Release Date: February 4, 2020
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Description
“Emilie des Marais is more at home holding scalpels than embroidery needles and is desperate to escape her noble roots to serve her country as a physician. But society dictates a noble lady cannot perform such gruesome work.
Annette Boucher, overlooked and overworked by her family, wants more from life than her humble beginnings and is desperate to be trained in magic. So when a strange noble girl offers Annette the chance of a lifetime, she accepts.
Emilie and Annette swap lives—Annette attends finishing school as a noble lady to be trained in the ways of divination, while Emilie enrolls to be a physician’s assistant, using her natural magical talent to save lives.
But when their nation instigates a frivolous war, Emilie and Annette must work together to help the rebellion end a war that is based on lies.”
My Thoughts
Part of what makes Belle Révolte so interesting is the variety and depth of queerness represented. One character is acespec and biromantic and falls for another character who is a lesbian. Another is a ciswoman who pairs off with a transman. There are characters who are openly nonbinary and/or take other various spots along the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. While the kingdom isn’t completely accepting of all identities, Miller avoids on-the-page scenes of queer/transphobia. Oppression in Demeine is tied to class and gender rather than sexual identity or race…
Read the rest of this review at Tor.com.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.
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