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OLDER FICTION
Rutkoski, Marie

The Hollow Heart

304 pp. | Farrar | September, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-374-31384-5 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-374-31385-2 $10.99
(2) YA At the end of The Midnight Lie (rev. 5/20), Sid sailed brokenhearted back to her own kingdom to her ailing mother the queen, while her lover Nirrim ascended the throne after trading her own heart for knowledge. Now without compassion, once-timid Nirrim ruthlessly applies power, executing one in ten of the High Kith who kept the Half Kith subjugated and using her terrified former friends and those she once considered family as ­puppets to sway the mob. Meanwhile, Sid learns that her mother was poisoned and tries to discover the ­perpetrator, at the same time uncovering for herself the ways her own same-sex attraction and her familial love and duty tangle and clash. Of course Sid and Nirrim eventually reunite, though the means by which Rutkoski manages it are too deliciously sweet to give away here. The inventive fantasy framework and whip-smart dialogue should keep readers riveted; a journey by Sid to the gods' realm has echoes of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and gives the story a satisfying roundness; and the exploration of truths that LGBTQ+ youth know and live, growing up in a world whose responses to their differences can still wound them, will resonate in any compassionate heart.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

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