Bad Luck Girl
by
Sarah Zettel
| Description
• Young Adult Fantasy Fiction
After rescuing her parents from the Seelie king at Hearst Castle, Callie ends up in Chicago and gets caught in an otherworldly war that has her own world falling apart. And even as a child of prophecy, she doubts she can save her people, her family, and her best friend Jack, let alone herself.
| My Thoughts
As I admitted when I read the novel before this one, stories about fairies aren’t my go-to when it comes to fantasy fiction. But since I’ve sometimes got personal reasons for checking out books outside of my usual preferences, I dove into this YA historical fantasy series.
From Golden Hollywood to Jazzy Chicago
I’ll also reiterate my admission that because dust and Dust Bowl themes don’t appeal to me when it comes to fiction, I skipped to Books Two and then Three of this trilogy. The two book covers featuring the biracial heroine and the story backdrops of the Golden Age of Hollywood followed by post-Jazz Age Chicago secured my interest.
Key nuggets of Callie’s backstory in both books kept me from feeling lost. And because a particular wish/dream of Callie’s for the future especially spoke to me in Book Two, I wanted to see what would become of that wish of hers in Book Three.
When I Thought I’d Reached the End…
It turns out that that wish of Callie’s, while a huge part of her future life, is only a tiny part of this story. Plus, although the epilogue ties up the heart of the matter stemming from Callie’s teenage years wonderfully, I was left with a couple of questions at the end—including in regard to a single word that leaves the wonderful ending pretty open-ended after all. That is, it opens the possibility for a book(s) about a future challenge for Callie.
To my knowledge, though, there aren’t any more books about her after this trilogy. Plus, as of my time of reading, this third book is ten years old.
A Potential Future?
I mean, hey. I know that some authors do indeed bring back previous characters in new books even after a lot of time has passed. I myself have written (initially unplanned) sequels and such anywhere from a year to more than a decade after I first wrote about the characters involved. Still, knowing that this isn’t the case for all authors and their characters, I tend not to hold my breath for potential future books that an author doesn’t technically have to write, and that they haven’t said they would.
So, yeah. I wish the author hadn’t added that open-ended implication to the ending of this novel.
On the General Lookout
This was a fairly entertaining jaunt for me overall. While it isn’t incredibly likely that I’ll be reading any more books about a world of fairies (unless I happen to find a future book about Callie), I believe I’ll stay on the lookout for more new-to-me “PG-13-ish” and milder historical fantasy.
As historical fiction is my all-time favorite genre, it’s no wonder that I’ve been finding historical mystery and historical fantasy to be appealing subgenres.
| Content Note
- language kept to a fairly “PG” level; stronger language is implied
- fantasy violence
- no explicit sexual content
Here’s my review of the previous book in this series, Golden Girl.
Prismatic Prospects 