THE DARKANGEL (DARKANGEL TRILOGY #1) by Meredith Ann Pierce
Aeriel is kidnapped by the darkangel, a black-winged vampyre of astounding beauty and youth. In his castle keep, she serves his 13 wives, wraiths whose souls he stole. She must kill him before his next marriage and comes into full power, but is captivated by his magnificent beauty and inner spark of goodness. Will she choose to save humanity or his soul?
You think this is your average YA novel? Think again! First published in 1982 it came long before the supernatural love interest was trending. I read this book as an adult and I never once had the feeling that I couldn’t relate to the young heroine. This trilogy features incredibly imaginative worldbuilding, a wealth of interesting secondary characters and universal themes including love, friendship and betrayal. I was crying by the end and I mean crying, like actual salt water leaking from my eyes.
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Who needs social events when you get three books at once in your mailbox right?? I like Radiance so far, a very interesting interspecies romance with a monstrous guy, recommended by @fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains, and another two books by Juliet Marillier because I loved her Blackthorn and Grim series so much!
Not having to be at any social events is a blessing.😉 I usually prefer a good book over those pesky social activities.
I heard you. Sometimes, in silence, at night, I hear the voices of things beyond eyesight, like echoes of ancient songs. I heard your voice, lonely in my dreams—it woke me, so I came. You see, I know how it is when you speak a name into an empty room with no one on earth to answer to it.
–Coren of Sirle, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Young Sybel, the heiress of powerful wizards, needs the company of no-one outside her gates. In her exquisite stone mansion, she is attended by exotic, magical beasts: Riddle-master Cyrin the boar; the treasure-starved dragon Gyld; Gules the Lyon, tawny master of the Southern Deserts; Ter, the fiercely vengeful falcon; Moriah, feline Lady of the Night. Sybel only lacks the exquisite and mysterious Liralen, which continues to elude her most powerful enchantments.
But Sybel’s solitude is to be shattered when a desperate soldier arrives bearing a mysterious child. Soon Sybel will discover that the world of men is full of love, deceit, and the temptations of vast power.
–Amazon Summary
Despite it being published over 30 years ago, I just read this sophisticated, lyrical, romantic but unsentimental, thematically compelling YA novel for the first time. Not gonna lie, I did get some Reylo vibes here–it’s a coming of age story centered on an isolated heroine, Sybel, with tremendous but untested power. Furthermore, this book portrays an attempted “mind rape”, and I have to say, it could not be further from what went on in the Reylo interrogation scene. As the above quote suggests, there are also themes of loneliness and neglect that fuel the relationship between the protagonist and her love interest, much like Rey and Kylo.
Thematically, the novel explores how and why one so powerful (and even ones not so powerful) could be used and abused to further the machinations of man. It also does not shy away from pointing out how even the best of intentions can be interpreted as abusive and does not back down from portraying a heroine capable of the very real human failing of holding others to a double standard. Against a really simple but beautiful metaphor, Sybel ultimately learns that one cannot merely survive one’s fears by staring them in the face, but also must accept them as part of herself. It’s also some of the best feminist YA fiction I’ve read in recent years and deals considerably (though not overtly) with the role of consent and choice as well as puts forth thoughtful ideas about captivity and free will.
Anyway, it was a terrific read and if you like lyrical, nuanced prose and dialogue that is by turns delicate and unsentimental, romantic but fierce, ambiguous while also direct, then this is highly recommended.
I love Patricia A. McKillip and often thought that her books have that dark fairy tale vibe which always reminds me of the reylo dynamic.
I haven’t read this one yet but I can wholeheartedly recommend this author. Her writing is pure magic.
Further recommendations by this author:
The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy
Ombria in Shadow
In the Forests of Serre
Alphabet of Thorn
The Changeling Sea (This one had the most reylo vibes for me.)
I’m guessing Winter Rose should have a strong reylo vibe as well. I’ve yet to read it but I know it’s an adaption of the Tam Lin tale which also may have been an inspiration for the dynamic between Rey and Kylo/Ben.
OMG @fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains, if you love this author you have got to read Forgotten Beasts soon! Apart from anything Reylo, it’s just a splendid and emotional read.
The Changeling Sea was a book on my reading list for awhile, so I’m reading that now, and I strongly second your “most Reylo” comparison thus far, especially at times when Peri, the female protagonist, hopes to “give the sea indigestion” by throwing a jagged ball of glass and metal junk into it. That’s so Scavenger Rey to me lol.
Ha, yes that part was great. I’ve almost forgotten about that bcause it’s been a while since I last read a book by her. I best remember the bittersweet and yet uplifting ending of the Changeling Sea.
The forgotten Beasts of Eld has been on my reading list for a while and this post has definitely been a incentive to pick it up soon.☺
I heard you. Sometimes, in silence, at night, I hear the voices of things beyond eyesight, like echoes of ancient songs. I heard your voice, lonely in my dreams—it woke me, so I came. You see, I know how it is when you speak a name into an empty room with no one on earth to answer to it.
–Coren of Sirle, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Young Sybel, the heiress of powerful wizards, needs the company of no-one outside her gates. In her exquisite stone mansion, she is attended by exotic, magical beasts: Riddle-master Cyrin the boar; the treasure-starved dragon Gyld; Gules the Lyon, tawny master of the Southern Deserts; Ter, the fiercely vengeful falcon; Moriah, feline Lady of the Night. Sybel only lacks the exquisite and mysterious Liralen, which continues to elude her most powerful enchantments.
But Sybel’s solitude is to be shattered when a desperate soldier arrives bearing a mysterious child. Soon Sybel will discover that the world of men is full of love, deceit, and the temptations of vast power.
–Amazon Summary
Despite it being published over 30 years ago, I just read this sophisticated, lyrical, romantic but unsentimental, thematically compelling YA novel for the first time. Not gonna lie, I did get some Reylo vibes here–it’s a coming of age story centered on an isolated heroine, Sybel, with tremendous but untested power. Furthermore, this book portrays an attempted “mind rape”, and I have to say, it could not be further from what went on in the Reylo interrogation scene. As the above quote suggests, there are also themes of loneliness and neglect that fuel the relationship between the protagonist and her love interest, much like Rey and Kylo.
Thematically, the novel explores how and why one so powerful (and even ones not so powerful) could be used and abused to further the machinations of man. It also does not shy away from pointing out how even the best of intentions can be interpreted as abusive and does not back down from portraying a heroine capable of the very real human failing of holding others to a double standard. Against a really simple but beautiful metaphor, Sybel ultimately learns that one cannot merely survive one’s fears by staring them in the face, but also must accept them as part of herself. It’s also some of the best feminist YA fiction I’ve read in recent years and deals considerably (though not overtly) with the role of consent and choice as well as puts forth thoughtful ideas about captivity and free will.
Anyway, it was a terrific read and if you like lyrical, nuanced prose and dialogue that is by turns delicate and unsentimental, romantic but fierce, ambiguous while also direct, then this is highly recommended.
I love Patricia A. McKillip and often thought that her books have that dark fairy tale vibe which always reminds me of the reylo dynamic.
I haven’t read this one yet but I can wholeheartedly recommend this author. Her writing is pure magic.
Further recommendations by this author:
The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy
Ombria in Shadow
In the Forests of Serre
Alphabet of Thorn
The Changeling Sea (This one had the most reylo vibes for me.)
I’m guessing Winter Rose should have a strong reylo vibe as well. I’ve yet to read it but I know it’s an adaption of the Tam Lin tale which also may have been an inspiration for the dynamic between Rey and Kylo/Ben.
Watch the new Vaginal Fantasy Romance Book Club episode with Felicia Day, Veronica Belmont, Bonnie Burton and Kiala Kazebee discussing the book “Radiance” (Wraith Kings, #1) by Grace Daven! Plus booze!
Great discussion.😀
Spoilers!
STAINED GLASS MONSTERS by Andrea K. Höst
Creatures from the Eferum are a world-wide problem: creeping through tears in the fabric of space, they feast on every unprotected human they can find.
Tyrland has a solution in the Kellian: faster and stronger than humans, they are Tyrland’s clawed, shadowy monster hunters. But no matter how faithfully they serve, or how true their sworn word, they are too different, too separate, to ever be entirely trusted.
Rennyn Claire is a complication. Secretive and obscenely powerful, she knows entirely too much about a massive new threat to Tyrland’s safety. Worst of all, she is linked to a past that the Kellian would rather forget.
All three of these things – monsters, Kellian, and an entirely overpowered mage – are about to land in Kendall Stockton’s lap. The last thing Kendall wants is to try to play conscience to someone who can swat her like a bug. But innocent lives are at stake, and no-one else seems willing to ask if what is necessary is the right thing to do.
Andrea K. Höst’s books are not easily chategorized. She mixes fantasy, science fiction and steampunk with a strong romantic element while never losing focus on plot and character development.
Her novels always feature interesting and capable heroines that are easy to identify with, sexy and thoughtful men and fully fleshed out secondary characters. There are usually multiple lgbt characters in each of her books.
I recently rewatched my all time favourite movie as a child, Ronja Rövardotter (for the english speakers: Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter), and noticed some parallels that can be drawn to Reylo.
For those who haven’t watched the film or read the book by (awesome!) Astrid Lindgren:
Ronja is the daughter of Mattis, chief of a robbers clan, and his wife Lovis. She grows up in her parents’ castle in the woods with the robbers as her only company, until a rival robber group (led by their chief Borka) moves into the other half of the castle, exacerbating the longstanding rivalry between the two bands. When she meets Birk Borkason, the only son of Borka, the two start out as enemies, but once they get to know each other they become very close friends – but know that they cannot tell their families. When Birk is captured by Ronja’s father, she gives herself to the Borkas so she must be exchanged, but as a result her father disowns her and refuses to acknowledge her as his daughter. Birk and Ronja run away to the woods, where they live in a cave and experience several adventures. Ultimately their families repent of their feuding, and everyone is reunited, but the story concludes with both Ronia and Birk deciding that the robber’s life is not for them.
Character parallels
Both Ronja and Birk grow up quite lonely, as the only children among adults and find themselves on opposing sides of rivalling forces, namely their opposing clans of robbers.
After being abandoned by her parents, Rey grows up alone on Jakku amongst other scavengers. While Ben is surrounded by other children, he is singled out and different from a very young age, due to both his bloodline as well as his unique powers, and also ultimately alone. They also find themselves on opposing sides of a war, in their case the Resistance and the First Order respectively.
Ronja & Rey
There are obvious parallels between scavenger Rey and Ronja: She, as well as Rey, is self-reliant, spirited, kind, but a fighter who stands her ground and is not afraid to speak her mind and question authority. She cusses and insults Birk a lot. She also is very impulsive and often lashes out before thinking, she even bites him in the cheek at one point by mistake (but refuses to apologise).
Birk & Kylo Ren
Birk is born into (robbers’) royalty and very aware of that. When he is first introduced he comes off as a little arrogant and smug. He insults Ronja and mocks both her origin and her abilities. (To be fair, she does as well)
The First meeting
The first time Ronja and Birk meet is at the rift that separates both halves of the castle (fittingly called “the gorge of hell”). They immediately start to throw insults at each other. Birk jumps over the rift after Ronja tells him to “come over if you dare, I will punch you in the face so hard your nose falls off!”. To keep face she starts jumping as well. Birk is quite impressed. They then both start competitively leaping back and forth across the abyss. Finally, Birk slips and almost falls to his death, but is ultimately saved by Ronja, who pulls him back over the edge. When Birk tries to thank her and suggest that maybe now they belong together, she slaps him and tells him to go to hell.
Now, where might we have seen two antagonists insulting each other, then fighting on the edge of a cliff before… followed by an impressed boy offering a union and the girl rejecting him…
(I realise this post might be interesting only to a niche readership – assuming that most of your aren’t Swedish or German, where I know this book/movie is most popular – and this is pretty long already, so I’m putting the rest under a cut.)
I loved this movie as a kid (still do). It’s dark, creepy and magical. It’s definitely not the typical cutesy stuff Hollywood pumps out.
You are not the only one who saw parallels with reylo. Some time ago I also made a (very short) post about that movie. Of course this meta is something else. Thank you for taking the time to do this awasome in-depth analysis.
Monsters and Villains 