About the Book
-
Author:
- Leanne Schwartz
- Genres:
- Boy-Girl Romance
- Fantasy
Cover Story: Zero to Hero
BFF Charms: Big Sister, Natalie Imbruglia
Talky Talk: Lack of Context
Bonus Factor: Curses
Factor: Autism
Relationship Status: One and Done
Content Warning: A Prayer for Vengeance features scenes of graphic violence, a sexual assault (groping), and ableism around someone with Autism being asked to be “normal.”
Cover Story: Zero to Hero
This reminds me of the vase from Hercules with the muses on it, but slightly more sinister. (They don’t have swords on their vase, I don’t think.) I love that Gia’s portrayed in her bigger glory, too; her larger size is a somewhat defining characteristic and it would be a shame to see her Photoshopped to fit society’s expectations.
The Deal:
Milo has spent most of his life at Mater Magda’s temple, working to serve the templars and Primo Sanct Ennio and hoping to become apprenticed to one of the temple’s Storicas, or keepers of knowledge and faith. One of his tasks is to keep various sancts—stone statues of people from long ago—clean and tidy so that they continue to keep the city safe. He shouldn’t, but he has a favorite: a young woman with a fierce look on her face hidden away on the hill near an old temple ruin.
Milo thinks he knows the truth of the sancts and Ennio’s rise to immortality, but when his sanct, Gia, unexpectedly returns to her original, flesh and blood form, he learns that nothing is as it’s been told. And he’ll have to make some hard decisions on whether to follow his head, his heart, or his fear of change.
BFF Charms: Big Sister, Natalie Imbruglia
Milo is a generous, sweet, hopeful individual who’s far too good for the society in which he finds himself, and too easily steamrolled into thinking there’s something wrong with the way he thinks or acts. He’s on the Autism spectrum—Autism is actually mentioned once in the book, which is a bit strange for a fantasy book not set in our own world, but I digress—and struggles with understanding other’s emotions or outwardly showing his own. He also has sensory issues and is easily overwhelmed. But this doesn’t make him in any way lesser; he’s a skilled fighter, extremely intelligent, and cares, deeply, for people in his life. I would love to be a person in his life who would echo that care back to him and build him up, rather than ask him to change for other people’s comfort.
Gia’s a fierce storm of a young woman who’s wracked with guilt over her part in the imprisonment of herself and the other “sancts,” scattered around the city and Ennio’s rise to power. When she comes out of her stone prison, she’s understandably lost and struggles to make sense of the world in which she finds herself. She quickly turns to violence, but eventually realizes that it’s not the answer, nor does she need to lean into the incorrect ways people view her. Once she reached that point, she would make for a great friend. But the ease with which she killed gives me serious pause.
Swoonworthy Scale: 6
Milo’s taken with Gia long before he discovers that she’s not actually a statue and is a real girl. And even when she sets out for vengeance, something that he’d never consider, there’s something about her that continues to tug at his soul. Gia doesn’t realize what her feelings toward Milo are until it’s nearly too late for the both of them. They’ve got some things to work through, but I wish them both the very best.
Talky Talk: Lack of Context
I struggled with the world Schwartz built for A Prayer for Vengeance, partly in fact because there’s a distinct lack of context clues for a lot of the unfamiliar terms and or pieces of the world. The story is good, but there’s asking readers to dive in and then just tossing folks off a boat. This book leans too far toward the latter, and my reading experience was a struggle because of this.
Bonus Factor: Curses
I dig a good curse, and the one that turns Gia to stone is a pretty neat one (even if it’s not satisfactorily explained; see Talky Talk: Lack of Context above). Her time spent as flesh and blood is related to the phases of the moon, so there’s an added element of tension that everything won’t get sorted before the next moon cycle begins.
Factor: Autism
I do not have a close relationship with anyone on the Autism spectrum, and I know that popular media doesn’t always portray folks on the spectrum properly. (It’s also a spectrum, natch, so there’s a wide range of differences from one person to the next.) I have no idea if Schwartz portrayed Milo’s Autism correctly, but it seemed thoughtfully done to me. And it’s nice to see this kind of representation!
Relationship Status: One and Done
We had a lack of proper communication, Book, from the very start, which put a damper on my enjoyment of our time together. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it felt too much like work for me to want to meet up again. Good luck with life!
Literary Matchmaking
Brigid Kemmerer’s Cursebreakers series is another story with a cursed person/person with a disability dynamic.
Ivelisse Housman’s Unseelie also features an autistic main character who has to find their own power.
And for another book in which a main character turns to stone, check out Tracy Wolff’s Crave series.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Page Street YA, but got neither a private dance party with Tom Hiddleston nor money in exchange for this review. A Prayer for Vengeance is available now.
