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Series Review: The Kingston Cycle by C.L. Polk

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout. This episode discusses The Kingston Cycle by C. L. Polk.  Full Audio Here    In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own. Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family's interest or to be committed to a witches' asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after...

A Line In The Dark by Malinda Lo

A Line In The Dark is about relationships, secrets, and the ways that unvoiced tensions can bubble over until shouting feels like the only way to breach the silence. 

I was engrossed from beginning to end. The characterization is strong and there's just enough setting established to make it feel like I really knew a couple of spaces that were important to the plot without having to worry about how everything connected (there's more geographic detail I couldn't hold in my head, like some connecting streets, but the superfluous stuff wasn't overwhelming). It's a story that runs on interpersonal tensions and difficult-to-voice feelings between older teenagers, so you'll either love it or would just be better off skipping it. There's a difficult line to walk with the MC as an unreliable narrator, she's generally honest about what she thinks, but there's a level of denial running through the feelings she is able to voice which means that the audience knows why she says what she says, but some of the tension with the other characters is created by her inability to express herself. It creates a space where I was inclined to side with the MC, but we get enough information about the non-POV characters to completely understand where they're coming from and why they're reacting to her in any particular way. I'm normally very stressed out by stories where someone is lying to someone who is important to them about a major thing, but this didn't prompt that in me (or at least not in a bad way). Being able to get where everyone was coming from (and getting glimpses of the various levels of self-denial about certain things) helped mitigate that tension for me while still keeping the story very engaging.

I loved this one and the ending makes me want to re-read it so I can go through the whole story again now that I know how it wraps up. As soon as I finished I was flipping back through it to see different pieces recontexualized. I definitely recommend for anyone who wants a quick thriller which is driven by interpersonal tension. It's not full-on horror (and it's not trying to be), so it's great for people who want something tense but not extremely scary.

CW for violence, alcohol, racism, homophobia, bullying, child death, major character death.

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A hand hanging down with black paint dripping from the fingertips.


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