Intriguing idea, complex characters, worth reading.

Very intriguing book and cant wait for the 2nd one.

So much fun! Action-packed YA fantasy featuring Sal, who lost everything to the "shadows". The gender fluid Sal vows to hunt down and kill those responsible for killing everyone in Nacea. Sal is a young thief who, while robbing a lady, finds a poster advertising auditions to become the next Opal - a high court assassin and member of the Left Hand to the Queen. Sal becomes an auditioner and it is a competition to the death. This competition is most of the first book and is a tense, nail-biting ride as the competitors move through the phases of the ritual.

The characters are interesting and the book kept my attention throughout. I liked the writing style as well. I will look forward to the next book in this series.

Thanks to Linsey Miller and Sourcebooks Fire through Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mask of Shadows is definitely in the same vein as SJM and Leigh Bardugo - MoS follows a very similar plot line to Throne of Glass, and the world building is a bit reminiscent of the Grishaverse. The writing itself isn’t quite up to par with those established authors in the beginning, but there is a very noticeable difference in writing at the beginning of the book versus the end – the writing gets exponentially better as the book progresses. The world building could also use some work, but this is the first novel of a series, from a new author. Mask of Shadows is Lindsey Miller’s debut novel! I have no doubt she will be on the same level of established fantasy authors very soon, if she’s not there already after finishing this novel.

Now let’s talk about how this book is going to change Young Adult Fantasy. I love fantasy. Fantasy is easily my favorite genre, but through the past couple years, I have been getting more and more disappointed in the genre. I’m getting tired of reading about a special white girl featuring her group of white men who go save the world together (side-eyes SJM). I think I was justifying reading those kind of exclusionary stories because I’ve always felt that good writing is good writing and I’ll enjoy the stories, despite them not having a fleck of diversity (and I do! I loved ToG before I had to confront the lack of diversity). After reading Mask of Shadows, however, I cannot allow myself to support those kind of stories anymore. SF/F is very white, very cis, very straight. This is not acceptable. The world is not exclusively full of straight white cis people, and I don’t want my fantasy worlds to be full of them either. Fiction affects people in real life, and I will not stand by and continue to support authors who invalidate the identities and experiences of so many people.

Mask of Shadows is what I want in my YA fantasy. It provides irrefutable, word-on-the-page representation to marginalized groups, people other than the straight, white, cis characters that take up the majority of SF/F novels. There are characters who are not straight. There are characters who have BROWN skin (not the ambiguous ~tan~ that authors love so much). Sal is unapologetically gender fluid, and their identity is almost always respected. And when it’s not? The disrespect is called out IMMEDIATELY right there on the page. Not fifty pages later, not on the author’s twitter after the book is published, or not at all. The disrespect is confronted RIGHT. THEN. This sends a strong, and needed, message. Sal’s identity is VALID, and disrespect about it will not be accepted.

THIS IS WHAT DIVERSE FANTASY SHOULD LOOK LIKE. I am very excited to see the final version of this book, and even more excited to see more from this author in the future.

If you ever wondered what would happen if you took some of the best or well known fantasy YA writers or our time and have them come together to write a book or a series, or just what would happen if you took their works and combine them in a single piece of writting, in this case a single YA fantasy series you would probably get Linsey Miller's "Mask of Shadows"

And I don't say that lightly. In her debut novel & the 1st book of what is to be a duology l, Linsey displays world building that rivels any I've yet encountered. She develops her characters in a way that they're always changing, always growing, you constantly find out more about them, their passions, fears, anger, sadness, what drives them to become more than they are, not necessarily better, but to accept the burden they have to carry.

And with all the time she devotes to character development, you would think that it would make the story suffer. But you couldn't be further from the truth. The story is both complex and simple at the same time. It's fast paced, it's action packed. Its got twist and turns and plenty of them. Its got mages, assassin's, physicians, shadows, thieves, and even some family drama thrown in for good measure. In other words it's everything you want in a fantasy novel.

The main protagonist is gender fluid character, which I personally thought was a little weird & wasn't exactly sure how it would fit in the overall story. But do not be concerned. It's such a fast paced book that if it weren't for few reminders every now and then, you wouldn't even notice it. And if anything it only adds a little flavor to the story as the protagonist is able to use the fluidity to get an advantage in few places.

The book comes out on August 29th, and it is going to get a lot of buzz and PR in the following month before its release. So make sure to grab it if you can

Mask of Shadows
by Linsey Miller
SOURCEBOOKS Fire
Sourcebooks Fire
Sci Fi & Fantasy , Teens & YA
Pub Date 29 Aug 2017

A Queen who stopped a civil war by destroying the magic that allowed “shadows” to flay people alive. A Queen who was still working to hold her new kingdom together while one faction retreated to the mountains to plan their bloody return. Our Queen’s Left hand: Ruby, Emerald, Opal and Amethyst. The rings she wore on that hand. Also the names of her four personal guards/assassins.

An audition for a new Opal, the previous one having been killed by the nobles in the mountains. Twenty-three possible new opals. Five invited due to reputation or nobility. The rest walk ons. Kill your competition without being caught or killed yourself. Survive combat, poisons, the competition.

Sal (auditioneer number Twenty-Three) is the protagonist. One of the most brilliant characters I have ever encountered. Sal has a heart of rage because of what happened. Nacea, a peaceful land, was overrun by “shadows” created by mages who flayed people alive. The nobles let it happen by withdrawing all the troops to protect themselves and leave Nacea undefended. Sal saw the shadows destroy Nacea, person by person and was only one of two survivors. Sal has an adoration for the Queen who stopped the shadows and ended the war. Sal has a desire for a better life than a thief and fighter. Sal has motivation and mystery.

The story is so wonderfully constructed. Sal takes the measure of his competitors. The entire court and the Opal auditions are like a huge puzzle Sal must make sense of. Piece by piece a plan develops, not only for Sal in the competition but for the Queen to deal with her unruly nobles. I loved all the characters. Even the side characters had depth to them and felt like real people, not like parts of the scenery. The action scenes were very well written. I could see them in my mind and did not get confused on who was where or had what weapon.

I pre-ordered the hardback of Mask of Shadows. As soon as the audiobook is available for pre-order, I will be ordering it also. I am excited to see what Ms. Miller does with Sal and the plot in the sequel. The world Ms. Miller has created in Mask of Shadows is rich and begs to be explored.

I received an advance review copy of Mask of Shadows from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've seen mixed reviews for this but I really enjoyed it. It had one of the most engaging protagonists I've seen for a while and I liked the way the gender fluidity was handled. There were the usual sticky moments with pronouns but most of that is the reader retraining themself to pay attention. Really liked this - a different sort of fantasy.

Although a bit confusing at times, this ended up being a highly enjoyable read for me! I flew through it, stopping only when I had to work or sleep. For some reason I can only think about reviewing this in list form, so here we go:

Things I liked:
1 - Genderfluid main character! Sal talks/thinks about being genderfluid many times and the people around them accept it, as they should. They are misgendered at least twice that I can recall - both times by one of Sal's competitors. One time it is immediately corrected out loud by another person in the room and the other time Sal at least thinks something about how insulting it is - I can't quite recall if they address it this time.
2 - An assassin/assassin-to-be who actually kills people! Sal is such a morally grey character and I really liked that about them - you never really know what they are capable of or what they're going to do next. When the audition began I thought Sal would just kinda be sneaky on the sidelines and let everyone else kill each other until they were pretty much the only one left, but that's not what happens and it feels weird to say someone killing another person is refreshing, but whatever, it was.
3 - A tournament/game to be the next assassin that actually makes sense! The auditioners (who all wear masks and are only called the numbers on their masks) have to go through three different rounds and each one tests a specific skill set. If you're not as well versed in one of those aspects, you get some training. No one other than the auditioners know what's involved in the tournament and part of their test is to be secretive - you know, like an assassin should be. It was really interesting.
4 - Complex political intrigue! Sal is one of - or the only - surviving child of their home country, Nacea. The Erlends abandoned the entire country to the shadows - creepy magical soldiers who skin people alive - and Sal is naturally pretty pissed off about that. A large part of why they audition to be the Opal in the first place is to get revenge on the Erlend lords responsible for abandoning their country.
5 - Really interesting supporting characters! There's a group of four circus performers who come to audition at the same time who are friends and they're a really interesting group. I didn't want to get too attached to them, since they were most likely going to die, but I couldn't help feeling fond of them and I was really interested in their stories. Also, Maud, the servant assigned to Sal. I love Maud so much. She's sassy and ambitious and she knows what she needs to do to best help Sal, which of course will also help her. She's wonderful.

The (very few) things I didn't like:
1 - I'm pretty sure this is just an aspect of the arc, but I really feel like a map would've been useful in this book. I'm saying this as someone who rarely, if ever, actually looks at a map while reading a book. I think a before/after map of what the countries were like before they became one just would've helped me ground myself in the world a little better. Like I said, this might just be missing in the arc! There might be maps in the finished copies, so it's not a huge deal.
2 - Things are a little rushed every now and then. There's at least one weird time jump at the end and it honestly felt like there was one before. Sal meets an Erlend lady, Elise, and they form a connection. I really liked their banter and flirtation and I was/am totally on board with them as a ship, but it felt like one minute they were just flirting and then the next BAM! super intense connection. I thought I skipped a couple scenes or something? It just jumped really suddenly. Also, I felt like the auditioners should've had more time with each challenge, especially to train. Emerald, Amethyst, and Ruby do acknowledge that this is the fastest audition they've had, though, so there's that.

FANTASTIC. This was one of the best books I've read this year so far. I absolutely loved every second of it. It was like Hunger Games with assassins. Sal was such a great protagonist and I loved how well Sal's gender fluid character was written. There was so much action and so many plot twists. I can not WAIT for the next one. This was abosolutely great.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I enjoyed this fast-paced fantasy novel so very much! I’m honestly baffled by the amount of one- and two-star reviews of this book on Goodreads. If you’re a fantasy lover like I am, don’t let the negative reviews deter you from picking up this book!

I’ll preface this by saying that I am cisgender, but one of the elements of Mask of Shadows I was most looking forward to was the fact that it features a genderfluid protagonist. I’ve only read one other book with a nonbinary POV character, and I was so excited to see this representation in a YA fantasy! Sal’s genderfluid identity isn’t a huge part of the plot, largely because they seem to be fairly widely accepted by others in this world, but the couple conversations about it were incredibly well-done, in my opinion. Sal goes by they/them, she/her, and he/him pronouns over the course of the book. Any time another character misgenders them, that character is quickly corrected. Again, I am a cisgender woman, but I will be linking to #ownvoices reviews by nonbinary reviewers of this book below (and I will be updating this list as I find more), so be sure to take a look at those!

I loved Sal as a character in general. They were definitely morally ambiguous (so are real people, though, right?), but they were incredibly easy to root for. It wasn’t a typical “chosen one” story, which I really appreciated since that plot is quite overdone in YA and can get tiresome. Sal had to work hard to improve their skills and stay alive throughout the competition; nothing was handed to them. All of the other characters won my heart, too– especially Sal’s love interest, Elise, and their servant during the tournament, Maud. Both of these ladies were resourceful and quietly clever, and Sal 100% would have been dead without the help of both of them. I also loved getting to know the members of Our Queen’s Left Hand, the guild of assassins Sal is competing to join. I thought the whole idea of the Left Hand– them being named after the gems the Queen wears on her actual left hand, the fact that no one except each other sees their faces unmasked, and their deadly skill– was incredibly clever and unique. Really, none of the characters in Mask of Shadows are completely “good.” All of them are doing what it takes to survive and therefore they all are morally grey in some way. I love love love books like this, because the characters react to real situations the same way that real people would. That element kind of gave me Six of Crows vibes.

As for the actual plot, I’m a sucker for a magical/fantasy tournament plot (think Goblet of Fire, A Gathering of Shadows, Throne of Glass, etc.), and this one completely delivered on that front! Again, Sal is competing to fill the spot of Opal, one of Our Queen’s assassins who makes up her inner circle known as The Left Hand. I loved the high stakes of the competition, and I enjoyed reading about the various tasks and challenges Amethyst, Ruby, and Emerald put the contestants through over the course of the story. Basically, it’s like Throne of Glass, but without Sarah J. Maas’s shitty writing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The other contestants all had interesting backstories and motivations that were fun to learn about. Mostly, I loved Sal’s resourcefulness throughout the audition. Like I mentioned before, they had to work hard to make it through, and it was really refreshing to read from the POV of a protagonist who actually planned their next move instead of always just acting impulsively and getting through every challenge through some miracle or stroke of good luck. I’ve seen many reviews where people took issue with the pacing of this story, but I found it compulsively readable and perfectly paced! I read this entire book in one sitting on an airplane, which is incredibly rare for me with fantasy books.

I think if you’re new to the fantasy genre, Mask of Shadows would be a wonderful starting place. The world is interesting (and comes with a helpful historical timeline in the back of the book!), but it’s not too dense or confusing, and there are no huge info-dumps. Plus, the magical elements of the world play a relatively small part, at least in this first book.

All in all, I cannot wait to see where the story goes in the sequel! The action built steadily til the end of this first book, and think the conclusion to this duology is sure to be an action-packed ride. I highly recommend Mask of Shadows to established fantasy lovers and to those new to the genre of YA fantasy alike.

Have you read Mask of Shadows? If so, did you enjoy it? And if not, do you plan to pick it up?

I would not compare this to Maas as I think fans of Sara J Maas will be disappointed. With more experience and writing I do think that Linsey Miller has the potential to get to that point. Writing a gender fluid character flawlessly was one part of the story that was done incredibly well. The story has unique points but also lacks some of the beautiful dialogue and world building that I had been expecting. The good news is that my friends either LOVED or Hated this so you will have a lot of feedback both directions. I thought the story starts incredibly strong and that it kind of slows down at 15-20%. I think that the story is strong enough to not need to rely on comparing it to Bardugo or Maas. I enjoyed it and will continue with the series. I think the gender fluid main character will draw in more readers and is an incredibly smart move for the author! For me I was right in the middle I didn't fall head over heels with this story but I didn't dislike it. I just wanted more!

I'm giving it three stars because it just wasn't able to grab and hold my attention. It all felt very bland to me. I do like that​ the author attempted to introduce more diversity into the literary universe thru Sal but overall the story just fell a bit flat. However, I do see potential in Miller to grow into an author capable of creating something great in time :)

Mask of Shadows has a bit of a Hunger Games feel, but with less character development and fewer interesting challenges and twists. The setting is intriguing, but world-building tidbits are dispensed so rarely that I could never remember the kingdom, faction, and minor character names.

I was very excited about the main character’s gender-fluidity in Mask of Shadows, but I just don’t think that aspect of the novel was handled particularly gracefully. Sal mentions more than once how open and accepting their world is, but then is moved to tears several times when people address them with their current correct pronoun. Is the place accepting or not? Is Sal’s gender an issue or isn’t it? I feel like either would have been an acceptable route to take – either make the novel about gender-fluidity or make it a non-issue – but this middle ground doesn’t make sense in the world and doesn’t make for effective storytelling.

There are also some timeline issues. The entire story takes place over two weeks, but the “Hunger Games” contestants go through multiple rounds of training during that time. At one point I thought I had missed a couple of time-skips. But no, I guess the contestants were just expected to learn archery in…two days?

Despite those specific nitpicks, I like Mask of Shadows. I did enjoy the world, and main character Sal is well-rounded in a book of otherwise flat characters. I’m happy the gender-fluidity was included, even if I wish it had been handled more smoothly.

Unfortunately, I felt like this book just didn't have any direction.

Holy moly. Mask of Shadows is brilliant. Lindsey Miller wrote a compelling story and I couldn't put it down. I literally sat down and ignored life until the very end of this story. And then - I sat there and thought about the book, Sal and all that transpired some more. Words don't do it justice. Just buy the book. It'll be the best decision you've made in a long time. Truly.

A fun, adventure story. We follow Sal in trying to become a member of an elite Queen's guard. The rral goal is to get revenge for the deaths caused years ago. The characters are well fleshed out and the story is adventurous, funny and thoughtful. I also love that the main character is gender fluid and that it's one of the least interesting things about Sal. This is so important to show kids that people are just people. Everyone is unique in some way and different doesn't mean bad or weak.

I liked this book, but it wasn't without issues. The foreshadowing was a bit clunky and though I wanted to connect to Sal/23, I had trouble. At times cynical and others idealistic, both extremes just seemed too much. I didn't love the ending, but I would recommend it to fans of Gracling, Princess Academy, or possibly The Thief by Taylor.

I had a hard time getting into this at first but if you stick with it the story line does get quite interesting, it just took a little for the story to flow for me. I'm not sure what the reason for Sal being gender fluid is. I understand dressing to fit the job and needing to be able to appear however fits best but it was never explained very well. It felt slightly forced on the story, as if trying to appeal to a wider variety of readers. A good story though once it gets into the actual competition and beyond though.

Mask of Shadows in the debut novel of Linsey Miller. The story lead is Sal a orphan and a thief, Sal  is fed up with life as a Highway thief, and want to get revenge on the nobles that let her home be destroyed and her family murdered. Sal find a poster giving people the chance to be in the Queens Left hand a group of assassins that kill on the queens orders. This is the chance Sal has been looking for, all Sal has to do is survive the test, but that's not as easy as Sal might hope.

I really liked the fact that Sal is gender fluid, the focus on Sal as a person and Sal achievements and failure are not tinged with gender bias. It's also an interesting the interaction with the other character trying to find out Sal gender. Also Sal has a romance and it nice to reads a romance that not affected by gender, the only barriers are rank and the fact Sal could die at any moment.

The book reminded me of a Throne of Glass with the competition to be the Monarch assassin,  this competition is more brutal more like the Hunger Games fight to the death.

The book is a good starting point for the series, I hope in the next book we get to learn more about Sal and more about the world that this book is set in. Some people may not like the little information we get about Sal appearance, but it makes sense to me as she join the competition she is giving up her identity. Sal face in public will be hidden meaning Sal could be anyone.