Review Detail

SEASPARROW is a riveting and consuming YA fantasy read about a shipwreck, survival, and finding your place in the world. Hava is 21 years old, and the Monsean Queen's spy. Unbeknownst to most, she is also her half-sister, but her life has been lived in secret - perhaps this is why her Grace allows her to alter her form and others' perceptions of her in order to hide herself in plain sight. She is traveling with Bitterblue, the Queen, back to Monsea on their ship. The path is treacherous, but Hava is beginning to find a place for herself amongst the crew.

That is, until the worst happens and storms have pushed the ship too far off course to the north. As they try to redirect the ship, they find themselves caught in even more dangerous storms with dwindling resources. Following a shipwreck, they are stranded amongst the glaciers and ice, forced to make the deadly trek towards the nearest country - if they are able to survive it.

Hava and Bitterblue are carrying the notes from the chemist in Winterkeep who was developing a deadly weapon using zilfium, a polluting rock found most commonly in Monsea. As they travel, Hava translates the notes from Keepish and keeps her ear to the ground as to those on the ship with them. This unexpected and life-changing journey will also cause her to re-evaluate who she is and who she wants to be.

What I loved: This might be my favorite book from the Graceling series thus far - Hava is such a compelling character, and I loved her story of redemption, trauma, and healing. Her life has been challenging, since she was hidden as soon as she was born to a mother whose mind had been broken by the former king. She also witnessed the death of her mother at his hands, leaving her to flee and try to survive on her own in the broader world, with only her Grace for protection. Her life of solitude has changed ever since she made herself known to Bitterblue five years earlier, but it has been challenging to interact with others and heal from all the trauma of the past.

This trip forces her to again re-evaluate who she wants to be and how she might attain such things. Her utility as a spy is in part her own making, something that she feels trapped into out of loyalty to Bitterblue and their past arrangements. Hava lives a rich internal life, but struggles to communicate open and honestly, something that must change in order for her to understand herself and her place in the world. Being on the ship and later shipwrecked with a relatively small group of people has forced her to confront herself as she is and decide whether and how she will move forward. What others (and the reader) see in her, though she does not yet see in herself, is, in part, her pain and the ways she has coped with this, but also, critically, her incredible empathy, passion, thirst for knowledge, and loyalty to those she cares for.

Hava is a character who really resonated with me, and I imagine will do so for other readers, for the multitude of reasons around her personal journey, past traumas, and beautiful heart. For this reason, even though the book is already so thick, I still found myself wanting more and to see the journeys Hava will have in the future.

The Graceling series always has such lush world-building, and this book is no different. The ship itself really came to life in the telling, and the way Hava views it comes across to the reader - the ship is a beautiful, majestic, and magical place. The descriptions seemed thoroughly thought out and researched, and so it was not surprising to learn of the way the author in fact did deeply research this on a ship around the Arctic. The countries, their squabbles, and the potential for conflict also pervades the story, and it all felt so real. Some of these are parallels to the way modern countries conflict or treaty with their neighbors, as well as political ideological and resource differences that divide them. A major theme of the story is around the ethics and morality of learning about such a deadly weapon and whether it should be developed - separate from whether it could. This discussion reflects the nuclear discussions frequently on the table in our world as well.

Other characters were really compelling as well. Beyond Hava, there is Bitterblue, who readers learned to love in past books, but also the new characters of the ship's crew. As they are endeared to Hava, so are they to the reader. The bonds forged in this journey are hard to break. Linny was a particularly lovely character, who is dealing with his own trauma, but also sees the beauty in Hava, approaching her with care and friendship. There are also the telepathic blue foxes who steal the scene in many places in the story. They are wonderful characters in their own rights.

The themes in this story are beautiful and thought-provoking, including those around politics, the ethics/morality around the development of weapons, resource divides between countries, sisterhood/family, trauma and healing, espionage, empathy, forgiveness, and human rights, particularly around marriage and humane conditions of imprisonment. There is a crime committed by a secondary character amidst the backdrop of the ship, and the way that Hava approaches this as well as how her opinions evolve, demonstrate the importance of empathy and understanding in approaching such cases. Trauma and healing is certainly another critical theme of the book with several primary characters having faced trauma in their pasts, as well as the trauma they experience in the wake of the shipwreck and journey for survival. The experiences of trauma are diverse, as are the ways in manifests in future dealings, and the story does a good job of capturing the individuality of trauma as well as the way it shapes us, even as we heal.

The plot itself managed to stay absolutely riveting, and it was so easy to fall into and get caught up in this world. There is much action, but the most compelling plotlines to me were the internal ones for Hava. I would read a whole series of her stories - and I highly encourage readers to pick this one up! While the book takes place following the events of the prior book, everything is summarized so well in this one, and the main character changes, so it could easily be read on its own. This is seriously the best book in the Graceling series, and I want everyone to pick it up!

Final verdict: SEASPARROW is a beautiful and imaginative story of shipwreck, healing, and finding your place that I cannot recommend picking up enough! This is the best book thus far in a YA fantasy series with masterful world-building and consuming characters - an absolute must-read.