Sample-Chapter Showdown: Young Adult III

Fortress of Ambrose by J. Elle (Penguin Young Readers Group)
Queen of Faces by Petra Lord (Henry Holt and Co.)
Behind Five Willows by June Hur (Macmillan Children's Publishing Group)

It's time for a sample-chapter showdown! Three YA samplers enter...only one survives. Well, or, only one can be at the top of my TBR. If others end up on there too...who's telling?

Fortress of Ambrose:
Things are coming to a head for Quell: a surplus of enemies means her life is at risk, and her options are few—but she's not out of options just yet.

This is book three in a series, and it hits the ground running. In just the first few chapters, we have murder, theft, hints of romance, and a promise of adventure. I haven't read the first two books (my error—I picked up these sample chapters without realizing that the book was part of a series), and I'd definitely suggest starting with book 1; this is clearly not a standalone story. I started to catch up by the end of the sample, but there's clearly a lot of context in the first two books that would be helpful for readers. It seems like a complex magical world (set in an alternate form of the US), modernity meeting something that feels a bit like anarchy.

I won't be picking this particular book up just yet (see: definitely better to start with book 1), but it feels like it'll be a very high-energy conclusion to the series, with plenty of drama to keep things moving.

Queen of Faces:
In a world where bodies are disposable—and, more to the point, replaceable—Anabelle has drawn the short straw. She has a replacement body for the one that could not survive her youth, but the clock is ticking on this body, too. Entrance to Paragon Academy would solve all her problems...if only she could pass the entrance exams. And when she's eventually offered a deal that might save her, it comes with so many strings that it is just as likely to bring about her downfall as it is to allow her to survive.

The sample I read contains the first five chapters, and they flew by—no lack of action here. The sample gives me hope for the worldbuilding in the full book, but what interests me more is the potential for gender-bending here. Anabelle's replacement body is that of a boy, and though the sample doesn't get into it much, there's so much potential for discussion of what that means in terms of gender dysphoria...or possibly the idea that gender might mean something different where anyone (well. anyone with large amounts of money, anyway) can slip into a new body at will.

Two different characters' POVs are represented in the sample, so I'm not sure whether the full book will have just those two or more. Typically I gravitate towards books with fewer POVs, but we're definitely being set up for major conflict between these two POVs, which could be interesting. I don't read tons of fantasy these days...but I may have to make an exception for "dark academia" with an intriguing premise.

Behind Five Willows:
In Joseon Korea, Haewon doesn't have much—her family is poor, and she is expected to remain a model young woman so that she can make a good marriage match...and so that the rest of her family, too, can stay in society's good graces. But: Haewon's older sister is reaching an age at which she will be forced to marry. And Haewon's younger sister is spending time with gisaeng (courteseans), which could bring ruin upon their family if she is seen. And meanwhile Haewon herself is earning her spending money by copying novels...in a time and place when fiction is forbidden.

The note at the beginning of these sample chapters discusses book banning in Joseon Korea, and it sent me down an Internet rabbit hole. The idea of fiction being banned overall is just fascinating, in a dystopian-but-can-also-imagine-it-in-the-near-US-future kind of way. Now: My rabbit holes did not turn up a full ban on fictional works in Korea (bans on Catholic texts, yes), though I'm not sure whether that's because the bans in Behind Five Willows are stronger than the real-life ones for the sake of fiction or because the English side of the Internet isn't as up on Korean book-banning history as it could be (e.g., King Jeongjo's Wikipedia entry is surprisingly short for someone who ruled Korea for almost a quarter-century). Also fascinating to me: Haewon's work transcribing/copying novels. The speed of transcription mentioned in the book makes me think that the books (or sections of books) Haewon is reading and copying must be quite short, so it'll be interesting to see whether that's discussed more in the full book.

Altogether, this is a promising start to historical fiction set in a time and place I don't know enough about.

The Verdict:
If I'd guessed ahead of time, I would have said that Behind Five Willows was the lead contender here (things that send me down rabbit holes always intrigue me!). But...I also really want to see what this fancy school in Queen of Faces looks like. And I can't tell you how, but somehow it has snuck onto my library list...

Thanks to the authors and publishers for providing these sample chapters through NetGalley.