Review: Rebel Skies (Rebel Skies #1)

Rebel Skies (Rebel Skies #1)
By Ann Sei Lin

Published By: Walker Books
Publication Date: May 5, 2022
Date Read: May 19, 2022
Genre: YA – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 368

From Goodreads:
Teen fantasy adventure set in a world of flying ships and sky cities, where chosen ones have the ability to bring paper to life and work as Crafters – people who hunt wild paper spirits called shikigami. Inspired by Asian culture and exploring themes of empire, slavery and freedom.

Kurara has never known any other life than being a servant on board the Midori, but when her party trick of making paper come to life turns out to be a power treasured across the empire, she joins a skyship and its motley crew to become a Crafter. Taught by the gruff but wise Himura, Kurara learns to hunt shikigami – wild paper spirits who are sought after by the Princess.

But are these creatures just powerful slaves for the Crafters and the empire, or are they beings with their own souls – and yet another thing to be subjugated by the powerful Emperor and his Princess?

Rebel Skies is a pretty new-to-me book and author. I honestly had not heard of this one, until I came across it when researching the attending authors of this years YALC. As a huge lover of all things fantasy, this one really intrigued me so I decided to give this one a go. I was really impressed with this one, it’s definitely aimed at the younger side of the YA bracket, I personally felt like this one was more middle grade than YA but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of it.

This is a super cute and fun story. It is a lovely diverse story about friendship and what is morally right or wrong. We are following the story of an untrustworthy main character, as she doesn’t remember a lot of her past. She is discovering secrets of this world, her best friend and even herself as we go through this story. I felt like this book has a really interesting and unique premise. Our main character is a crafter, someone who can create things out of paper and bring them to life. I was really intrigued by this fun concept and I really enjoyed it.

There are plenty of twists and turns throughout Rebel Skies, most of them I guessed way ahead of time, but I enjoyed seeing how it all came to fruition. This was a fun and fascinating read. It wasn’t the best fantasy I’ve ever read and it was definitely aimed at a much younger audience than myself but I still really enjoyed this one. The narrator of the audiobook did a fantastic job of bringing these characters and this tale to life. I will definitely be picking up the second book in the series. If you’re after a fun fantasy you can get lost in, and it won’t confuse you or make you think overly hard, then I highly recommend that you pick this one up.

Follow K-Books on WordPress.com