Fawkes

by Nadine Brandes

Thomas Fawkes is turning to stone, and the only cure to the Stone Plague is to join his father's plot to assassinate the king of England.Silent wars leave the most carnage. The wars that are never declared, but are carried out in dark alleys with masks and hidden knives. Wars where color power alters the natural rhythm of 17th century London. And when the king calls for peace, no one listens until he finally calls for death.

But what if death finds him first?

Keepers think the Igniters caused the plague. Igniters think the Keepers did it. But all Thomas knows is that the Stone Plague infecting his eye is spreading. And if he doesn't do something soon, he'll be a lifeless statue. So when his Keeper father, Guy Fawkes, invites him to join the Gunpowder Plot--claiming it will put an end to the plague--Thomas is in.

The use 36 barrels of gunpowder to blow up the Igniter King.

The Doing so will destroy the family of the girl Thomas loves. But backing out of the plot will send his father and the other plotters to the gallows. To save one, Thomas will lose the other.

No matter Thomas's choice, one thing is once the decision is made and the color masks have been put on, there's no turning back.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, Fiction, Christian Fiction, Christian

448 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 10, 2018

About the author

NADINE BRANDES has been known to do wild things (like ride a sleeper train across Russia) in the name of book research. She is the 4-time Carol Award-winning author of seven Young Adult novels (ROMANOV, FAWKES, WISHTRESS, THE NIGHTMARE VIRUS, and The Out of Time Series.) While inventing worlds is fun, she is most passionate about Jesus, motherhood, and creating with the Creator. Nadine and her husband strive to live out Psalm 34:3 with their four exuberant children.


(Connect with her on her Instagram and her YouTube)

Reviews

[Nadine Brandes]

ARE
YOU
READY?

(Okay can we take a minute to talk about how Goodreads has a "read", "to read", and "currently reading" option...but what about "wrote"? Because just clicking "I read this book" doesn't really capture what me and this book truly went through.)

*added later*

Per request from several readers, I have included a content guide below:

PARENTS'/CONTENT GUIDE

This book is recommended for readers ages 14 and up.

PROFANITY: None

SEXUAL CONTENT: brief kissing

VIOLENCE: sword fights, people turning to stone due to a magical plague, mention of drawn-and-quartering. At one point a man strikes a woman with his hand. (She strikes him back)
Click on "spoiler" to read about scene details:

- a character drowns, trapped inside a prison cart. Non-graphic.
- a character tries to cut the stone plague out of his skin with a knife
- a character almost gets hung
- there is description of executions (decapitated heads are seen on spikes)
- deaths take place in numerous ways: being shot, stone plague, falling a long distance to the ground (non-suicidal), etc.


Readers, if I've missed anything, please say so in the comments and I'll add it here. :)

[Ivana - Diary of Difference · Rating 5 out of 5]

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Fawkes by Nadine Brandes is one of those books that draws you into a world, enlightens you with its magic, and then sends you back to reality, so you can enlighten others while you glow.

Nadine used the history of Guy Fawkes and the failed attempt to blow the parliament as a base to her story, that follows Guy Fawkes’s son, Thomas, into an incredible magical journey.



‘’A foundation of truth represents what life was intended to be.’’

Thomas is about to get his mask, that is supposed to make him control one colour. He also happens to be affected with the plague, that turns his face into stone. His family are all Keepers, and he, by default is a keeper too. But things are never that simple. What will happen when he might not get his mask, and the plague is about to kill him?

We follow the journey of Thomas through a first person perspective. He feels incomplete when he has the plague, and all his life he is waiting to get his mask, and to be able to control a colour. Any colour, even though he prefers Grey.

Only with my mask could I bond with a colour.

But on the day when he is about to receive his mask from his dad, he learns that his father is in London, and is not willing to come.

Scared for his life, and angry at his father, he goes into an adventure to find him. His father is Guy Fawkes, a Keeper that is involved in a Gunpowder plot, which will kill the whole parliament, and most importantly, the king of England, who is the cause of the plague!

Thomas joins the plot, knowing that this is the last chance for him to survive the plague! If the king is dead, the plague would be gone. But will it?

I never imagined a single moment of acceptance could reverse a year of bitterness and prejudice.



Through Thomas’s eyes, we see a war between the Keepers and the Igniters. It might be a metaphor for the Catholics and Protestants, but I won’t go into this now. The Keepers were loyal to one colour only, and Igniters wanted to control all colours. Igniters used the White Colour as a source to control all power. But White Colour doesn’t obey like other colours do - the White Colour makes people go crazy for power and glory. Something similar to the ring in Lord of The Rings.

‘’Igniters believe that for each Keeper that dies, one person is cured of the plague’’.

We see Thomas caught between two sides - the keepers want to be free of oppression, and the Igniters want to be free to use colour speech as they wanted. On such a crossroad, Thomas wants to find the truth for himself. But there is no time, and not many people that he can trust.

‘’You’ve given me your truth. I have to find it for myself for it to become mine. And curiosity is the first step’’.

On his journey, his relationship with Emma becomes stronger. She is an Igniter, and they share different beliefs, and she also knows he has the plague. But she is still around, and she accepts his as he is. And Thomas, taught to always hide his face, because otherwise he would be killed by the Igniters, is able to relax around Emma. This will teach him to accept Emma as she is, once she tells him her secret.

I loved the character of Emma. She is a strong person, but unable to show her true self due to the fact that she is not like the others, that she is not the same. In this book it is also shown quite well how women were underestimated in the 17th century. How they were thought to be unworthy. The only bit I didn’t like about Emma is that, even though such strong character, she would have never fought for herself if Thomas wasn’t there to ‘’save’’ her.

This book is a lovely story about Thomas, and how he finds his true self, how he is not afraid to stand up for the things he believes in, how he learns that he shouldn't be hiding his true self anymore and embrace his fears, as they might turn out to be the best things that ever happened in his life.

‘’Take a breath, Thomas. There has always been fear. There will always be fear. It’s up to us to stand tall, even when the fear demands we bow to it.’’

So yes, my lovely readers, I loved this book so much! I loved the magical moments, I loved how it turned out to be an amazing plot, based on real history events. I loved Thomas’s character, and I loved Emma. I loved Guy Fawkes as well, especially in the end of the book.

If you happen to love these types of books, please get your copy as soon as you can. You won’t regret it at all!

I have received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

[Katie Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you think the cover is epic, just wait until you read the book. SO GOOD.

[Kelly Brigid ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Not a single day has been promised to me. Do not deny me this moment.”

Firstly, I need to express my admiration for the stunning cover. I’m an absolute cover-judger and I must say that the art work is so alluring! It is what first drew me towards this book, and the synopsis only reinforced my initial desire to dive into the story. With that being said, I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I had hoped. I’m not a huge historical-fiction reader, but a retelling of the Guy Fawkes assassination attempt in an intricate, magic-based England? I’m all ears! How Brandes mixed true events with fiction is truly outstanding. If I were to write my review on that aspect alone, I would happily rate Fawkes four or five stars. The story was also a couple hundred pages too long, in my opinion. If the pacing had been faster, and the length, shorter, I might’ve appreciated the story more.

However, I simply couldn’t connect with the protagonist, Thomas. He lacked a unique voice, and I found myself struggling to read through his perspective; it was tedious and rather dull. I admire it when characters have strong beliefs, but Thomas was in this constant state of confusion, and it was frustrating because his reasons for abstaining from choosing a side never made sense. His actions were quite immature, and it grew wearisome to read through. His selfishness and incessant complaining didn’t make me like him any more either. I had also hoped that the relationships with each of the plotters were expressed in greater detail. Aside from their names (all of which belong to true historical figures), there wasn’t anything wholly stimulating about them. On the other hand, the chief villain was entertaining. Predictable as he might’ve been, I still enjoyed his gradual development.

The relationship between Thomas and Guy Fawkes had so much potential that was never tapped on. I love relationships between parents and kids and the possibilities for a bond between these two were endless. His father could’ve expressed a plethora of feelings after abandoning Thomas. Perhaps it was too painful to look upon the face of his son who is dying of the same curse that stole his wife? Maybe he couldn’t bear the thought of his only son not being able to forgive him for leaving? He could’ve been frightened of involving Thomas in the dangerous plot that could truly end his life. While a few of these were vaguely shown, it wasn’t depicted as intricately as I hoped it would be.

How color powers work was another pressing issue for me. I love the idea of the color powers, and the Stone Plague. While the latter’s origin was eventually explained thoroughly, the former never had such luck. It’s never truly made clear how color powers work and what their practicalities are in the world. From what I’ve gathered, each color is capable of bestowing its user control over a particular element or aspect of nature. How strongly the color forms a bond with the individual, determines the extent of power one can possess. Now, my concern, is what are the types of powers each color grants? Grey controls stone, black controls shadows, – or at least, I think it does – and brown controls dirt and soil. It isn’t described what other colors, such as purple, blue, pink, etc. can do. I also wish there was more details as to what each color can contribute to society. How does it affect employment in the 17th century, for instance?

My main fault is that I expected too much from the story. It’s a solid novel, and even though I didn’t enjoy it too much, I can see why many others have given it positive reviews. If you’re a fan of historical fiction and magic, this might be your cup of tea, but be warned that the protagonist can be quite irritable at times, and the relationships aren’t very developed.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

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[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A parallel England, 1604
Thomas Fawkes is embarrassed. He’s sixteen now, the only student at St. Peter’s Color Academy in York who hasn’t been given his own mask and can’t speak to any color. (I’ll explain to the best of my ability, something the book itself neglects to do).

Thomas gets booted from school. With no friends or family to take him in, he heads to London, drawn by the rumor that his father, Guy Fawkes the famous mercenary, has returned to England.
After a number of misadventures, Thomas stumbles upon his father. But dear old Dad isn’t nearly as enthused about discovering his long-lost son as he is about the plot he and some allies have concocted to assassinate King James and all of Parliament.

This plot is just the latest escalation in a century-long war between two different philosophies of magic. The Keepers believe that each individual should only manipulate a single color, and the White Light at the source of the color spectrum is too dangerous for anyone but the wise to talk to. The Igniters commune directly with the White Light and use it to manipulate all the colors.

Thomas is a Keeper like his father before him. But he learns that someone else has a plan about that…

Content Advisory
Violence: Several brief but rather nail-biting sword fights, and a shootout at the end. A man goes about stabbing people and animals with an infected knife and giving them the plague. The MC and his young lady friend are frequently menaced by hoodlums and conspirators in dark alleys. One of these scuffles leaves Thomas bleeding profusely.

There are two mass hangings, one including a child, who escapes the noose and runs. Brief discussion of the full punishment for treason: hanging until nearly dead, drawing (disembowelment) and quartering (dismemberment).

A man strikes his fiancée across the face. She hits back.

The whole plot revolves about a bunch of men plotting to blow a building filled with hundreds of people to kingdom come.

Sex: Some verbal sparring, buttoned-up, costume-drama flirtation, and a single kiss between Thom and Emma. Our hero watches with contemptuous amusement as a young couple sneaks away from a party with obvious horniness.

Language: One or two uses of “bloody.”

Substance Abuse: Some of the plotters seem to be heavy boozers. In fairness, they could hardly drink the water in 1604 London…

Nightmare Fuel: This universe suffers a magical blight called the Stone Plague, which literally petrifies its victims. Sometimes it spreads quickly through the host body, turning them into a statue in a matter of minutes. Other times it fastens to a particular part of the anatomy and destroys it long before it kills the victim. When we first meet Thomas, he has a stone eye and eyelid which he hides under an eye patch. He briefly becomes entirely stone, before the plague recedes but maintains its hold on both his eyes. A while later, he regains his sight in a highly symbolic manner.

Politics: We see the beginning of racism in England as it joins in the African slave trade. Many Londoners get spooked when they see a black person. King James holds a masquerade with a slavery theme, wherein white nobles paint themselves ebon—it’s not quite the same thing as the vile minstrel shows that appeared in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but this is where it started. Thomas rightly feels uncomfortable watching.

Religion: The whole thing is an allegory of the Protestant Reformation, veiled very thinly indeed. The White Light is clearly God, Who is portrayed with more affability and snark than grandeur.



Kill the King,
Brandes’ historical notes at the end of the book are extremely brief, and assume the reader already knows most of the true story. I myself knew little of this particular episode, so here’s some background info. Let’s start with a timeline of the Reformation:

1517 – Martin Luther, disgusted by the corruption of the Renaissance Vatican, writes the 95 Theses, starting Reformation fever throughout Europe.

1532 – Henry VIII, driven by paranoia over a lack of male heirs and an obsession with one of his wife’s ladies-in-waiting, declares the Pope has no authority in England. Catholic religious, and secular subjects who refuse to follow Henry as religious leader, are executed.

1553 – Mary I, Catholic daughter of Henry and Catherine of Aragon, inherits the throne from her Protestant half-brother Edward VI. Intending to eradicate Protestantism from England, Mary has nearly 300 Protestants burned at the stake as heretics.

1570 – Pope Pius V issues a papal bull declaring Elizabeth I, Protestant daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn, illegitimate and absolving her subjects of having to follow her. Elizabeth doesn’t want to kill subjects just for having a different religious practice—it didn’t exactly make her father or sister popular—but she has no qualms about executing those she sees as disloyal, and as her reign goes on, these people become disproportionately Catholic (or Puritan, but that’s a story for another time).

1603 – James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England. English Catholics hope for an ally in James, since his mother Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was a staunch Catholic. But James is Protestant and continues his cousin Elizabeth’s legacy of persecution.

Ostensibly, Catholics in England had the right to worship as they chose, provided they professed the British crown, and not the Papacy, was the most important power on Earth. But thousands of Catholics cherished the Church above the State and were called traitors for it. The punishment for treason, as mentioned earlier, was hanging, drawing, and quartering.

This was the environment in which several desperate, unhinged Catholic Englishmen concluded that the only way to stop the persecution was to blast King James and Parliament to smithereens.

The plot itself proceeded quite closely to how it was portrayed in the novel. The only major difference, besides the given one that the real plotters had no magical powers to help them, is the presence of young Thomas Fawkes. The International Genealogy Index (IGI), compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, records that Guy Fawkes married Maria Pulleyn, daughter of his schoolmaster, in 1590, and their son Thomas was born in 1591. But these records are considered a secondary source, and there’s no other known information about the marriage or Thomas.

Covered in the Colors, Pulled Apart at the Seams
I give Nadine Brandes all kinds of credit for coming up with this world. It’s colorful (I’m sorry), exciting, and a fine place to immerse yourself for a few days of reading.

There’s just one problem. The magic system, while beguiling, doesn’t make any sense.

Magic is a hard thing to write well. Too much explanation takes the wonder out of it, when wonder is the whole point of having magic in the first place. But at the same time, too little explanation of the magic in a given story can be maddening. Especially if it’s one of those books where Everyone is a Mage. Fawkes is one of those books.

My favorite example of a magic system remains the one Garth Nix created for his Old Kingdom universe. It’s consistent and as lucid as magic ever could be without completely stripping it of mystery and glamour. He spends a few pages in the early chapters of Sabriel detailing the MC’s magical education and methods. By taking a little time to explain, instead of dropping the reader headfirst into a foreign world, Nix never needs to repeat it, and we can follow the rest of the story with ease. When Sabriel writes a rune in the air or rings any of her sacred bells, we know precisely what she’s doing, why she’s doing it, and what the likely result will be.

Whereas when Emma Areben, Benedict Norwood, and the other characters of Fawkes did their color-speaking, I often had no idea what to picture. Below, the magic system of this book as far as I could understand it:

In this universe, colors are semi-sentient entities. A given person can bond with a specific color (never really explained how) and the objects around them that are their color obey them. Someone who communes with Red can drain the blood from an enemy’s body, or alternatively coax the heart of a freshly-dead friend into beating again.



A Blue-speaker can manipulate water.



A Grey-speaker can lift rocks.



A Brown-speaker, like Emma, can command wood and soil.



It would appear that everyone but beggars has some color power in this society.

Wearing a mask painted a given color solidifies a person’s bond with that color, which is why Thomas is so ashamed to be the only conspirator with no mask. But the function of the masks themselves is unclear. This is a good place to mention that THERE’S NO FUN IN A MASQUERADE BALL IF EVERYONE WEARS A MASK ALL THE TIME ANYWAY.

The most powerful color is the White Light, which is the font of all other colors.

Let the Spectrum In



By the time this story begins, the color-control system has been in place for one-thousand six-hundred years.

In the olden times, the White Light reached out to people directly, but the wise men taught that ordinary people were too weak to speak to it, the source of all power. So for centuries, only those sages could interact directly with the Light. Ordinary folk were discouraged from seeking it out and told to ignore it if it sought them instead. Each mage was allowed to only manipulate a single color…

…until the mid-sixteenth century, when someone whom the book refers to only as “Luther” and some unnamed allies had a breakthrough. Why, everyone should be able to talk to the White Light! And use it to manipulate all the colors! These radical dudes became known as “Igniters”, opposed to the “Keepers” of the old ways.

It’s like the Verities vs. the EƋians in My Lady Jane, only without the humor.

Brandes actually does an excellent job showing the brutality of the Protestant English regime to its Catholic subjects. But while the book is sympathetic to the Catholic plight, it’s still based on a misunderstanding of what the Reformation was really about.

What a lot of people don’t know about Martin Luther is that he really didn’t want to split from the Church in Rome. He had no problem with the Catholic practices modern Protestants tend to find unnerving—perhaps most startlingly, he maintained a lifelong devotion to the Virgin Mary. Luther never even left the Church of his own volition; he was excommunicated by the Pope.

He felt compelled to speak against Church corruption, which by his time was rank. Luther was sent to Rome for a conference of his monastic order, where he witnessed priests mocking their faith and participating in debauchery.

In 1516 – 17, Pope Leo X initiated a new program of indulgences—wherein people paid the Church to forgive their own sins or let the souls of their dearly departed out of Hell. The Vatican coffers were empty because Leo emptied them on hunting expeditions and depraved parties. The higher branches of Church bureaucracy were heavy with equally rotten fruit.

From Luther’s famous anti-indulgence post on the cathedral doors, other thinkers piled on until they had a movement, and what had started as an uptight, fiery German monk trying to clean up the extant Church became innumerable men building churches of their own. Heads of state saw the opportunity to drive papal authority out of their lands. Henry VIII was about as spiritual as the average aardvark, he just wanted the power to grant himself divorces.

Back to Fawkes . Keepers = Catholics. Igniters = Protestants. White Light = God. Talking to the White Light = prayer/reading the Bible.

So Brandes is implying that the Catholic hierarchy did not even allow the faithful to pray to God directly. Wow. What?!? And then there’s that “They weren’t even allowed to read the Bible!” meme that Melanie Dickerson already beat to death five books ago.

The average pauper or peasant during the medieval and Renaissance eras couldn’t read, period. Public schools didn’t exist; only the wealthy could afford tutors or college. But the Church, for all its other horrifying problems, really did want the people to know the foundational stories of their faith.

So they covered churches in art depicting scenes from the Bible and the lives of the saints. The major episodes of the Life of Christ were also told through the specific artwork/meditation combination called the Stations of the Cross, and the lengthy meditative prayer, the Rosary. The lower classes may not have been able to quote the Scriptures word for word, but they knew what they believed, and they prayed frequently, multiple times a day.

The idea that the entire Catholic Church conspired for centuries to keep the populace ignorant of the Bible’s contents is ludicrous. If you want to make the Reformation look like a good or at least necessary thing, all you need to do is tell the truth. The Vatican was a playground for power-hungry monsters, and they preyed on peoples’ fear of Hellfire to take their money. Someone needed to shine a light on these cockroaches, and Luther (who had some serious issues himself) wound up being the one who started it. As a Catholic, I’m grateful that someone did it, because I hate to imagine what my church would look like now with no reform.

The reality is a much better story than the Don’t-Let-Them-Read-the-Bible conspiracy.

Conclusions
Fawkes merges history with fantasy elements, which don’t always make sense but are certainly entertaining. The book is a lot of fun for its own sake and would make a fantastic movie. That said, I found that it misconstrued what the fight between the Gunpowder Plotters and the King was really about. Just remember that it’s meant to entertain more than educate and I think you’ll enjoy it as I did.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a mix of historical fiction and fantasy, Thomas, son of Guy Fawkes suffers from a plague ravaging England that turns its victims to stone. He’s managed to conceal the sickness behind an eyepatch, but when his absentee father fails to send the mask he needs to complete his magical ceremony, he is tossed out of boarding school before his powers can manifest.

But when he arrives in London and finds his father, he becomes mixed up in the Gunpowder Plot. I found the historical fiction aspect of this absolutely fascinating, as well as the relationship between Thomas and Emma and Henry. The magical system and how exactly it functioned remained a bit murky for me, even by the end, although that didn’t diminish my overall enjoyment of the tale as a historical. Will definitely be checking out “Romanov” when it releases!

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ack. I don't know how to rate this! I don't even know how I feel about this book! I always know how I feel about a book, whether it's love or sadness or obsession or annoyance, but I don't know how I feel about this. And for the first time ever, I also don't know how to rate a book. This book! I guess I love it but I also hate it? I'm not sure! 😭

[Jill Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. This is a brilliant book that fulfills every expectation. Brandes turns 17th century London into a magical place. I was captivated by the allegory of her magic system and how she blended that fantasy with history. I highly recommend this gripping and beautifully crafted book to all as it will leave you both entertained and pondering matters raised in the storyline long after you’ve finished reading.

[☆ serethiel ☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

// f a w k e s

OH. MY. WORRRRD. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

THIS WAS SO FREAKIN' AMAZING, YOU GUYSSS. <333

Thomas was so relatable; Emma was fantabulous. The worldbuilding was wonderfully immersive. The story was just SO masterfully written, so fantastically told... THE ALLEGORY. WAS. INCREDIBLE.

I just. Aaaaaaaaaack. I NEED NADINE'S NEXT BOOOOK! 😍😍😍

[R.F. Gammon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so first of all, a MASSIVE thank you to Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this book!!!!!

Now let's talk review.

Wow! I read the Out of Time series not long before blasting through Fawkes, and while they're both very different (and I think that in general I liked OoT a little better) they both have a distinctive Nadine feel to them. So that was really awesome.

The premise of this book is the Gunpowder plot, a real event in England in the early 1600s where a group of plotters discontent with the king (he was a Protestant; they were Catholic; the Protestant church at that time did shameful thing to Catholics.) Guy Fawkes was one of the leaders of that plot, and November 5th in England bears his name. If you don't know anything about the Gunpowder Plot, don't look it up before you read this book. I, I'm afraid, knew a little bit about it, so some of what happened didn't come as a surprise. But! It was still a great book!!!!

LIKES
-Guy Fawkes himself. Like just HOLY WOW. Talk about the complex dad character. You kind of have to read the thing to know exactly how awesome he is, and his character arc...man, this is my kind of character.
-EMMA. I can't really say anything about her because SPOILERS HAHA HER EXISTENCE IS A SPOILER but still. I loved her so much. <33333
-The fact that the real plotters were the characters of this book!
-While there's both Keepers (the side Thomas and his father are on) and Igniters (the side Emma and her family are on) within this story, both are portrayed as having major faults and not being totally in the right OR the wrong. Keepers are a persecuted minority, and Thomas and his father fight for them, but Brandes still shows that there are fundamental flaws with them that cannot be explained away simply because they're the minority. Igniters are in power and technically, supposedly, in the right, but their method of holding onto power and the way they torment anyone different is not once depicted as a good thing. Which I LOVED. Both sides were wrong, but neither side was TOTALLY wrong. This made it complicated. And I loved that.
-Just the whole historical fantasy aspect. That was so cool.
-The color masks/powers! I found that whole concept amazing.
-THE VILLAIN. I will not tell you who it was or anything about them...but holy cow it was so so neat when VILLAIN is revealed and I just start shrieking. Heh heh...I totally didn't scream in the middle of the doctor's office or anything like that....

DISLIKES
-So, Thomas himself really was whiny and selfish for a long time? He does have some character development, but since this is a standalone where there's already a TON happening he doesn't get a ton. I didn't HATE him...I just didn't love him, either.
-The whole White Light thing just kind of weirded me out a bit. So, I know that the Keepers are supposed to stand in for Catholics and Igniters for Protestants, but because of that I kept thinking that eventually the White Light was going to be revealed as the Holy Spirit. Which was kind of happening, but I just wasn't feeling it...something about it was weird. Especially how sassy it was. I'm sure it's just that my expectations and the fantasy side of things collided, but it was weird, especially since Thomas and the others have to basically find salvation by coming to the White Light. This is probably just a matter of taste, in all honesty, but it was still a little weird to me.
-The book was a TEENSY bit slow in the middle.

All in all, four stars, and I definitely recommend this one! Thanks again to Netgalley for providing a free copy! All opinions are my own.

[Oceana Reads Co. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not what I expected!
What I liked:
Thomas and Emma! I really liked their relationship but then also Thomas' growth as an individual was really satisfying.
The resolution at the end was really satisfying too!

What I didn't like so much:
The MAGIC. Ok, I'm not super fantasy minded, but I can read English! And I could not picture what was going on when they would use their colour magic. It just didn't compute. So that dragged it down big time.

Side note: The Christian allegory took a while for me to put together and I needed help from friends to first start seeing it. Quite a unique way of representing some religious history.

Overall I am glad that I pushed through and finished it! But, it also confirms to me that fantasy and I really don't get along. Only under very special circumstances.

[deborah o'carroll · Rating 2 out of 5]

(First posted on my blog HERE.)

I finally read FAWKES and, awkwardly, I didn’t love it. *shifty eyes* *stows self away behind fortifications*

Firstly, taste in books varies, and this review is just my personal opinion! FAWKES wasn’t my cup of tea, but if it’s yours, that’s great! I feel like nearly everyone I know loved this, and I’m sad that I didn’t. I enjoy books in general, but this one unfortunately did not click for me.

Negative reviews are not my forte, but this was a review book, and a few people have asked for my opinion, so I’m going to attempt to share a review. I know it’s long overdue. *cough* (It's also going to be terribly hard to do without spoilers but I will do my best.)

And at the end I’ll list the things I did like, since that’s only fair. ;)

But firstly, reasons why FAWKES and I did not get along, personally.

For one thing, it was rather dark and depressing. That in itself is enough for me to decide it wasn't my thing. Despite the fantasy aspect, the setting was gritty and unpleasant and actually rather more dystopian than anything, and I just wouldn't want to live there. The plot itself is pretty dark and violent, if only because of the historical incidents it's dealing with—which, well, not to get into spoilers but I should have known better than to think things would turn out well, but apparently I didn't think about that? My mistake! The stone plague was super creepy, too—though I'll grant it was unique and interesting. XD

But talking of the historical aspect: for some reason I thought that since it was historical FANTASY, history wasn't set in stone. (No pun intended. XD) I mean, it’s already an alternate history since there’s magic and different factions and stuff, so why can’t that mean that the characters can bring about different outcomes in history and it could be alternate history in THAT way too? Well, apparently it didn’t work that way. Which . . . yeah. It kind of made things seem pointless, to me. Especially when one character didn’t seem to care about this thing that *I* at least thought was awful. And it felt like it was a “well, since it’s history, regardless of the choices they make it’s going to turn out this way, so it doesn't matter” sort of subtext. That might have worked with time-travel but apparently I just wasn’t suspending my disbelief enough there or something.

Apparently taking a historical time, not improving it, and mixing in magic and a few modern points of view is a thing that happens and that I don’t seem to enjoy much, myself, given that the last two such books I tried I didn’t like. (Maybe I'll steer clear of historical fantasy in the future . . . That might help.)

Plus, hardly anybody was a nice person, which just sort of depressed me? A lot. If you can’t even LIKE hardly any of the characters in the book, it’s sort of a problem. For me, at any rate. :P (Flawed characters, yayyy.) I've discussed this about other fiction before, so it's not this book's fault, just a trend.

Another trend is what I call telliphobia, where the show-don't-tell comes out so hard that I was terribly confused about the color powers and the whole magic system for about the first half of the book, since I was never straight-up informed of how the magic worked. Again, not just this book—it's a trend in current publishing, but it gets a little tiring. All I want is to know what’s going on, you know? Is that too much to ask? (Disclaimer: I did eventually figure it out and do think the idea of the color powers is pretty cool. I just wanted it explained early on so I could get on with the story, instead of stumbling through tiny hints and getting distracted from the plot by trying to understand how things worked.)

But the last three things I complained about are general things I dislike and not the direct fault of this book, necessarily, so I suppose that’s not quite fair—sorry. (This reminds me of something C.S. Lewis said in On Stories. Something along the lines of how he didn’t like detective novels, so if he reviewed one it would be a rubbish review, since he'd be reviewing/disliking the KIND of book it is, not the actual work, which isn’t totally fair. I’m paraphrasing, but anyway.)

Back to characters. Sometimes I liked Thomas, but other times he really frustrated me. Never knowing who he should be rooting for or who *I* should be rooting for was kind of exhausting. Plus I got pretty mad at him near the end when spoilers happened and he just didn't seem to CARE at all. UGH. So Thomas and I didn't get along all the time, for those reasons and also how he was sometimes sort of petulant/unmanly. I can't really explain it. But I did sometimes really like him or at least feel bad for him and want him to succeed! It's . . . confusing. I did like Emma most of the time and what little we saw of Norwood and maybe some other people occasionally. But it did seem like nobody else was likable at all. And I could never decide how I felt about Guy Fawkes himself—I felt like he had loads more potential. I also put the book down for several months after, well . . . a spoiler. I’m just saying, if basically the only nice character dies on me, I’m going to be a little put out. *cough* Also, taking such a long break probably didn't help the book hang together in my mind. :P

I never rooted for either side of the Keepers/Igniters. They were both being jerks and I didn't really care. And the allegorical side of things sort of confused my brain. Especially the White Light, which could have been a funny character but felt totally way off, if it was supposed to be what I think it was supposed to be—I was just way too weirded out by its self-centered flippancy. (At one point [page 247] it was like "I could have done that, you know. You just never asked," but actually, um, no, excuse me, THOMAS DID ASK EARLIER, on page 196, and the White Light conveniently wasn't listening or didn't care or SOMETHING. I just. I can't.) I could be toootally off, but if it was supposed to be an allegory of God it totally missed the mark—for me at least. So that was sort of depressing and I felt like, personally, maybe I would have enjoyed the book more if I didn't feel like it was trying to do Christian allegory stuff in a weird way.

So yes. Dark, depressing. Felt let down by the historical fantasy element that I was looking forward to. Didn’t find the characters to be ones I could root for on the whole. And in general some of it just . . . didn’t work for me. I feel like there were a couple of other things I didn’t care for, and don’t want to get into now. But essentially I read for enjoyment and this one didn’t hit the mark for me. I simply couldn’t enjoy myself and it wasn’t fun and honestly it totally stressed me out. But I think that’s just me?

Things I did enjoy!

• The cover is still one of my FAVORITES.
• The writing was gorgeous and everything was vivid.
• It was very unique and interesting and exciting.
• I did like a couple of the characters! Norland and Emma and Thomas sometimes. :P
• Emma and Thomas together were precious and squishable.
• And it was pretty awesome when they saved the day from . . . well . . . something. Near the end but not at the end. No spoilers.
• The color magic system was really neat once I figured it out.
• At least it wasn’t a TOTAL tragedy and (aside from all the awfulness) there were one or two good outcomes, so yay!

Overall, the things I did like weren't enough to override the things I didn't enjoy, so this one was a bit of a disappointment for me. Personally. I really wanted to like it! (Plus, the author is the SWEETEST HUMAN on her Instagram so it makes me sad I didn't love this book, though naturally I still love her as a person! And I do have hopes for trying more books from this author.)

So that’s the story of how I accidentally didn’t love FAWKES. My apologies. (Please don't hate me! XD)

(I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.)

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the gorgeous cover and liked the sound of this book but unfortunately it didn't live up to expectations. Based on the story of Guy Fawkes, Nadine Brandes retold the gunpowder plot in a magical version of England. Unfortunately I never got a clear idea of the system of magic or more importantly why two factions with different beliefs were constantly trying to kill each other (and the King).

What I did understand was that a year before finishing school, students in special colour schools would be given a mask made by their father (for the boys) or mother (for the girls) and this would allow them to bond with a colour and then control anything made of that colour. People who could only control one control were called Keepers and thought themselves to be pure, people who could command more than one colour were called Igniters and thought they were superior and that Keepers should be caught and killed. I never really understood why and I think a bit more time setting up the magic system at the start of the book would have been interesting and made the reason for a war clearer and less confusing.

I also found the book a bit slow with not a lot of suspense given the topic. Thomas, the son of Guy Fawkes and the main character was difficult to engage with and I also thought more could have been made of the father-son story. The reworking of the black death into a plague that turned people and animals to stone was a clever touch and added an interesting facet to the story. I also liked Thomas's love interest Emma and their unfolding relationship.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Thomas Nelson for a copy to read

[Nicki Chapelway · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book. This book was so good. It has me at a loss for words.

This isn't my usual genre. I don't tend to really like to read fictional historical novels having to do with actual people from history, but I've been branching out lately. And the books that I have read have all been excellent and have actually deepened my understanding of history even despite the details that are muddled.

I think maybe my favorite part of this book was actually the description. It wasn't over the top making me have to sludge through endless details, but the way Brandes described the setting. It was like I was in London with Thomas. Or half blind as Thomas was.

Thomas, himself, was a fun main character and while I didn't agree with everything that he did, I was rooting for him the entire time. Emma was a strong heroine and I liked her a lot. I would have liked a little more in the way of romance, but I guess you can't have everything.

White light was the best, I really wish that it had more screen time. And I'm adding this part after having read other people's reviews complaining about White Light being weird because I guess it was supposed to represent the Holy Spirit or something. And yes, viewed in that light, it is EXTREMELY weird. But as I was reading this book, I completely divorced it from anything but fictional fantasy because I have a really hard time reading historical fiction about real life events and people, knowing that facts could be changed. I also have a really hard time reading Christian elements in fantasy. I guess I'm just too literal to be able to think in allegories and such. So while reading this book, I viewed the White Light as simply an aspect of the magic, and as nothing more. Because it did act a little bit too flippant to be the Holy Spirit.

Guy Fawkes himself was an extremely complicated character and I wasn't sure what to think of him throughout the entire book. My opinion swayed like a pendulum. But by the end he won me over so thoroughly that he became one of my favorite characters in this book.

This is the first book I've read by Nadine Brandes but I have her whole Out of Time series on my bookshelf, and I look forward to reading them, now more than ever.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, all opinions, however, are my own.

[Ethan the Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25*

Let's break this down, shall we?

(⚠SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT⚠)


The boy has a plague that turns him to stone. Bummer.
Today is the day that he becomes a man!
His dad doesn't show up... he can't become a man. Bummer.
He gets kicked out of school. Bummer.
Time to find his father!
Oop, he goes to jail
This mans just had a whole conversation with White... yes, as in the color... yes, he had an entire conversation with a color... that's the magic system.... actually kinda fascinating.....
ANYWAYS!
He escaped jail!
Then met these three weird guys. A Red mask, a Black mask, and a Brown mask.
*Large gasp* the Black mask is his legendary father, Guy Fawkes
+.*Catch-up timeeee*.+ So, Guy Fawkes has dedicated his time to stopping the Igniters (people who want to harness LOTS of the colors's powers) by placing a Keeper (somebody who thinks that only one color's power should be used by each person) on the throne in hopes that this will end the plague going around Europe which basically turns people to stone as a curse for the secret of the White (a color which can manipulate multiple colors at once) getting leaked from the Keepers to the Igniters.
ANYWAYS!
Thomas (our mc) runs into Emma, who attended his school.
We finally meet Guy Fawkes' friend, Catesby
He tries to kill Thomas (flibbitty jibbitt)
Oh, it's just a test... phew.
You know those voices he's hearing? The White?
Yeah, he needs to ignore those for the sake of the Keepers
He's got a job working for Henry Parker, his biggest school enemy.
(I was thinking while reading, as one does, about how lovely it would be to have a map of this wonderful fantasy world. Then it occured to me... this takes place in London... in Europe... on MY PLANET!!! Heh. Heh. Heh. Heh.
I'm a moron.)
So now it's his job to follow around that Emma girl that I mentioned earlier.
Together, they save an African boy whose about to be hanged. Yey
I SMELL A RELATIONSHIP COMING ON!! OO LA LA LAAAAA
Percy (another friend of Guy Fawkes) just went into the town where Emma (oo la la) lives and murdered like a ton of people.
IS EMMA OKAY!?
yes
k, good.
Norwood got fired from the color school. Bummer.
Norwood is coming to England with Thomas! Yay!
Norwood is getting imprisoned. Bummer.
Norwood is found! Yay!
Norwood dies. Bummer.
The stone is spreading across Thomas's body!
He seeks help from Emma ooo lalalala
She's unhelpful
The tunnel that Guy Fawkes created has collapsed... bummer.
It was the White Light that collapsed the tunnel.
BECAUSE THOMAS WAS TALKING TO IT!! (The White Light, not the tunnel)
So now their plans to kill the king are ruined beca-
No they're not.
They're not?
Nope?
Why?
Because parliament (where they'll kill the king) was delayed as well!
Yay!
Not yay.
What? Why?
Because the longer the group takes to kill the king of England, the more time the stone plague has to kill Thomas, which we can't have because he is our PROTAGONIST!
.......bummer.
AND WHAT THE HECK KIND OF NAME IS "WINTOUR"!?!?
Thomas and Percy go to a super fancy party to see the king... okay?
One fist fight later, Dee heals Thomas of the plague!
WOOHOO!
But does Thomas need to help Guy Fawkes take out the king, now, if he already has what he wanted? To be cured?
***
blah, blah, blah, stuff happens, you get the point.
***
A hooded man on the docks. Oooo
He looks familiar. HmmMmMmmMmMmMM (apparently he's from a scene that I just don't remember him being in, so yay for my partly-conscious brain)
Emma tells her super tragic story--surprise, surprise, both her parents died, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER FRICKING CHARACTER IN THE ENTIRETY OF LITERATURE! Granted, this is the 17th century, so death is a little harder to avoid.... BUT, STILL, HOW ORIGINAL, NNAADDIIINNEEE
They save some people from something... I honestly don't really know, because you know me... why would I know? Not like I actually pay attention when I read 😂😄😃😀😊🙂😐😟😦😩😫😭
EMMA AND THOMAS ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER OOO LLA LAALALAL LALA LALA
"I gave coins to the beggars." Oh shut up, we get it, you're super kind. Go be kind somewhere else ha. Ha. Aha. Ha. I'm only kinda kidding.
***
I'm sorry, I have no idea what the frick I just said.
***
The king is home-
THE CLOAKED MAN!
Cloaked man stabs Thomas. Bummer.
Oooo there's White Light appearing on Thomas-
That's not White Light.
What is it, then?
Stone.
No!
Yes.
No!
Yes.
No!
Shut up.
The plague is back?
Yep.
No!
Yep.
No!
Shut up.
But Dee healed it.
Actually actually, Dee is manipulating the plague. He's the cloaked man with the stone daggers. He cuts people with his blades, and then they get the plague, and then they're miserable, and then they DIE, and then... yeah, that's really it. Death is typically the end of life.
No!
Yep.
No!
Yes.
No!
I'm gonna kill you.
"Once I took a breath, logic returned-" Ah, yes! Alas, oxygen does wonders.
The plague quickly spreads within minutes. Thomas gets entirely covered in a very, very short amount of time.
"The headache came like a hammer to my skull." I THINK YOU'D HE DEAD, BRUV!
Oh wait. He does die.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Bummer.
***
Sometimes I really think something's wrong with me
***
The White Light reaches out to Thomas to save him.
Thomas accepts!
(Well, really, he denies it a lot because he's a stubborn little CACTUS, but in the end, he accepts because he decides that maybe it would be worth it to, you know... not die? Or just because he wanted to look into Emma's eyes again... Idrk)
Thomas is conscious now thanks to the White Light, but he's BLIND hahaha... bummer.
Thomas finds that Emma had sent him three letters while he was passed out FOR A MONTH!
Thomas can't read them, cuz... he's blind.
He writes her something a little like, "Hey, Emma, I'm depressed. Can't get to your letters because I'm blind, so please... forget me." Ah, yes, what a romantic Thomas is.
He really starts to use White Light to help cure his blindness.
Thomas is going to ditch the plot to kill the king because he no longer agrees with what they have to say because they want to kill the king cuz he's an Igniter and follows the White Light, but now Thomas is also an Igniter technically because he's one with the White Light, so killing the king would be extremely stupid.
The group plans their murder of the king.
Okay, so apparently Thomas thought it would be a +.*wonderful idea*.+ to write a message to somebody to let the king know the attack was coming, but Guy Fawkes stops the message and reads it, finding out that there's a traitor in their midst.
Thomas, good sir... you're a moron.
Guy Fawkes is going to give Thomas his new mask, and make everything good agai-
No.
Oh no.
Yep.
What happens now?
Thomas decides it's a great time to announce that he was the one who wrote the letter and that he's in cahoots with the White Light and that he's an Igniter and that he's going to stop the plan from being carried out... you know, because waiting until a little later when they're NOT surrounded by like 8 tons of gunpowder... THAT would have been too simple.......
Thomas, good sir... you. are. a. MORON!
It goes without saying that this backfired.
Thomas fights his dad.
Four chumps walk in, including Henry and Dee.
Dee is a royal pain in the butt.
Guy Fawkes gets arrested.
Thomas and Emma go on a mission to save the world (England).
Henry SUCKS.
Thomas and Emma travel for a couple 'o days.
They get to a big fancy house.
Thomas fights Dee and Henry. They both suck.
Emma has the plague.
She dies.
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know...
Thomas and Henry both have mental breakdowns because of it.
Thomas starts using his magic willy nilly
And just like that.... she's alive 🙄
Wuuuut?
Yah, because apparently it would be too much of a commitment to actually write a death into one of your books, or to keep a character dead... yah, that would be impossible.
They kill Dee.
By the way, Dee did kill like all of the people working with Guy Fawkes.
King James tells Thomas to request a reward.
He says he wants the Keepers to no longer be executed.
And for Guy (Guido) Fawkes to be released from jail.
The king says no to the last one hahaha
Emma ditches Henry hahahaha
Thomas sees Guy Fawkes the day before his execution.
He asks for his father to seek out the White Light before his death, and, fortunately, he does.
The next day, the remainder of the people who worked on Guy Fawkes's plot to kill the king (yes, including Guy Fawkes) were executed. And Thomas just... watched...
But his dad's corpse had some white mixed with his red blood.
The (tragic) end.


(P.S. Sorry this was so long and so bad, I acknowledge it's not the best review I've ever written, but I hope at least some people enjoy it. My review for the next BOTM will hopefully be better... sorry again for the length and quality of this review.)



Okay, first off, I need to say that this was better than Romanov in literally every way possible. Romanov's magic system was disgusting, whereas this one was fantastic. Romanov's characters were flatter or dead. The characters in this one were fleshed out or dead.

Probably the biggest thing, in the end, that stuck out to me was the symbolism. I don't know if there was even any symbolism in Romanov, but if there was, I couldn't smell it in the slightest. But here, not only was it obvious, IT WAS SO WELL DONE AND FRICKING BEAUTIFULLLLLL

I may lower my rating from the 5 stars to a 4 stars, just because it gravitates towards 4 stars more, but I was impressed. There were slacking parts, and OBVIOUSLY parts I didn't understand or pay attention to (you know me hahaha) but in the end... I am satisfied with how it turned out.

SORRY AGAIN FOR THE REVIEW, HOPE YOU STAYED FOR THE WHOLE THING, GOD BLESS, SEE YOU ON THE NEXT ONEEEE!!!

-Me✌🏼

[Lindsey (Books for Christian Girls) · Rating 3 out of 5]

About this book:

“Thomas Fawkes is turning to stone, and the only cure to the Stone Plague is to join his father’s plot to assassinate the king of England.
Silent wars leave the most carnage. The wars that are never declared, but are carried out in dark alleys with masks and hidden knives. Wars where color power alters the natural rhythm of 17th century London. And when the king calls for peace, no one listens until he finally calls for death.
But what if death finds him first?
Keepers think the Igniters caused the plague. Igniters think the Keepers did. But all Thomas knows is that the Stone Plague infecting his eye is spreading. And if he doesn’t do something soon, he’ll be a lifeless statue. So when his Keeper father, Guy Fawkes, invites him to join the Gunpowder Plot—claiming it will put an end to the plague—Thomas is in.
The plan: use 36 barrels of gunpowder to blow up the Igniter King.
The problem: Doing so will destroy the family of the girl Thomas loves. But backing out of the plot will send his father and the other plotters to the gallows. To save one, Thomas will lose the other.
No matter Thomas’s choice, one thing is clear: once the decision is made and the color masks have been put on, there’s no turning back.”


Series: No.


Spiritual Content- Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of cathedrals & churches; Mentions of a school named after a saint; Mentions of Christmas (though not the reason for the celebrating); A few mentions of blessings & being blessed; A couple mentions of God; A mention of a miracle;
*Note: “Home sweet hell” is said once; Mentions of someone likening himself to a god & someone resembling God’s divine power on earth; A few mentions of people believing dark skin is of the devil & evil; A mention of someone sounding cursed.


Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘curse *name*’, an ‘idiot’, two ‘stinking’s, two ‘what in Thames’ name’s, twelve forms of ‘blast it all’, and twenty-five forms of ‘blast’; A couple mentions of curses (said, not written); A bit of sarcasm & sass; Fighting, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, Cutting one’s own self, & Pain (up to semi-detailed); Thomas is hit & put in jail; Thomas faces prejudice for having the plague; Seeing a handful of hangings, near hangings, those fixing to be hung, people being cut, blood/bleeding, & mockers (up to semi-detailed); Seeing a group of people drown (barely-above-not-detailed); Seeing fights, people shot and dying/die, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); All about mentions of a plan to assassinate the king and government & kidnap a child; Many mentions of exiles, being hunted, hangings, beheadings, awful death sentences, executions/murders, & treason; Mentions of past hangings, dead bodies, those set for execution, blood/bleeding, tarring, & torture (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a massacre & blood (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a death through stoning (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a fire, drownings, & deaths (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of duels & killing; Mentions of deaths from a plague; Mentions of being hit, slapped/slapping, nearly being stabbed, injuries, blood/bleeding, & pain (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of fights, fighting, & blood (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of prison, inmates/criminals, & the smell of blood; Mentions of thieves, stealing, & crimes; Mentions of wars; Mentions of slavery, slaves, & people being captured and sold; Mentions of hatred & threats; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of prejudice & comments that Thomas faces; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, & drunks; Mentions of animals dying from the plague; Mentions of hunting animals & trips; A few mentions of animals & blood at a butcher’s (up to semi-detailed): A few mentions of whips & whipping animals; A few mentions of animal and human waste & stench; A couple mentions of poison; A couple mentions of blackmail; A couple mentions of gambling; A couple mentions of pipes & tobacco.


Sexual Content- a semi-detailed kiss; A few touches & embraces (barely-above-not-detailed); Some noticing; Mentions of flirting, a blown kiss, & hand kisses; A couple mentions of a kiss & kissing; A mention of a young man forcing himself upon a girl & castration (did not happened); A mention of a carnal lover; A mention of a concubine; A bit of love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: A few mentions of a man having two wives & him abandoning the first; A few mentions of nakedness; A mention of women showing cleavage; A mention of a boot to a rear-end.

-Thomas Fawkes, age 16-17
1st person P.O.V. of Thomas
Set in 1604-1606 (Fantasy)
448 pages

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens- One Star
New Teens- One Star
Early High School Teens- Two Stars (and a half)
Older High School Teens- Three Stars (and a half)
My personal Rating- Three Stars (and a half)
{Not for those sensitive to hangings or magic.}
If there’s one author I hear a lot about on the bookish Instagram community (especially the Christian fiction branch), it’s Nadine Brandes. While I’ve followed her account for a while now, this was my first time reading one of her books.
Thoughts on “Fawkes”? Hang on a second, we’ll get there.
In the first couple of chapters of starting this novel, I decided to look into the actual Gunpowder plot of 1605. After reading the Wikipedia page, my only thoughts were, “This isn’t going to end well.”
I’ve said many times before that I’m truly not a fantasy fan and was honestly worried if I would be able to keep up with this mix of historical and fantasy plot. Not to mention the fact that this novel is four-hundred and forty-eight pages long. I’m proud to say that I was able to follow along well as nothing seemed too confusing; props to the author on that note. I do believe that I was able to understand the fantasy elements of this one more due to the author sharing behind the scenes and information about the masks on Instagram.
The original Gunpowder plot was based on religions while this one was based on the masks and powers of those in the society. A reader who knows the actual history could read into and possibly put in them names of the actual groups that were fighting each other while reading this novel. That aside, “Fawkes” did not have any true Spiritual Content, which while I wasn’t shocked over the fact, I was a bit disappointed. It seems the true history does have the faith and Christian content in it, however.
Overall, this novel was cleaner than I was expecting due to the plot to assassinate a king and government. There were still hangings, blood, and fighting, but nothing went over semi-detailed, which I really appreciated.
Some families who follow this site might prefer not to read books with magic, so this would be one to stay away from. No witchcraft type magic, but there are those who abuse their powers.
I personally found “Fawkes” to be a unique plot and I enjoyed parts of it (especially Emma). I hope to read the author’s next book releasing next May, but I do hope it’ll have more faith content than this one. :)


Link to review:
https://booksforchristiangirls.blogsp...


*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free from the Publisher (Thomas Nelson) for this honest review.

[Celestria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original 2018 review:

4 stars 🌟

Historical fantasy is now officially one of my favorite genres! Fawkes was just so fun and creative and interesting and well written! I so so so enjoyed this and ah I'm in love with the cover so much😍

~~~~~~~~~~~

2022 review:

5 stars 🌟

I listened to this on audiobook this time around and other than the White Light voice sounding like a creep, I really enjoyed it! I appreciated the characters and story even more than the first time.

[Cesar (Inactive) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75 stars.

Historical fiction has always fascinated me in the sense that I am reading a story that takes place hundreds of years ago. I get to read about how people lived back then, important historical dates and figures, as well as learning something new.

Add in elements of fantasy to them and it makes the reading all the more fun. You'd never expect to see magic in a story that takes place in 18th century USA or in 14th century Asia. Any time in history is fun to read about.

Fawkes (Which is dangerously close to the word fu-) is a perfect example of historical fiction with fantasy elements in it. But was it a fun book? Kind of? After some thinking, I've come to the conclusion that Fawkes, while not a bad book, was just not that good and didn't live up to the expectations I had.

Fawkes is a historical fiction story based on the actual events of the assassination of King James using gunpowder. (Don't look it up if you don't want to get spoiled. Seriously.) Our main character Thomas is plagued with an illness that will slowly turn his body into stone. When he doesn't get his masl (something I'll get into later) he sets out to find his father and get his mask. He's then enlisted in the assassination plot to kill King James and rid England of the plague. But Thomas has doubts about it as he discovers secrets about the Igniters and Keepers while also developing feelings for Emma, a girl who may get killed in the assassination.

Fawkes is an ambitious story that entices its readers with historical events and magic. However, I was let down by all the potential that seemed to be going everywhere and nowhere at the same time. As ambitious as it tried to be, it was shot down by flaws. It wasn't a bad experience, but that same experience wasn't exactly bright or fun.

I'll start off with the positives and say that I liked the setting as well as the magic system. Historical fiction is a genre I want to read more of because I just love reading about different time periods and learning more about the history as well as the people and how society acted. History can be enticing and scary when you learn more about past events. What I liked about Fawkes was that the author did her research and presented a story with a unique twist on magic and it was so much fun.

The magic system wasn't confusing or that complicated (to me, at least) and it was fun to learn more about using magic through masks and the power dynamics of who should and shouldn't use magic. The rundown of the magic is that people can call out to colors (blue, red, green, etc.) and when they connect to a certain color, they get abilities relating to that color. There's also something called White Color where it means you can control multiple colors at once and that is a big no-no.

Then we have Emma, my favorite character out of all the others. She's smart, kickass, and doesn't let anyone hold her down. When Thomas is being a complete idiot, Emma's the one who takes his head out of his ass and rips him a new one. She's so amazing and wonderful. It is revealed in the middle of the book that she is African American and has been in disguise. She's straightforward about the mistreatment of Africans and struggles to live in a world that would ignore her because of her skin color. Thomas tries to help but Emma tells him that it isn't that simple, that he has no idea what she has to go through as an African and as a woman. Still, she has dreams and aspirations she wants to follow and she will not let anyone get in her way. She is an amazing character

Positives aside, I did have some issues.

The first being Thomas. Thomas is a bland character that has nothing going for him other than wanting to get his damn mask, being whiny, and can't seem to think for himself. In this universe, masks are used to channel magic and parents make masks for their children once they learn how to control a certain color. Thomas doesn't get to pass his color test and is hellbent on getting his father to make him a mask and holy crap he was so freaking annoying. The first half he wouldn't shut up about his mask and whining to his father about it and it was just bad. There's nothing about him that stands out because aside from being part of the assassination plot and wanting his mask, he's just your boring plain joe. Had he been interesting or have a much better personality, I might've liked him.

Then there's the issue of Thomas' involvement with the rebellion and magic. Thomas has been told that using multiple colors is bad and he's all for it, never questioning or doubting the people who have told him that. When he's exposed to people who can control multiple colors, he's so quick to judge them. Thomas is a character who doesn't have enough backbone to come up with his own thoughts and lets others do it for him. He is a weak character.

We have Guy Fawkes, Thomas' dad and he is nothing but a deadbeat father. That's all he is throughout the story. This is the guy who completely abandons his son for a good chunk of his life and when Thomas does find him, he doesn't even try to get to know him. All he cares about is the assassination plot. Here's your Dad of the Year buddy, way to fucking go.
🏆

The pacing of the story is another issue that kind-of-sort-of resolves near the end but sometimes the story slowed and while I do love reading about the setting, I do want more focus on the plot and characters (despite how bland they were).

Verdict

Fawkes was a decent story. It did have ambition, but was muddled down with issues. Not a bad book, but nothing extraordinary.

Thanks for reading my review!

-Cesar

[Sharon Loves to Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hope to rewrite this review, but I have a busy week and my laptop is on the fritz. So here’s a few…..

….. re-read thoughts:

1. I still agree with my “review” below: I kind of wish this book hadn’t been written.
2. I appreciate that the author demonstrated bad characters on both sides of this conflict.
3. I think the author oversimplified the reasons Catholics believed as they did regarding the priesthood, and I sincerely doubt that they purposely ignored the Holy Spirit.
4. I did not like the flippancy of White Light as I believe it symbolized the Holy Spirit.
5. I. Hate. That. The. Author. Has. So. Many. Sentences. Punctuated. Like. This.

📜Original Review📜
I am mulling over this book. There's a lot to sift through.🤔 FRTC.

Several days later...
Ok, so here is my attempt at a review on this book. I found this to be a hard book to review because it left me with many conflicting feelings. Ok, here it goes.

Oh, nevermind. I can't review this book. I am just going to say that, as a life-long protestant....,

1. I have more in common with a devout Catholic than a nominal protestant.
2. I have more in common with a Catholic who lives a faithful life in terms of spiritual disciplines and holy living than a protestant who tries to stand with one foot in the church and one dabbling with things of the world. (Yes, that includes book choices.)
3. I have more in common with a Catholic who has Jesus as Savior *and* Lord than a protestant who only has Jesus as Savior.

I feel like this book should not have been written...at least not with the focus so much on Catholics versus protestants. That's why I wrote the above.

Anyone want to message me about the book? That's great, I just can't write a coherent review without quoting large portions of the book and then speaking to them.

Characters and plot are great. I enjoyed it.... except when I was cringing about the protestants vs. Catholics theme.😬

[E.F. Buckles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have followed Nadine Brandes on social media for over a year but hadn’t read any of her books because the dystopian ones didn’t appeal to me even if so many of my friends had raved over them. (Dystopia just isn’t my thing.) So, when this historical fantasy called “Fawkes” came out, I got curious. For one thing, I don’t remember reading a historical fantasy before, and for another, it just plain sounded interesting. Still, I waited until some reviews came out before making any decisions because I am a sensitive reader and with the story revolving around a murder plot and a violent time in England’s history in general, I wanted to be sure the descriptions of violence didn’t go beyond what I’m comfortable with. When the review I needed was finally posted, I took the chance and jumped in.

I’m glad I did. :) Fawkes was different from anything I’ve read before. So different, that had the writing not been strong enough, it might not have grabbed me the way it did. But Nadine is a master of her craft, creating compelling characters and an interesting world with a unique and complex magic system that I ultimately really enjoyed. (Note: the “magic” here…being able to manipulate objects of a certain color…is a completely natural ability to those who have the ability.)

I also feel the author did an excellent job of capturing how complicated that time in history was. Neither side of the conflict was fully in the right, and that is something I feel the need to address more fully. At least one review I read felt that Catholics (in the book they were called Keepers) might not be happy if they read this book because the reviewer thought the Protestants (Igniters in the book) were being favored/being shown as the side that was “right”, but I disagree with that and feel it is missing the ultimate point that the story made. BOTH sides were doing things they shouldn’t have been doing: The Igniters were being prejudiced against and executing Keepers for their beliefs. The Keepers were ALSO being prejudiced and some were plotting to kill (and actually killing) Igniters and plotting to kidnap people. If you ask me, neither side was the “good guy” and the whole point of the story was that being part of a certain denomination doesn’t make you a true believer. The White Light itself said that not everyone who claims to be united with it truly knows it the way they should. That includes people who call themselves Igniters. Ultimately, I feel it was individual characters who were the “good guys” in the end, because they made right choices both morally, and in the way they responded to the White Light: not by trying to control it or use it to control all colors (which, as best as I could tell, it seemed some of those who called themselves Igniters were trying to do), but by allowing *it* to work through *them*.

Was the thwarting of the gunpowder plot seen by the Igniters (as a group) as a win for the Igniters? Well, yeah. It was members of the Igniters who were going to get blown up, and members of the Keepers who were trying to light the fuse to cause the explosion, so it makes sense that the Igniters would see the plot being thwarted as a win for their side. Thing is, Thomas and Emma didn’t take the actions they took on the behalf of the Igniters, or for that matter, because Igniters specifically were the ones going to be killed. They took the actions they took in the name of morality and following the White Light’s guidance so that HUMAN BEINGS would not be killed just because of their beliefs. They also didn’t celebrate the executions of the Keepers in the plot (in fact, they were very sad about the executions), because, again, Keeper or Igniter, a life is a life.

Additionally, the “White Light” was an element of the story I personally liked, but I also understand why it confused some reviewers so they weren’t quite sure what, exactly, it was intended to be. Some saw it as allegorical, and some didn’t even think there was specifically a Christian spiritual element in the story at all aside from how the fantasy elements were twists on the religious conflict. White Light *could* be seen as being Holy Spirit-like, but I felt that it isn’t a straight one-to-one allegory like Narnia where Aslan equaled as close of a personification of Jesus that C. S. Lewis could manage. The better word than “allegory” in this case, in my opinion, is that White was “reminiscent” of the Holy Spirit, while also being its own thing within the context of the world. That way, whether an individual reader decides they see White as being like the Holy Spirit or just sees it as yet another fantasy element in a fantasy retelling of a historical event, the story still works. I personally am okay with the author allowing the reader this choice. For one thing, God, and thus the Holy Spirit, is so complex, it is impossible for us limited humans to fully capture everything He is in any allegorical character no matter how hard we try, so it wasn’t like I was expecting perfection in that area. My main concern about any allegorical representation of God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit is that it be respectful and not feature that representation doing anything that outright goes against who God is. I personally felt that the White Light, while it could sometimes quite sassy, didn’t ever cross any lines that bothered me on that level. Like, even though White was sassy, it was never mean or uncaring/unloving even then. The sass was just light-hearted humor, and I do actually believe God has a sense of humor even if it isn’t expressed verbally the way the White Light expresses it. Just look at the platypus. :P

Now that I’ve gotten past the heavier stuff, I think I’ll fangirl just a teensy bit over the characters because Nadine is SO GOOD at writing them! They and their relationships were so complex, and I loved how both the characters and the relationships evolved during the story.

Talk about complicated parent-child relationships…Guy and Thomas Fawkes were a fascinating duo when they interacted, and they were interesting as individuals, too, even if I did like Thomas more than Guy.

Emma, however, was my favorite character. I loved how she could be both soft and strong, and that that strength came from more than just physical strength (though she was capable of defending herself when needed, the ability to fight was NOT the focal point of who she was as a person.) It was her moral strength and ability to show love even to those with whom she disagreed that stood out to me. She was a stark contrast to the society around her who resorted to violence and hatefulness to try to solve its problems, and she stuck to her morals no matter what, using discernment and the guidance of the White Light to decide right from wrong, rather than going with what society said was right and wrong.

There’s another thing I loved about this story: The emphasis on discernment. It’s not something I see a lot in books these days where so many are all about “follow your heart” and going along with what society says it right. One of the best quotes in the book: “How many of us acted and spoke out and fought for beliefs that we held because our environment told us to? As much as I wanted to blame my England, I knew the blame sat with me. I hadn't trained myself to discern. To examine. To seek the source.” We. Must. Be. Discerning. Just because society, or our favorite celebrity, or politician, or even our own parents say something is right or true, doesn’t mean it is. We must step out on our own, investigate, and separate truth from lies.

All of that said, there is only one thing I can think of to complain about. There was a moment where I figured out something before Thomas did…I can’t say exactly what due to spoilers…but it was something I feel like he should have realized around the same time I did and kind of wanted to yell at him for taking so long. Now, I haven’t seen anyone else complain about this, and I am that person who can sometimes watch a murder mystery, get 5 minutes in and shout “HE DID IT” and be right when the villain is finally revealed, so I’m wondering if I’m the only one who figured it out before he did, or not. It wasn’t so big an issue that it took away from my enjoyment of the story, though, so I don’t think I’ll let it change my rating.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. Like, REALLY enjoyed it, and am looking forward to Nadine’s next historical fantasy, “Romanov.” I recommend Fawkes to those who don't mind somewhat frequent violence that doesn't quite get graphic, but is sometimes a little intense.

Content advisory: The author herself recommends this book for ages 14 and up and I agree with that, mainly due to the violence.

No profanity was used.

Sexual: There is some mild romantic attraction between teenagers that eventually culminates in a kiss, but this kiss is brief and only barely described.

Spiritual: As stated in my review, whether you see White Light as a representation of the Holy Spirit or simply another fantasy element may depend on the reader.

Violence: The violence is frequent enough that I am going to link to a fellow reviewer who did a better job keeping track of and detailing how graphic or non graphic it was than I could while listening this story on audio: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Magic: The magic system in this book is based on color. Those with the natural ability to do so can talk to and control certain colors and any object that is that color. I may be wrong, but it seemed like literally everybody had the ability to use color power if they chose to do so. What an individual chose to do with their ability is what made them good or bad. The most morally problematic thing anyone did with their color power was that someone who was powerful with the red power actually used it to literally explode the blood out of some enemies (this is not the main character who did this and the act is not shown/described, only mentioned after the fact). One character also uses color power to do something that slowly kills people and animals, and plans to use it as a weapon of war.

[Nassy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full Review

This was surprising good for historical fiction

When I started this, I didn't even know it was inspired by true events but as they kept mentioning people that I've heard of (King James, Martin Luther) I had a feeling the story was a metaphor!

What I liked

- I loved the fantasy elements! I liked the idea of colour magic and how if you have control over a certain colour (eg, blue), you can control any element with that colour, with the help of a mask of the same colour. I also liked the 'white light' concept. White light/colour is where the colours come from and it's through it that colour magic exists. I had a feeling that 'white light' represented God but I may be wrong.

- The concept: So this book is about the war between the igniters (who want to control all the colours), and the keepers (who think that everyone should control just one colour). In this, there is a stone plague that occurs and each group thinks the other group is the cause of the plague! Our main character, Thomas has this plague and is a keeper, so he decided to join the keepers in the plot to destroy igniters because he believes that would end the plague. But as time goes by, he starts to doubt whether or not he is on the right side and if there is actually a right side!

*side note* I thought the igniters were the catholics because they were in power and historically, catholics were known to do bad things so I was surprised when it was the protestant that were actually the 'bad' people in this.

What I didn't like

- I didn't really feel the romance in this. It just seemed meh!

- There was a character that never removed his colour mask and I expected the reveal to be this epic thing but it was kinda underwhelming.

[Roobie · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐4 stars⭐

There has always been fear. There will always be fear. It's up to us to stand tall, even when the fear demands we bow to it.

I reeeeeally enjoyed this!

It was a tiny bit slow at times and I didn't really care for Thomas (he was kinda selfish and whiny) but I loved the rest of the characters and the story was awesome. The historical fantasy aspect was great and I loved the masks, the colour powers and the fact that Guy Fawkes and the plotters were actually in the book.

Also,
EMMA IS MY QUEEN! I just loved this girl she was amazing!

★I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.★

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I like historical mysteries! This was a fun way to learn more about Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot. There was a section near the middle that I felt was slower paced and a bit repetitive, but things definitely picked up. I liked the allegory in the fantasy aspects of the story, but had a few issues with it at the same time. Overall this is a 3.5 for me. I am very interested in reading more from Nadine Brandes though.

[Mary Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.

[mary liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-Read November 2019:

Finals week is upon me, and alas, so is a nasty illness. Here are just a few addled thoughts from my sick-brain upon my re-read:

- GOOD LORD, THOMAS. You need to stop being so selfish. (I love him, but he Annoyed me a lot this time around.)
- Emma is still a Boss Woman (TM)
- The aesthetic <3
- I love all the historical detail!
- The magic system is freaking fantastic
- Wintourrrrr. *clutches heart*
- Ughhh would not recommend reading the last couple chapters when you're sick because crying + stuffy nose = a very bad combo
- White Light has grown on me a lot this time.
- Buuut the whole Keepers/Igniters thing irks me more. :P
- What a lovely, gritty tale *hugs book*

4 stars
---

WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED.

I'm going to need time to recover, my friends. Just . . . my mind is blown.

L I K E S:

- The characters were kind of phenomenal. It's been a long time since I've read about characters who completely stole my heart. THEY WERE AMAZING. I expected to dislike Thomas, especially since (spoiler alert :P) he's really selfish at first. But personally? I thought he was extremely relatable and human, and he had one of the greatest character arcs I've witnessed in a while. Is he selfish and sometimes a little dense? Yes. He is. However, he grows so much over the course of this book and is a character that I can 100% root for. I wanted him to get his mask and restore his relationship with his father. I WANTED HIM TO SUCCEED.

Then we have Emma. OH MY STARS, THIS GIRL. She was a firecracker with a heart of gold. I'm literally so inspired by her. She was strong but (thank goodness) not one of those "strong female characters" who think the definition of strength is having no emotions or femininity. I've got news for you, YA writers - you can be strong AND feminine AND compassionate. Emma is living proof of that. Her heart for others and passion to make the world a better place were so admirable. The world needs more people like Emma. <3 (I want to say more about this amazing gal but #SPOILERS. xD)

And the plotters? OH BOY. They were all so complex! I can't get enough of Nadine's complex characters, you guys. Not one of them was flat. I especially loved jolly, red-bearded Keyes (wish I had seen more of him); the kind-hearted and logical Wintour; and of course, the ever-mysterious and guarded Guy Fawkes. His character arc and relationship with Thomas about DESTROYED ME. That's all I'm saying here. *cough*

- The plot. Ummm, can you say BRILLIANT?? The synopsis itself was intriguing enough to convince me to read this. There were amaaaazing plot twists (WHICH ARE SPOILERY AGH), and the blend of historical + fantasy? WOWZA. I think I've found a new favorite genre. The Gunpowder Plot itself was just really fascinating! There were so many secrets and tons of suspense. It about killed me. xD

- The setting. I. AM. FLOORED. The research that went into Fawkes is nothing short of jaw-dropping. It made this book come alive. I mean . . . 17th century London with magic?? SIGN ME UP. I fell in love with the setting (and determined that I would have lasted a whole of .5 seconds there, lol). It had such a shadowy and gritty aesthetic, never afraid to shy away from the unpleasant details (like the disease + terrible hygiene of that time period). And yet . . . it was bustling with life and energy. I kind of adored the setting.

- THE MAGIC SYSTEM OMW. I was a bit wary coming in since my thoughts on magic are a bit on-the-fence. However, any expectations I had were blown COMPLETELY away! I've never read a book that had such a compelling and interesting magic system. NO JOKE, GUYS. Everything you've heard about it is true. The masks and the color powers were soooooo creative & ingenious. And personally, I didn't have any issues with the magic itself. (And I'm pretty conservative, haha.) I loved the limitations that the powers had and the fact that people "bonded" with specific colors. It was absolutely phenomenal. ALL THE APPLAUSE FOR NADINE.

- The writing style. Wowowow. Teach me how to write like Nadine, please and thank you. Thomas had such a unique character voice, and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I connected to him, especially since he's a guy. (Huzzah for YA fiction with male POVs!)

- Literally just alllll the relationships and complex motivations. The father-son dynamic, conflicting & complex motivations, moral struggles . . . I AM SHOOK. This is the kind of quality storytelling that I signed up for!

D I S L I K E S:

- White Light. Hm, okay. So the whole White Light thing kind of bothered me. If I separated it from reality and just tried to view it as part of the magic system, I was okay with it. However, I think it's supposed to be a representation of God and I just . . . wasn't comfortable with the way God was presented. White Light was sassy and annoying and seemed to be toying with people quite a bit . . . which feels very irreverent to me. Yes, God has a sense of humor; but he doesn't give us conflicting advice or "mess with us." I felt pretty unsettled with this representation of God. It showed Him as being kind of like a mischievous imp who was purposely trying to "fool around" with all the control he had. Just my personal opinion!

- I feel rather bothered by the fact that Thomas converted and supposedly THAT was the reason he was a better person in the end. I'm not even Catholic, guys, but I have Catholic friends. And I didn't appreciate the fact that, though the author hinted at the validity of both sides, she seemed to say that BECAUSE Thomas converted, he was better than he had been as a Keeper (aka Catholic). Now, maybe she wasn't saying that. This might just be my perception. Because honestly, Nadine is SUCH a sweet person and I believe she genuinely loves all her readers, whether Catholic or Protestant or whatever. I just personally was a little unsettled by the way Thomas's conversion was handled and shown.

So did I like this book? DEFINITELY. It was for once a book actually worth the hype. But did I fall in love with it the way I hoped? Sadly . . . not quite. My issues with it were large enough that I can't give it a higher rating. However, I can definitely foresee reading this in the future! As you can see, there were a lot of things I loved about it. ;)

4 stars

[lydia ‧ ia · Rating 3 out of 5]

˚₊༺I read this a while ago but I don't agree with my old review anymore so I'm rewriting it to a mini-review!༻₊˚

This book had a lot of promise but it mostly fell flat and dull. I reasonably enjoyed the climax but I just couldn't get myself invested in the characters or storyline and the whole thing was giving me strange vibes. The Christian analogy was clunky and weird and didn't make sense. I think the 'white light' was supposed to represent the Holy Spirit but it was sassy and rude... a twisted and harmful representation of the true Holy Spirit, which isn't so much a voice as an intuition, and if it was a voice, it would not be lowkey mean.

I loved the Christian content in Nadine's other book, A Time to Die, but I had the same problem with the meh factor. I also really enjoyed Wishtress and it had some amazing Christian symbolism, but overall I'm beginning to think Nadine Brandes just isn't the author for me.

[Jane Maree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fawkes is a Historical Fantasy retelling of the Gunpowder Plot, from the perspective of Thomas--Guy Fawkes' teenage son. It follows his struggles and journey as he becomes part of this plot to kill the king and rid England of the terrible Stone Plague. The very plague that Thomas himself is slowly dying from.

 

I'm an avid reader of anything Nadine Brandes writes, and I had high expectations coming to this book. Fawkes stood up to each expectation and absolutely hooked me in from the very beginning.

This is very different than the Out of Time series (also by Nadine Brandes), but I liked it just as much. It's difficult to compare the books since they're so different---so don't come to Fawkes thinking it's going to be like A Time to Die. It's completely different, and a totally new style, but I still absolutely enjoyed it.

 

Each of the characters were stunningly crafted. They had their own personality and motivations. All the characters were very realistic and each added an important element to the story and the theme.

Thomas's struggles were so real and his voice drew me into the story. Obviously, he started off as a very flawed character, but that just leads to even stronger and deeper character development through the book. I was engaged in his story right from the beginning.

Emma was an amazing character. Her determination and spirit was so beautiful. She wasn't defenseless at all, but she was also still feminine at the same time and that was wonderful to see in the world of modern YA fiction that says female characters cannot possibly be physically weak. Her journey was amazing to follow and I just really loved her inner strength and courageousness.

 

The plot followed the gunpowder assassination plan, but it revolved a lot more around Thomas's personal development than the external conflict---though the external was certainly there as well. Internal growth and struggles always pull me in deeper to the story and I was really feeling everything that Thomas was going through.

I read the almost the entire second half of this book in one sitting because it was just so. absolutely. crazy. The tension rose with every chapter and kept me hooked to each page. Not only was there a heap of external struggles, there was so much internal dilemmas on Thomas's part and it drew my heart into the story so deeply.

 

I could really feel Nadine's heart in this novel, and that made every part of this book hugely impactful. I actually cried twice while reading this, and certainly giggled several other times. Everything about it just drew me in so I could experience the story so closely and so personally.

 

Content: There was some slightly more gruesome scenes, but I wouldn't say it was any worse than A Time to Die (for example), and it was described enough, but not too much. Probably a 13+ read.

 

There are so many other things I liked about this book. The depth and complexity of Guy Fawkes's character. The stunning magic system. The allegory echo between the magic and religion. The themes, oh my word. But if I tried to talk about everything this review would be way too massive.

 

I definitely recommend this breathtaking book! Don't come to it expecting a normal historical fiction, or a normal fantasy book. It's absolutely unique and most certainly worth the time it takes to read. If you think the cover looks amazing, just wait until you see what's inside.

 

NOTE: I received a free e-ARC of this book from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review.

[Kaytlin Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was not at all what I was expecting....I loved it! Wow! Talking about creative liberty, that was like historical fantasy....like a whole new genre for me. It was awesome!

So, I started reading it and was like, "I have the wrong book open. This is supposed to be historical fiction...I'm so confused." Fast forward to about oh, not quite halfway through the book and my brain finally catches up and is completely mindblown! Color power! That was awesome! So orginal...and then just every detail of the plot like...those plot twist...my heart!

Thomas and I got along okay one he got past his first few chapters...honestly I first I kind of thought he was just a big baby, which he was being sort of whiny and very selfish and I just wanted to slap him....but then he grew on me. The more I saw of his internal conflict the more I liked him and understood him.
Surprisingly I liked Emma, I don't normally like girl characters, especially girls who are, persay, stronger than guys. But I liked that Emma didn't hold that over anyone. She was rubbing it Thomas face, in fact she never really talked about it.
There other characters....the perpetrator was someone I kind of saw coming...but then not really. It was a nice touch.
I loved Guy Fawkes! Like his story...melting and I want to know more!

Overall, this was a really fun read, once you get oriented and sort out the plots. It was both intriguing and, honestly I can't think of the right words to describe it, you'll just have to read it! It was so good!

Now a small content guide:
Magic: The characters have color power but it's viewed as a gift from White Light...I wouldn't call it magic. No spell casting or anything weird.
Romance: there is a small blossoming romance that's quite beautiful to watch and only one kiss.
Violence: There are several sword fights, hangings mentioned, beatings mentioned, and a reference to a color power being used to rip the blood from someone's veins. (Didnt much care for that last bit myself) but other than the last one nothing was too gruesome. It's just the image the last one brings up for me that makes me cringe.
Language: Clean

[Katelyn Buxton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit, when I heard that “historical fantasy” was actually becoming a real genre, I was skeptical. In my head, the two terms tended to cancel the other out, so what could there possibly be left to write about? Worse, would it be hard to tell what was true and what was not? However, my skepticism wasn’t the totally cynical kind, so I picked up Fawkes when it was on sale a while back so I could satisfy my curiosity.

And wow. My skepticism is gone! Thomas was an intensely root-for-able protagonist, and I found his first-person narrative somehow less jarring than most. Emma has made it into the ranks of my favorite lady characters. But what I found most interesting and laudable was how human characters on both “sides” of the Gunpowder Plot were. There were few straight-up villains, because everyone was the hero of their own story and believed that what they were doing was right—whether or not it actually was.

Speaking of belief, there were some beautiful themes woven in in that department, too. One of the biggest was not believing what you believe because you’ve always believed it, but because you’ve done your own searching and found out the truth that never changes. Not your truth, the truth.

Content (for those concerned) is an abundance of references to the less-than-sanitary-waste-disposal-methods of the Middle Ages, a kiss, one solitary passing mention of rape, and a character is naked for one short scene because he’s taking a bath. There is also hangings, and mentions of being drawn and quartered.

If you’ve been wondering just how history and fantasy can coexist, you can’t do better than to pick up Fawkes. I am definitely looking forward to Brandes’s future plunges into the genre!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow Nadine Brandes DELIVERS AGAIN and I'm an eternal fan 😂 This book is set in autumn/winter so HEY YOU ALL PERFECT TIME TO GO READ IT!!

I started reading and the first third of the book was kinda slow?? So slow that I let off a third way through for TWO MONTHS basically. Until a great friend reminded me I SHOULD BE READING THIS so I quickly picked it up and SWOOOSH FINISHED IT THAT VERY DAY (I think??).

So yep other than that slow beginning I DEFINITELY ADORE THIS BOOK.

Thomas was a great main character! (I'm very biased towards characters called Thomas *cough*). I've heard people complain he's a bit weak and whiny - so while I admit he doesn't have a huge amount of backbone or this steel strong determination which carries him through making him look heroic ... He's a kind of unsure/searching main character??? And I don't really mind?? I've seen more exciting characters for sure but Thomas fit his role, I think.

So EMMA. Everyone LOVES Emma and at first I just wasn't feeling it. At first she just seemed like another attempt at a strong female character and I didn't care. BUT. SHE REALLY REALLY GREW ON ME and by the end I could say YES! EMMA REALLY IS AWESOME!! (And you know, there's a spoiler about Emma and no one talks about it but I happened to read the author's note at the back of the book FIRST and haha the secret was out and I was very unsurprised when the spoiler was revealed. WARNING: DO NOT READ THE BACK OF THIS BOOK FIRST. Also note: the surprise is still awesome. For the rest of you.)

And the other characters!! ESPECIALLY ALL THE MEN WHO WERE PART OF THE PLOT. SO COOL. AND GUY FAWKES HIMSELF!!! He just might be my favorite character 😊

OK but here's some cool stuff --

The plot includes …

. Identity mysteries
. Rescue attempts
. Sparring with swords
. Color magic battles
. A love triangle-ish conflict
[note: Henry should have his own book, I really feel for him XD]
. Undercover jobs
. Schemes and spying and smuggling
. Masks!!
. Including a masked ball!!
. PLOT TWIST WITH THE 'VILLAIN' (which was genius and I didn't see coming till about five seconds before it's revelation).

AND I loved the story world so much especially

. The mentions of the clothes!!
. The fact that it's a real historical event retold!!
. Also the dates (at the beginnings of various chapters/sections)!!

The magic system - the best part.
I mean come on - COLOR POWER. YOU CAN CONTROL STUFF OF A CERTAIN COLOR!! How creative is that?? And the plague = turning to stone. I have wanted to see 'petrification' in a book for a long time and this! Was! So! Brilliant!!

And the White Light!! By far my favorite character! I know some people were weirded out but as I see it it's symbolic - it's a representation - it's a God-figure and NOT GOD. You know??

And I loved how sections of the book were divided into parts and labeled by color like WOW SO COOL AND CONNECTED TO THE STORY!!

I found really educational the representation of the religious conflict in the day. So the Protestants and Catholics are supposed to be the Igniters and the Keepers and they believe different things about the White Light + the magic rules. Igniters supposedly feel the Keepers are keeping truth + power from people and that they are responsible for the plague while the Keepers believe that Igniters are power hungry and defy the rules of color power. And I was so ashamed of myself for not knowing that PROTESTANTS PERSECUTED CATHOLICS AT THIS TIME IN HISTORY. So this was so educational!! And I know some people felt uncomfortable with Thomas's supposed 'conversion’ and … like I'm 100% okay with how Thomas came to a new understanding of the White Light and the world but ummm … he afterwards called himself an Igniter even though the White Light specifically said he wasn't on EITHER side. So I feel that whatever you label yourself as by denomination doesn't make you on the /right/ side. I mean there were JERK IGNITERS and ‘GOOD’ KEEPERS. I totally understand how Keepers might label you an Igniter heretic once you 'converted’ but in the end it's just a label. So that is the only thing I can say to people wondering about this denomination conflict in the book. The only 'problem' is that Thomas and others label him an Igniter, while a lot of us do think that labels don't really change things. (However, I don't really see how Thomas could really have avoided it *shrug*)

AND THE ENDING. If it weren't for the ending this would have been a four star book but THAT CLIMAX BATTLE. AND THAT CLIMAX WITH GUY FAWKES. It seriously made me almost cry and made me feel so so so happy in a way that only nonfiction books can that WOW I'M RIDICULOUSLY IMPRESSED and therefore am rating this 4.5 stars (the half star off just cos SLOW START).

ALL OF YOU WHO LIKE MAGIC AND HISTORY AND CONFLICTED MAIN CHARACTERS pls read this it's such a precious book <333

ok then *lisa out*