ARC Review: Elysium Girls [Blog Tour]

Title: Elysium Girls
Author: Kate Pentecost
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre/s and Tags: Young Adult, Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Supernatural, LGBTQ+, f/f romance
Content Warnings: Violence, murder, mentions of abuse
Publication date: April 14, 2020
Goodreads synopsis:

In this sweeping Dust Bowl-inspired fantasy, a ten-year game between Life and Death pits the walled Oklahoma city of Elysium-including a girl gang of witches and a demon who longs for humanity-against the supernatural in order to judge mankind.

When Sal is named Successor to Mother Morevna, a powerful witch and leader of Elysium, she jumps at the chance to prove herself to the town. Ever since she was a kid, Sal has been plagued by false visions of rain, and though people think she’s a liar, she knows she’s a leader. Even the arrival of enigmatic outsider Asa-a human-obsessed demon in disguise-doesn’t shake her confidence in her ability. Until a terrible mistake results in both Sal and Asa’s exile into the Desert of Dust and Steel.

Face-to-face with a brutal, unforgiving landscape, Sal and Asa join a gang of girls headed by another Elysium exile-and young witch herself-Olivia Rosales. In order to atone for their mistake, they create a cavalry of magic powered, scrap metal horses to save Elysium from the coming apocalypse. But Sal, Asa, and Olivia must do more than simply tip the scales in Elysium’s favor-only by reinventing the rules can they beat the Life and Death at their own game.

Hi book nerds! It’s my blog tour stop for the Elysium Girls hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club and I’m glad to be sharing my review for today!

Elysium Girls is an incredibly diverse and original YA Fantasy novel that will wow you as you flip the page.

My thoughts on Elysium Girls

When I first saw and heard of Elysium Girls I was intrigued, but I’m going to be honest and say I didn’t know what to make of it. But as I read, I realized just how original and unique this story is. It’s not your usual YA Fantasy novel with magic in a fictional magical land. Instead, it’s a story in a Southern setting with a diverse cast and a high stakes plot.

The first 40% dragged on for me. It definitely took a while to build up. But once I got past that, it just got more interesting! I met the girl gang of witches (which was incredibly diverse and I have to give kudos to the author for that, (there are Mexican characters, Black characters, and Native American characters!)), and the plot thickened.

The characters are great, but I wanted more characterization. Specifically, I wanted to explore these different characters more and see more of their relationship with the other characters. For example, Sal and Asa has a connection since they were part of a big mistake and got exiled from Elysium together. They have a bond of their own, but I never got to see that flourish. Sal and Olivia also has quite a dynamic as sister witches/co-leaders, but I never fully saw that. And of course, Sal and Lucy. I shipped them since the beginning, even though they only had a few scenes together. I just wanted more of them!

On the other hand, I loved the plot twists! They were not anything major or out of the blue, instead they were just right and were cleverly written into the story. The author’s use of foreshadowing was also great and it made the story more exciting as I unraveled all the little details. The epic final battle was also a great way to end the story! Although, I do wish that there was some sort of epilogue after that.

Overall, Elysium Girls was a great read and I am pleasantly surprised! Go ahead and pick up this book!

Elysium Girls Buy Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Books

About the Author

Kate Pentecost was born and raised on the Texas/Louisiana border, where ghosts and rural legends lurk in the pines and nothing is completely as it seems.

She holds an MFA in Writing for Children &Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was recently nominated for a Rhysling award for her poem ” Small Town Witches .”

Her debut novel, Elysium Girls, is forthcoming from Disney Hyperion in 2020 in
print and audio formats.

She is obsessed with the Romantic Poets and can be identified by the enormous
tattoo of Percy Bysshe Shelley on her arm. She lives in Houston (H-Town, Space City, etc.)

Website| Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram

Tour Schedule

See more reviews, interviews, guest posts, playlists, or dream casts from other bloggers included in Elysium Girls blog tour hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club! Click here to see the tour schedule!