" . . . what sets this apart from other fantasies is the degree of character development. Readers see each narrator through the eyes of the five other narrators, making for complex, multilayered, and wholly believable portraits."

Booklist

"Turtschaninoff evokes colorful backstories and complex psyches, ultimately weaving these women’s relationships personalities, and experiences into a potent, collaborative self-rescue from Iskan’s bondage. This is not an easy story, with its perpetual backdrop of sexual violence, but in the foreground is a fierce, slow-burning exposition of female courage and resilience."

The Horn Book

2017-10-30
A man harnesses a spiritual power and uses it to destroy women.This prequel about the founding of the all-female abbey of Maresi (2017) begins across the sea. Kabira's 19; Iskan, the vizier's son, visits her family regularly, but is he courting Kabira or her sister? In this wealthy, formal, Asian-esque fantasy culture, there's no way to know. Kabira shows Iskan—who's an irredeemably vile antagonist at the level of King Leck in Kristin Cashore's Graceling Realm—a spring called Anji that holds "the primordial life force." Iskan drinks Anji's water and never looks back. He kills Kabira's family, marries her, rapes her continually, aborts her daughters, and steals her sons. As decades pass, Iskan acquires new women (buying them as slaves, stealing them from other cultures; their religions and gifts vary). Each narrates in first person. He rapes and batters them, drinking more and more of Anji's water; he lays waste to masses of people. The prose flows, elegant and smooth, with colorful settings. Turtschaninoff writes mothering-related trauma searingly but underemphasizes rape trauma despite the constancy of the act; inexplicably, the word "rape" never even appears. The women's skin colors and cultures vary, though the darkest-skinned woman is exoticized.Late solaces—the escape, the abbey's founding, one partnership between women—can't outweigh the toll of misogynistic torture in this heavy piece. (maps, character list) (Fantasy. 15-adult)

Kirkus Reviews