Book Review
Title: The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Genre: Young Adult, LGBT, Fantasy
Rating: 4.5 Stars
The opening to The Deathless Girl interesting and most definitely gripping, we are introduced to Lillai ‘Lil’ and her twin sister Kizzy who are part of a Travellers group with many others including their mother and younger brother, Kem. When the Travellers come of age the undergo their divining day in which their futures are read to determine their paths and the twins are unique as they were born under a blood moon. Kizzy hopes to be a seer or a bear-rider like their mother who has a bear named Albu that has been a friend to the girls since they were born. However, while they are out gathering mushrooms one day their camp is attacked with many being killed or burnt in their wagons including their mother but Lil manages to free Albu from his post and get the bear to take Kem with him before she and Kizzy are captured along with some other including Fen, the boy who loves Kizzy. They realise that these men are employed by a Boyar and they are being taken to him possibly as slaves and for Kizzy and Lil this means they will never get their divining day and learn what paths they should have taken in life. Already I am intrigued by the characters and the magic system and can’t wait to see more of it as the novel progresses.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, the remaining Travellers are being taken to one of the Boyar’s home in the North which is dangerous since they know the legends about people kidnapping Talented girl and the whispers of the Dragon. The boys are quickly separated from the girls and sold presumably for working in the fields while the girls are taken to Mistress Malovski. Malovski initially wants girls and bears but the only surviving bear from their camp is Albu who Lil freed with her brother and she prays that they are both safe now in the forest. Malovski inspects the girls and sends all of them apart of Lil and Kizzy to the dairy but the twins are going to be serving girls. After their thorough inspection they are taken to the kitchens under the care of Cook, another Traveller for a month before they will become serving girls. They meet some of the other girls working there but Kizzy is disdainful and angry about her situation whereas Lil is just trying to survive until she can get back to her brother. Kizzy knows that Cook has the gift but she won’t give them their divining day instead she tells Lil to forget the life they had before they arrived since it is unlikely they will ever return to it. During this Lil evens up speaking to a girl named Mira, although she can’t talk back because of the bruises and damage inflicted on her throat. It must have been bad since Mira used be a serving girl but has obviously been demoted as we can see by her bruises and shaved head but Lil feels a connection to this girl for some reason and wants to get to know her despite her sister’s attitude.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the girls are in the service of Boyar Valcar but I have a feeling they are going to have different reactions, I think Kizzy will get into trouble more often whereas Lil will keep her head down and wait for an opportunity to leave. For the next two weeks the girls try and make sense of their situation and figure out what is going on around them since the Traveller community doesn’t seem to keep up to date on the outside world. I was right about Kizzy not accepting her situation and she does fight although when she realises they will hurt Lil in her place she quiets down but doesn’t lose her fire. She even asks Cook repeatedly to perform their divining and eventually Cook agrees purely because their seer was her sister and she feels it is right to do to honour her sister. During the divining both girls were right about their callings as a bear tamer and singer but Lil has something extra that Cook sees in her and she also doesn’t see a death for Lil which is a curse to Travellers since they are meant to die as that is the natural order. Before they can contemplate this they are caught in the kitchens by Mistress Malovski but they aren’t in any compromising position. Lil did try to get information about the Dragon out of Cook but all she learns is that the Boyars have a pact with the Dragon to protect their lands but it requires sacrifices to the Dragon.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Kizzy talks Lil into escaping while Malovski is distracted in the kitchen and while they make it to the courtyard Lil’s fear gets them caught and this breaks something in Kizzy. It breaks her to the point where she is willing to offer herself sexually to the soldier who see previously attacked in order to protect her sister but Malovski appears and stops this. As punishment the girls are thrown in the dungeon for a week but Mira brings them food when she can but Kizzy warns Lil not to get close to the girl despite Lil knowing there is a deeper connection between her and Mira that Kizzy can’t understand. When they are let out it is only because the Boyar’s guest is arriving early and the girls needs to be trained in their new role as serving girls. Here we see something developing between Mira and Lil although Kizzy is doing her best to prevent it from happening trying to make Lil believe that they can only trust each other. Malovski also knows of their talents and promises the Boyar performances that night but Lil has noticed that the Boyar himself is ill. Kizzy is supposed to perform a dance which involve the cruel killing of snakes and she knows she can’t perform it because of the Traveller connection with animals which is deepened by her being a bear dancer and Lil is supposed to sing but she has never been able to perform for people she doesn’t have a connection with and when she tried during lunch she couldn’t get a sound out but their lives may depend on their performance.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was really enjoying the story and was hoping that the Dragon might make an appearance or for something a little more dramatic to happen. While the twins prepare for their performance they manage to see Fen again but Kizzy is awful to him despite the fact they are all trying to survive. During the performance Boyar Calazan in taken with Kizzy and Lil is sure that something awful is going to happen but she sings for everyone she has lost and even Mira who snuck in to witness it first-hand. After the performance is done Boyar Calazan claims Kizzy for the Dragon as she is a bear dancer and mentions having found a white bear in the forest with could only be Albu which means Kem might be there too. Kizzy goes with them but fights for Lil to come too but they don’t want her and she has to watch as her sister is taken from her for the first time in their lives. Afterwards the captain tries to rape Lil but she ends up killing him only to be found by Mira and Cook who devise a plan for Mira and Lil to escape and Lil grabs Fen too. Rather than heading to the sea they are heading straight to the Dragon’s land in order to get Kizzy back along with Albu and Kem and Mira wants to come too so the group set off trying to cover as much ground as they can. However, their path leads them direct past their former camp, Lil and Fen stop in order to say goodbye to the people they loved which was heart-breaking to witness but I can’t wait to see what happens now.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Lil has a spiritual encounter with her mother at the remains of the camp and in this vision she shows Lil the route they need to take into the Dragon’s lands. Beyond this she shows Lil a place of safety within those lands and hints at what the Dragon’s true nature is but they are soon to discover this for themselves. As they get closer to their destination we see the relationship between Mira and Lil blossoming which was delightful to see given the darker nature of the novel but this soon turns to horror. They encounter a man fleeing through the woods from a little girl who turns out the be his daughter and she is a vampire. After accidently killing the girl and staking the man through the heart so he won’t become a vampire the trio now know what is awaiting them in the Dragon’s land and what has possible become of every offering made to him including Kizzy. Lil holds onto the hope that her sister, Kem and Albu are all alive and waiting for her but when they see the bodies lining the walls of the Dragon’s land they know this is a place of death. Since most of the residents seems to be vampires it is eerily quiet in the lands during the day although they do stumble across a barn filled with slumbering vampires. On inspection of the castle they find a guard and take him hostage for information before retreating to the safety of the church as the light begin to fail. They now face a choice between facing the human guards in the day or the vampires at night and neither is an attractive option but the more time Kizzy spends in the castle the less likely it is for her to come out alive. Lil I think is going to use the mushrooms for another encounter with her mother and hope for some answers but I can’t wait for the conclusion of the novel.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, seeing the ending of this story was heart-breaking as both sisters were forced into making choices that they didn’t want to make for the protection of the people they loved and cared about. While Kizzy was more callous in her choice, Lil’s is completely out of love as she sacrifices herself to save Fen, Mira, Kem and Albu from horrific fates. The aftermath of this was both sister eventually forgot and watched these people they once loved die from old age while they became avenging angels and eventually faded into history as Dracul and the Brides of Dracul and nothing more. Watching the characters grow and nature throughout this novel, especially Lil was wonderfully heart-breaking at times but I loved every minute of it. The only compliant I have was I wanted to see more of the romance between Lil and Mira but we did get plenty and I would have liked at least one scene with Kizzy and the Dragon before he changed her but overall it was a fast-paced and engaging read.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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