Tell the Wind and Fire

[psocoptera]

Tell the Wind and Fire is very Sarah Rees Brennan, full of her favorite themes - brothers, birthrights, what it means to be human, dark mirrors held up to interrogate same. If you liked the Demon books or the Lynburn books you'll probably like this one. It's got some really cool worldbuilding (nifty magic system stuff), some gorgeous writing in the running light-imagery motif, and very Brennan-esque emotional punch (think Team Human-level crying, people). *Plus*, it does an invaluable service to the world by being a sort of fantasy reimagining of A Tale of Two Cities, a book which I barely remember except to remember that I found it unbearably dull. I'm sure it would have been *much more interesting* to get to read it with this one under the table, so to speak, and get to play "spot the parallel" and "wow she took *that* in a different direction", and I like to think that some contemporary 9th grader out there is getting to do exactly that. "Stryver vs Stryker: the one-letter change that illuminates 19th vs 21st century conceptions of ignobility", that sort of thing.

(I looked that up, about Stryver; I was curious how closely she'd followed Dickens' plot, although I think it would read just fine without any Dickens background at all. Like I said, I really only remembered the one thing - "it is a far far better thing, etc" - and wasn't *that* a stressful ride, waiting to see what she was going to do with that. Invert, subvert, play straight, whyyy did we hand Brennan this very sharp trope again? I was not disappointed. And I thought her handling of the various interpersonal relationships, romance, possible triangles, etc, was all very adroit.)