Books The Kingdom of Back

Read online The Kingdom of Back.pdf PDF, EPUB, MOBI, TXT, DOC The Kingdom of Back An elegantly beautiful story about a sister and brother told through the lenses of history and fantasy, I was unexpectedly touched by this offering from Marie Lu. This is a departure for the YA Sci-fi/Fantasy writer, and despite her Legend series being published first, I was surprised to learn she’d written The Kingdom of Back prior to it.The tone of this reminds me of Pan's Labyrinth, but centered around the childhoods of Maria Anna and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, known to one another as Nannerl and Woferl, respectively. In order to escape the wretched unfairness of being the child breadwinners of their family and the clear & constant favoring of Woferl by their father, Nannerl and her brother either discover or invent the mystical Kingdom of Back, where they can abandon their earthly troubles for new ones. Taking place in Europe in the mid-1760s, so before the United States was even a country, the gender roles are devestatingly restrictive. Passages like this are utterly heartbreaking, but somehow still resonate today:“He tells you to play, so you play. He tells you to curtsy, so you curtsy. He tells you what you are meant to do and what you are meant not to do, so you do and you do not do. He tells you not to be angry, so you smile, you turn your eyes down, you are quiet and do exactly as he says in the hopes that this is what he wants, and then one night you realize that you have given him so much of yourself that you are nothing but the curtsy and the smile and the quiet. That you are nothing.”As an older sister of two brothers, the youngest also being nearly five years my junior, I really felt for Nannerl immensely. The times where she would be blamed for not controlling her brother if he acted out or would be expected to care for him in lieu of the his two parents, whilst being a child herself, were so relatable that I almost didn’t believe that Lu was an only child. The love Nannerl has for her little brother despite how her family or the world treats them is steadfast and everlasting, no matter how frustrated she may be with him at the time.I feel lucky that I got to read this book several months before publication, and I’m glad that Marie Lu was finally able to publish it. I’d really love if she wrote even more standalones. I’m sure publishers like to put out sweeping series with loyal followings, but it would have been a shame if we never got to enjoy this sparkling, lyrical novel. If you’re an adult who doesn’t usually read YA, I’d still recommend picking this one up. It clocks in as Historical Fantasy before any other genre, and despite focusing on two adolescent characters, has lessons and reflections on loving your sibling that stretch far beyond whatever age you currently are by Marie Lu