The Kingdom of Little Wounds

Like GoT, Cokal's excellent epic, multiple points-of-view novel isn't easy to read. Court intrigue, duplicitous royal advisers, high-born rapists, and servants who keep and trade sex and secrets to secure their livelihoods -- it sounds more like an episode of Game of Thrones than a young adult novel. It's deep and dark and doesn't shy away from squirm-worthy topics like bodily fluids, sexually transmitted diseases, childbirth, child brides (by our standards), and unthinkable medieval violence, prejudice, and social practices.

Ava Bingen and Midi Sorte are clever and strong-willed characters who are wary of each other but eventually realize they must work together given their circumstances in the Lunedie court. They have to do unsavory and unethical things to survive, but they're still the most sympathetic characters in the story -- with the possible exception of the youngest of the disease-stricken Lunedie children. There are characters so hateful you'll cheer at their demise, but no one is completely blameless. In Cokal's medieval universe, as in real life, everyone is a shade of gray and happily ever afters are rare; the best anyone can hope for, whether titled or the lowest of born, is a sense of freedom, agency, and fulfillment.