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A review by spicedragon
Isle of Blood and Stone by Makiia Lucier
5.0
4.5/5
Head full of thoughts and literally no way to articulate them
Makiia Lucier hitting it out of the park once again!! No one does a kind protagonist, a benevolent king, the king’s witty female relative, murder, and a plague like Ms. Lucier. This is her niche, and her niche only, and I respect that immensely.
We follow Elias, a master navigator/map maker, as he looks to unravel the supposed mystery behind the disappearance/death of two young princes and his own father from eighteen years ago… a mystery which indicates that some of the missing/thought to be dead people may even be alive. Joining Elias on this journey is Mercedes, his childhood bestie who also happens to be his other childhood bestie’s cousin… the cousin being the king of their kingdom. We get intrigue, murder, and a look into the supernatural making for a thoroughly intriguing novel.
Lucier, I’ve found, is a master at setting forth a setting that gets you all cozy. She introduces her cast of characters and emphasizes the relationships between every single one, she builds this community for the reader that radiates warmth. Then, in the second half, she tears everything to shreds. But it’s done in such a well thought out and well written manner way that you can’t help but be amazed. Lucier also drops hints that can help the reader solve the mystery before the protagonists and it’s very gratifying when you read Elias and Mercedes have their waitaminute moments.
You very much feel the emotions the protagonists feel, and that’s why I’m obsessed!! The moment that Elias learns that his father might be alive and he starts spiralling because his mother already remarried and has multiple children with his stepfather (who is the father that STEPPED UP!!!) which would result in her being accused of bigamy and brand his younger siblings as bastards…. we FELT that and even more so when [REDACTED]. By the end of the novel literally everything we knew and had thought to be the truth at the start of the story is absolutely shattered, and all I could do was sit on my couch and eat crackers and collect my thoughts.
The characters themselves are not perfect, they also have their flaws. Yes, Elias is kind and caring but he has his own prejudices to grapple with. Prejudices he was raised with, such as the position of women in their society and their so-called roles… how he responds to those suffering from illness and so on! Which was nice to see, flawed protagonist coming to terms like damn I need to rethink some things.
I took off half a star because there were some story elements that kinda irked me… a lot of it has to do with medieval sort of setting Lucier has set her story in but I was like yea bet people from that era talked like that but I did not enjoy those snippets
Other than that… read Makiia Lucier’s books!! She writes ethnic characters in settings that books would traditionally publish as white and!! I’ll be picking up the second book in this series which focuses on a side-character from this very novel :)
Head full of thoughts and literally no way to articulate them
Makiia Lucier hitting it out of the park once again!! No one does a kind protagonist, a benevolent king, the king’s witty female relative, murder, and a plague like Ms. Lucier. This is her niche, and her niche only, and I respect that immensely.
We follow Elias, a master navigator/map maker, as he looks to unravel the supposed mystery behind the disappearance/death of two young princes and his own father from eighteen years ago… a mystery which indicates that some of the missing/thought to be dead people may even be alive. Joining Elias on this journey is Mercedes, his childhood bestie who also happens to be his other childhood bestie’s cousin… the cousin being the king of their kingdom. We get intrigue, murder, and a look into the supernatural making for a thoroughly intriguing novel.
Lucier, I’ve found, is a master at setting forth a setting that gets you all cozy. She introduces her cast of characters and emphasizes the relationships between every single one, she builds this community for the reader that radiates warmth. Then, in the second half, she tears everything to shreds. But it’s done in such a well thought out and well written manner way that you can’t help but be amazed. Lucier also drops hints that can help the reader solve the mystery before the protagonists and it’s very gratifying when you read Elias and Mercedes have their waitaminute moments.
You very much feel the emotions the protagonists feel, and that’s why I’m obsessed!! The moment that Elias learns that his father might be alive and he starts spiralling because his mother already remarried and has multiple children with his stepfather (who is the father that STEPPED UP!!!) which would result in her being accused of bigamy and brand his younger siblings as bastards…. we FELT that and even more so when [REDACTED]. By the end of the novel literally everything we knew and had thought to be the truth at the start of the story is absolutely shattered, and all I could do was sit on my couch and eat crackers and collect my thoughts.
The characters themselves are not perfect, they also have their flaws. Yes, Elias is kind and caring but he has his own prejudices to grapple with. Prejudices he was raised with, such as the position of women in their society and their so-called roles… how he responds to those suffering from illness and so on! Which was nice to see, flawed protagonist coming to terms like damn I need to rethink some things.
I took off half a star because there were some story elements that kinda irked me
Spoiler
Such as when one of the characters sees a woman with a moustache and is like “is that even a woman” even though the character is antagonizing on purpose and Elias quickly corrects him about different customs, and sometimes how the characters would talk about those suffering from disease, and obvs the patriarchal society and how they view womenOther than that… read Makiia Lucier’s books!! She writes ethnic characters in settings that books would traditionally publish as white and!! I’ll be picking up the second book in this series which focuses on a side-character from this very novel :)