This soaring saga about redemption, loyalty and the folly of war portrays a warrior with the power to wield darkness.
Once highly ranked in the Sky King's army, Enebish is marked as a traitor when she loses control of her Kalima ability to spin the night and accidentally massacres innocents. Her adoptive sister, Ghoa, commander of the Kalima warriors, offers her a bargain: infiltrate the rebellion and locate its leader, Temujin, in exchange for reinstatement. Enebish sets out to prove her fealty but is appalled by treacherous conditions across the tundra. Her people have been "thrown at the battlefront like chaff" while thousands of shepherds risk death from exposure in ice fields the king's Sun Stokers should have thawed. The only aid comes from Temujin, who supports the freezing caravans with stolen supplies and rescues children from the war. When she finds Temujin's rebellion, Enebish is enlisted to ferry soldiers to freedom.
Torn between two causes, Enebish's plight highlights the ambiguity of war. Though Enebish wants the Sky King's war to succeed, she doesn't want victory at the cost of her people, forcing her to slough her insecurities and make a stand. As her "heart aches... for friendship and acceptance and healing," Enebish holds fast to ancestral values as she tries to protect innocent lives. Night Spinner by Addie Thorley (An Affair of Poisons) shows Enebish's internal transformation, seeing herself first as a "whimpering dog, desperate for a master" then, eventually, as "a girl made of flame and smoke and heart" created to "call down starfire like rain." Through a strikingly grim atmosphere of magic battles with bloody consequences, a despised girl's dazzling courage shines as she abandons her need for outward approval and embraces her inner strength. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer