Blanca & Roja
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Award-winning author Anna-Marie McLemore retells Swan Lake in this spellbinding YA story of sisters who are each other's best friends—and worst enemies.
The biggest lie of all is the story you think you already know.
The del Cisne girls have never just been sisters; they’re also rivals, Blanca is as obedient and graceful as Roja is vicious and manipulative. They know that, because of a generations-old spell, their family is bound to a bevy of swans deep in the woods. They know that, one day, the swans will pull them into a dangerous game that will leave one of them a girl, and trap the other in the body of a swan.
But when two local boys become drawn into the game, the swans’ spell intertwines with the strange and unpredictable magic lacing the woods, and all four of their fates depend on facing truths that could either save or destroy them.
Blanca & Roja is the captivating story of sisters, friendship, love, hatred, and the price we pay to protect our hearts.
Anna-Marie McLemore
Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) is the author of The Weight of Feathers, Wild Beauty, Blanca & Roja, Dark and Deepest Red, Lakelore, Venom & Vow (co-authored with Elliott McLemore), and National Book Award longlist selections When the Moon Was Ours, The Mirror Season, and Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix. They have received the Michael L. Printz Award, the Stonewall Honor, the Otherwise Award, three Northern California Book Awards, and an Américas Honor.
Read more from Anna Marie Mc Lemore
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild Beauty: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mirror Season Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark and Deepest Red Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miss Meteor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Blanca & Roja
51 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"My hope for you, reader, for all of us, is two sides of the same wish: that the world gives us each the space to write our own story, and that we leave room for each other's stories. They are where our hearts survive."Once again, McLemore's lush prose kept me turning the pages.But, this time around, the story didn't click for me. Maybe it was the constantly shifting POV among Blanca, Roja, Yearling, and Page. Or maybe it was the short chapters (sometimes only a page long), which made reading feel choppy rather than fluid. Or it could be the source material ("Snow White and Rose Red"; "Swan Lake"), so even though this retelling had compelling parts, I just didn't connect deeply enough with its whole.I'm still glad I read Blanca & Roja, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of fairy-tale retellings and magical realism, especially anyone who identifies as transgender and/or genderqueer, or someone who loves or cares about someone who identifies as such. Or for readers looking for stories that center Latinx characters within this genre. McLemore really does write beautifully inclusive stories.3.5 starsNotes to self:"But I've always known it was earlier than that. And not just because the colors of girls are decided before they're born, though that's something I know to be true." (Page)"There was no room for me to ask to be called both him and her. There were already too many people who thought I was just a failure as a girl. They wouldn't listen long enough for me to say that I had never been one. I was a boy who had to bear the same assumption so many girls endured, that I was simply the wrong kind of girl." (Page)"When it came to our garden, no one knew better than Blanca that beautiful things so often choked things trying to grow." (Roja)"The ugly duckling's great surprise was not the moment he saw himself in the pond. That came later. The moment of his greatest shock was when the swans embraced him, took him into their flutter of wings. It was the moment they made themselves his family. It was when they recognized him before he recognized himself." (Page)"For me, the point where fairy tales and magical realism intersect is this: We find what is beautiful in what is broken. We find what is heartening in what is terrifying. We find the stars in the woods' deepest shadows. Snow-White and Rose-Red are not just sisters growing up in their mother's garden, but young women pushing back against what the world has decided for them." (Author's Note)
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5diverse teen romance with fairytale elements (Latina main characters and LGBTQA interest).
I generally like all of McLemore's books, and also liked this one, but I felt it was a little bit less successful because of how similar all of the narrative voices were--I had to keep checking the chapter headings to see which sister was speaking. It wasn't a huge deal, but for someone that generally has trouble with names and telling characters apart, it was a significant thing that I remember about the book.
I loved that one of the boys was of non-binary gender (Page identifies as a "boy" but also feels that both "he" and "she" pronouns fit her most of the time), and the story also included lesbian grandmothers. The del Cisne aunt/cousin from a previous generation that was a trans-female was also a nice touch added to the background of the family curse. Also appreciated: the conversations about consent before kissing (and more than kissing).
I also loved (though others may not) that there was a noticeable amount of menstruation talk in here. For something that happens on a monthly basis and that is or has been experienced by half the population on earth, I have so rarely seen it openly talked about in books. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I MEAN. WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY?
It's her 4th book and she keeps getting better, that's all you CAN say....
Achy, gorgeous, and MAGNIFICENT.