#Review - Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore #YALIT #Fantasy

Series: Unknown
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: October 13, 2020
Publisher: Amulet Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Epic

Mad Max: Fury Road meets Frozen in this striking YA fantasy about a rig driver’s journey to save her friend

Twice-orphaned Sylvi has chipped out a niche for herself on Layce, an island cursed by eternal winter. Alone in her truck, she takes comfort in two things: the solitude of the roads and the favor of Winter, an icy spirit who has protected her since she was a child.

Sylvi likes the road, where no one asks who her parents were or what she thinks of the rebels in the north. But when her best friend, Lenore, runs off with the rebels, Sylvi must make a haul too late in the season for a smuggler she wouldn’t normally work with, the infamous Mars Dresden. Alongside his team—Hyla, a giant warrior woman and Kyn, a boy with skin like stone—Sylvi will do whatever it takes to save her friend.

But when the time comes, she’ll have to choose: safety, anonymity, and the favor of Winter—or the future of the island that she calls home.  

 

Shannon Dittemore's Winter, White and Wicked infuses a high fantasy setting with a mixture of Mad Max: Fury Road and Frozen. The story is filled with grim lore, grotesque monsters, gripping mysticism, and a character who must figure out her own past before she can move forward. Set in the icy world of Layce or Shiv Island where winter is eternal, trucker Sylvi Quine is content with her life as a rig driver on an island cursed to an eternal winter.

She revels in her solitude and her connection to a wintery spirit named Winter, whose been with her since she was a child. When her best friend Lenore runs off to join the rebels, Sylvi makes a deal with a shifty smuggler, Mars Dresden, to use her rig to haul a load across a treacherous pass. Along for the ride are two foreigners, Kyndel and Hyla who become more than just a job to Sylvi. Sylvia must transverse a long dangerous path called the Shiv Road which reminded me of the TV show Ice Road Truckers.  

Along the way, readers learn that Winter is a spirit who made a deal with a shipwrecked exiled Queen from Kerce who already had a prince in her arms, and another in her belly. They survived the islands monsters, but Kol slipped into their minds and brought madness and they could not survive Winters wrath which buried Shiv Island in snow. The question(s) are: what happened to the Prince? Did he survive, or die like his mother? What happened to the baby? Could the baby still be alive 327 years after her mother made a deal with Winter?

Sylvi’s journey through the treacherous snow, is one that is filled with physical and mystical dangers. Winter’s creepy characters are one of the more unique monsters you will read about. Sylvi’s journey ultimately is about exploring her roots and magic. While the story does hit on both, it tends to drag out for an exceptionally long time. Mars is incredibly unlikeable. He is a scheming, manipulative bastard. Yes, his motivations for a free country are great, but it is no excuse for how Mars treats and talks to Sylvi. 

He knows more than her, and instead of just telling her, he manipulates her. The story also lacks an understanding as to whom the Majority are and where they come from? I think if there is a sequel, which there must be since the book ends open ended, then the author needs to explain. As the story closes, Sylvi soon confronted with the darker side of Winter as secrets come to life about her island's history as well as her own. Sylvi is now faced with a choice: to go back to the anonymity of her old life or to step up and claim her newfound birthright.

The prologue of the story shows Sylvi as a 10-year-old eagerly trying to escape into the snow to play with the snow and the spirit Winter. We know that Sylvia has been orphaned twice in her life. Once by her unknown mother, and the second time by a woman who briefly raised her and didn’t exactly win the prize for mother of the year. The opening builds a foundation and knowledge of the world and how different Sylvi is from Lenore and the others from the color of her hair, to the color of her bright gray irises, to how she is able to handle the dangerous Kol which amplifies everything from cosmetics, to medicine. But it’s also dangerous to the point of needing to chew on Twyl gum that combats the negative effects.

Unfortunately, due to the uncertainty of whether there’s supposed to be a sequel to this story or not, which there absolutely needs to be after that ending, I had to lower my rating down a bit. One of my pet peeves when you are able to find any information from the author, the publisher, or anywhere else about future installments.

 

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