Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: March 21, 2023
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
An atmospheric, edge-of-your-seat fantasy from a debut Filipina-Canadian author that combines the grit of The Witcher with the voice of Rin Chupeco.
Narra Jal is cursed. Birthmarks declare her damned, and her penance for
the sins from a past life is a touch that spreads bad luck like poison.
As the humble daughter of a cloth merchant, she spent her life
traversing Tigang, a harsh country carved out of stone, moving from
place to place before people discover her secret and chase her out.
When
her mother is arrested, Narra blames her bad luck. She has no money for
bribes and no connections to beg favors to save her family. What she
needs is power. Every ten years, Tigang selects a new ruler through a
vicious competition. Anyone may compete, but only the desperate and the
foolish ever join. No one knows what happens in the glass fortress
during the trials, only that those who survive never leave unbroken.
Within
the magic suffused walls of the fortress, Narra quickly realizes there
is more at risk than her life and her family. She comes face to face
with a disarming immortal enemy and learns how close the peace in Tigang
is to shattering. Narra must unravel the mystery of who she is, and
confront the ugly truth of who she was, before the competition undoes
her, or her growing feelings for the enemy destroy her people – again.
The Moonlight Blade is the debut fantasy novel by author Tessa Barbosa. The novel has a richly developed world inspired by the precolonial Philippines and Filipino culture. A young cursed girl enters a competition to become the new ruler of
Tigang and, while unraveling her past, falls for an assassin. Narra Jal is cursed. Birthmarks declare her damned, and her penance for
the sins from a past life is a touch that spreads bad luck like poison.
As the humble second daughter of a cloth merchant, she's spent her life
traversing Tigang, a harsh country carved out of stone, moving from
place to place before people discover her secret and chase her out. When
her mother Shora Jal is arrested, Narra blames her bad luck. She has no money for
bribes and no connections to beg favors to save her family. What she
needs is power. Every ten years, Tigang selects a new ruler through a
vicious competition called Sundo.
Anyone 18-25 may compete, but only the desperate and the foolish ever join. The Sundo lasts for 7 days, and then a winner is chosen. No one knows what happens in the glass fortress during the trials, only that those who survive never leave unbroken. Within the magic suffused walls of the fortress, Narra quickly realizes there is more at risk than her life and her family. She comes face to face with a disarming immortal enemy and learns how close the peace in Tigang is to shattering.
Narra has nothing. No weapons. No training. No magic. No real chance of leaving with her life. Just her fierce grit and a refusal to accept the destiny she’s been handed and some curious memories of a past, and the easy she has of learning different languages. Even the intense, dark-eyed Guardian she feels a strangely electric connection with cannot help her. Narra is on her own. But she’ll show everyone what the unlucky can do. Narra must unravel the mystery of who she is, and confront the ugly truth of who she was, before the competition undoes her, or her growing feelings for the enemy destroy her people – again.
The unfortunate part of this book is whether or not this is a standalone, or part of a larger series. As the book ends, there are possibilities that the author will continue with Narra's journey especially after the events of the Sundo and the stunning revelation of who Narra really is. Through a series of tests that get harder and harder, Narra must decide whether any of this is worth it, and how much she will eventually lose of herself when everything is revealed.
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