Wicked Lovely: Desert Tales, Volume 2: Challenge
Gr 7 Up&ndash;This book, set in the world of Marr's "Wicked Lovely" novels (HarperTeen), tells the story of Rika and her power struggle with the other faeries in the desert. The story opens with a fight scene that ends with a fox faery named Shy being wounded by a rusty iron weapon. It turns out that the faeries are fighting because many of them are angry with Rika for becoming involved with a human boyfriend and for trying to stay out of faerie politics. There are several creative and visual elements in this book, but readers not familiar with either of the original novels or the first volume in this manga series might be confused as the power struggle between the faeries will not make a lot of sense. There are also several attractive characters whose genders are unclear, both to readers as well as to the other characters. This causes additional confusion because we (and they) don't know who should be jealous of whom. The black-and-white artwork complements the action in a manga style, featuring lots of shimmering eyes, pointy teeth, and very pretty boys.Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library&copy; Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.