I downloaded a copy of Astrid Yrigollen‘s YA/NA novel, His Black Wings, from the Amazon free list. I also followed a convenient link from Ms. Yrigollen’s blog to here, where there happens to be a giveaway for a free paperback copy of the book.

Description from Goodreads:
Claren Maidstone has been forced to flee her childhood home after the death of her parents and a vicious assault from a sadistic young man who intends to marry her. Claren changes her identity and finds employment as an assistant to the handsome Fredrick Lowood, a generous yet mysterious benefactor. However, she soon finds out his generosity comes at a price. Fredrick wishes for Claren to befriend his disfigured son who resides in seclusion at their estate, Westwind.

Fredrick Lowood knows what the history books do not teach, that the Grand Council built this new world of peace and beauty on hidden blood and greed. He has plotted for years to bring down the family that enslaved his own people. Suddenly, he has the last living heir in his grasp.

Etrigan Lowood rejects the world that forces him to hide. He is powerful, plagued with a terrible dark beauty: WINGS. It is these wings that carry him out only at night to watch the unwanted intruder in his home. A creature of refined instinct yet little social grace, he is strangely captivated by Claren but knows nothing of how her family’s dark past is intertwined with his own. Through their blossoming friendship, Etrigan realizes he still retains his human heart and yearns for Claren’s love.

Kurten Wandsworth is the only son of the Mayor of St.Marhen. Kurten lives his life fueled by cruelty and lust. Whatever he wants he takes and he wants Claren to be his wife even it if kills her. Scarred by Claren he hunts her down mercilessly until he can set a trap which she will never be able to escape from.

Review:
Ok, so I’m a huge manga fan. Yes, I know I’m too old, but get over it. I have. Being that I love Japan’s graphic exports as much as I do, this cover really appealed to me. I won’t lie; it’s the sole reason I downloaded the book. I’m kinda burnt on YA, so if it had had a standard YA cover with some star-crossed waif in a flowing dress, I’d have written it off without another thought. But Ms. Yrigollen went with something a little different, and it paid off here.

I will admit that I expected the story to be more childish, or for a younger YA audience than it is, based on the cover. Etrigan and Claren look so young in the picture but are actually in their early twenties, and the book starts with an attempted rape (not really kiddie stuff). I was tempted at one point to argue this would be better labelled New Adult than Young Adult, and I think that argument probably can be made for the first half. However, after a fairly lengthy info dump at about 70% through, the whole feel of the book really takes on the shallow characteristics of a YA.

I don’t mean shallow as an insult, but rather the way YA books often tend to avoid dark outcomes and deep moral quandaries by allowing every circumstance and character an easy, happy solution. I’ll be honest, I actually hate this aspect of YA. It’s part of what makes me take long breaks from the genre. But I’d obviously never punish a book for matching it’s genre. Having said that, all the good-natured hearts and flowers that popped up all over the place toward the end of this book did cause me to squirm a bit.

The story does seem to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast (as the description says), but since it takes on a bit of a dystopian, steampunk setting, it strays far enough from its progenitor to feel original. There were times that I wished it would choose one or the other for consistency’s sake, though. The introduction of robots and steam cars seemed out of place, with the beginnings rather Victorian environs, and then later with technology that could implant encyclopedic knowledge in one’s mind in seconds.

There were also a few POV and narration inconsistencies. The book was predominantly told in the third person, but every once in a while, an anomalous first-person narrator comment would pop up and confuse me. Along with the mentioned info dump, which really caused 15 or so percent of the book to really drag, and a questionable lack of commas, I have very few other complaints. I enjoyed the story.

I liked that Claren was willing to stand up for herself and appeared to be smart enough to read a situation for what it was. She was also perfectly able to read others, meaning that she didn’t pull the common heroine habit of constantly wondering about someone’s feelings or motives when they were perfectly obvious. Etrigan, on the other hand, seemed deliciously fragile. He showed a little beastly backbone at the end, but for most of the book, ‘cute’ would be a much better adjective to describe him. There was a slew of colorful side characters, namely Horace, Dekker, and Mrs. Whitby, as well as minor main characters (Frederick and Kurten). They all played their part well and helped flesh the book out without cluttering it up. 

All-in-all, I may have let this one linger on the shelf until I was able to face a YA HEA, but having finally given it a read, I find myself happy to have given it the time. For those who like original retellings of fairy tales or blending of genres, this one is worth picking up.