Quintana of Charyn, by Melina Marchetta: Can't we all just get along? Call me, maybe?

Quintana of Charyn (The Lumatere Chronicles)
Melina Marchetta
Candlewick: Somerville, 2013. 
ISBN: 9780763658359 (ARC reviewed)
Available in the USA/Canada April 23, 2013. 

When last we left them, the titular characters in Melina Marchetta’s Chronicles of Lumatere trilogy had left their readers on the edge of a gravina (aka a cliff). Not literally – it was just the bestworst kind of cliffhanger.  What a way to leave the readers hanging, with our two favorite nations, Charyn and Lumatere, on the verge of letting misunderstanding and deep-seeded grudges steer them in a course of hasty war!   We pick up where we left off, and though the action thankfully shifts, there are several dozen pages of will or won’t they agony, coupled with the fear of the survival of both Froi and Quintana.  All these important questions, plus some you didn’t even realize you had, are summed up in Marchetta’s presumptive finale to the series.  Characters travel great distances, searching for answers and for each other, and prejudices and fears must be tested and unlearned.  Politics, family, forgiveness, and love are the powerful and pensive themes in this title.  Though the course is agonizing, and to go into detail would be to spoil SO many of the myraid plot points, Quintana of Charyn is a deeply satisfying read.  Deep breathing technique practice is optional, yet encouraged.  It is a strongly recommended book for older teens and adult readers, and for all libraries with a vested interest in smart, well-crafted fantasy.  If you own the first two and are reconsidering, what are you, monsters?  

Tidbits: I was not in the Netherlands on Tuesday...

• The real question in the art theft I did not commit in the Netherlands is Monet, Matisse, Gauguin...Picasso?  As our friends on Sesame would say, one of these things is not like the others!  (Also, I got $20 and a space on my wall for a Monet, art thieves...)

• The worlds largest floating bookstore (hint: not my bathtub). 

• One Direction fan fiction - face, meet palm.  

• Harry Potter textbook covers. 

• Things I want to eat: Totchos.  Exactly what they sound like.

• Author Crush Melina Marchetta's Quitana finally got a new dress:

 

And I like it.
Except I'm resoundingly convinced she wants to
shank me with that piece.

 

Tidbits: It's Froiday, Phiday, Ender gets down with Emma T...whattt?

• It's Froiday, Froiday, gotta get down on Froiday!  Everyone on this continent (except you, Mexico, sorry) pick up your copy of the newest awesome Melina Marchetta book, Froi of the Exiles today!  
• To celebrate, you can join me in oohing and ahhhing over the Australian cover of Quintana, in which the titular Quintata imperiously mocks our Froi cliffhanger dismay.  I'd say it's a solid despite her hair not being nearly scraggly enough, but I still prefer humanless covers:
  
  

  

  Australia gets everything first, even tomorrow!

  
  
  At least there is no sword?  I am DYING to read this!
• It's also almost Phi Day, Phi Day, gotta get down on Phi Day (it pretty much already is in Australia)!  My favorite pie purveyor, Petsi Pies, is having the nerdiest yet tastiest competition to celebrate.  Tragically, I will be in Miami! I'm actually upset about this - I memorized 100 digits of phi in middle school!  As my poptart learned the hard way when he had to buy me a dog upon challenging me to go a year without tv to get a dog (in his mind, to shut me up about it) I will destroy your inane challenges!  I would totally do 300 for pie and grits! SIGH.
• The Ender's Game movie is ON! Ender Wiggin HAS A FACE (as does the rest of the cast, but whatevs.).  Was Ender the invention of Hugo Cabret? I don't care how terrible that line was because: It's HAPPENING!  Also, when did Abigail Breslin grow up? 
• Beautiful Creatures is a book I read and enjoyed immensely, but never reviewed.  But like every other YA book, it got optioned...and will be a movie.  With such unknown actors rumored to be in in it, like EMMA THOMPSON.  WHAT?!?  Oh, I was there already, but now that Nanny McPhee is making an appearance, ima bring my frey-ends!  Personally, I'm hoping she plays Mrs. Lincoln.  
• Is anyone else having trouble rectifying the news that the Hunger Games release is like...days away?  Remember when it was just a wink in Hollywood's eye? AHHH!  It premieres tonight! Is it just me or does Jennifer Lawrence look a bit like young early 80's Goldie Hawn minus a hair spray overdose/electrocution?
  
  

Froi of the Exiles, by Melina Marchetta: Charyn't you glad it's got no froibles?

Froi of the Exiles, 

by Melina Marchetta

ARC from Candlewick, available 3/13/12

Three years have passed since Finnikin and Isaboe ended the Lumateran curse and exile and began rebuilding their country.  Now nearly 18, Froi has spent these years helping rebuild Lumatere and training with the Queen’s guard, both to mind his temper and to train to fulfill his promise to protect his queen.   Foreign relations are tense due to the long suspected role of Charyn in the Lumateran exile; to complicate matters, Charyn refugees are flooding the Lumateran valley on their border.  Fluent in Charnyite, Froi is given a secret mission infiltrate the desert country, impersonate a noble, and assassinate their king.  However, not even the trainings of the Guard could prepare him for what he discovers in the treacherous Charyn royal court.  Charyn has a curse of its own: no children have been born or even conceived in 18 years.  Charyn’s insane princess, Quintana, claims to be the only one to be able to break the curse.  However, Froi is strangely drawn to Quintana, who has become a victim of the curse, and to the Charnynite people, hesitating in his mission as his resolve to protect her and help Charyn find peace strengthens.  This wholly engrossing and beautifully constructed novel is filled with intrigue, dark humor, mystery, adventure, engaging new characters, and visits with old Lumateran friends.  More political thriller than pure fantasy, due to plot complexity and some sexual violence it is recommended to high school students and adults.   As a reader caveat, this novel ends on an excruciating cliffhanger! 

Hold your breath (or don’t is probably a wiser idea), because here comes a loooong review: