I'm really torn about this book. The plot was intriguing but I kept wondering why "The Queen's Left Hand" had only four jewels and not five. For some reason, that really bothered me and I know-- four fingers and a thumb. I also found the world building a bit muddled; and the letter at the end did nothing to help. I also thought the whole idea of the main character being gender fluid was completely unnecessary, gimmicky and distracting. That being said, I did enjoy much of the author's style of writing and the pace of the story.

I found Mask of Shadows reminiscent not only of The Hunger Games but also of The Poison Study Series.

First of all, I'm absolutely in love with this cover. It's seriously gorgeous. Anyways, moving on, haha.

I found the genderfluid character to be a really nice touch. I was just so excited to have this diverse character, and I wanted to see how people reacted to them, and how the story went. Unfortunately, I think the author missed out on some chances to create tension/drama with this. Everyone was just so accepting of Sal. I think there were only two or three times in the book that someone--I think it was the same character every time--offended Sal by getting their gender/pronoun wrong. It would've been nice to have more of a balance. Yes, I liked that not a lot of attention was given to it--but I still wanted it to be more part of the story, to create conflict.

The competition aspect added tension, sure, but it made it hard to get to know the characters. I kept trying to remember which number was who and had done what. However, it did get easier later down as the competitors were whittled down. This was kind of the same with Ruby, Emerald, and Amethyst--it was hard to get to really know them when they showed up so rarely but it was better towards the end. When Opal was chosen they relaxed more and their personalities showed more.

I think one factor that really dragged the story down was Sal's obsession with getting revenge. It made the whole story feel really plot-driven. I guess that wouldn't be too bad if there was more of a balance with well-written characters. I think being the first book probably limited it to how much they could get done. I think the sequel would open it up more for the author to really let the characters shine and balance out the focus on plot.

Overall, I think the book had some flaws that could be fixed easily in the next book. The story itself is interesting enough, and I'd be open to reading the sequel.

*Full review to be published on Stellar Kitten Book Reviews on August 1st. I will edit at that time with the post link

Miller, Linsey Mask of Shadows, 384 pages. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, SEPT 2017. $18. Language: R (10 swears, 1 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG-13 (gender fluid main character); Violence: PG-13 (bloody)

Sal lives a desperate life as a thief under a cruel task master. When Sal finds an announcement for the contest to name a new Opal (think assassin) for the Queen, Sal decides to enter the auditions, even if it could mean death. The auditions are held in anonymity and are very brutal, demanding the utmost concentration on order to survive. Sal has almost no one to trust except Maud, the maid servant. And maybe the beautiful Elise, a noble girl whom Sal met during a brazen robbery. What Sal doesn’t realize is that the queen Sal has always been loyal to may not actually be worthy of that loyalty. But Sal has other deeper reasons for joining the auditions. Certainly should Sal survive and succeed, Sal will be drawn into higher level and even more dangerous intrigues.

Sal is gender fluid, so the personal pronoun is applied based on which gender is predominate at any given moment. The narrative flows quickly, with plenty of added detail and character to provide depth and emotional connection.

HS – ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library Teacher

Sal is a thief. Orphaned at a young age, Sal steals from the noble lords and tries to forget the magical monsters created by those nobles; monsters that devoured the people of Nacea, Sal's home, during a terrible civil war. Then Sal steals an invitation to audition for the Queen's Left Hand, a group of assassins named after the rings she wears, and sees a way to escape the thief's life and get revenge.

In general, you've got your standard YA fantasy elements: an orphan seeking a way to a better life, sorcery, monsters and magic; complicated political intrigue; secrets and a romance breaks the rules. The storytelling is okay, although the political background was quite confusing - I was never clear on which factions were which, and exactly why Sal was seeking revenge on various characters. And while Sal, Sal's maid Maud, and Sal's romantic partner Elise, had their characters fleshed out, the rest of the cast felt entirely interchangeable, especially the 22 other people auditioning for the assassins role. So at first glance, pass.

But the intriguing bit about this book, and the part that's going to get talked about, is the gender-fluid main character. Sal's pronouns change by the day, but I'll let Sal explain it:

"Rath had asked me once, after we'd met and been living together, and I'd not known how to explain it yet. He always felt like Rath, and I always felt like Sal, except it was like watching a river flow past. The river was always the same, but you never glimpsed the same water. I ebbed and flowed, and that was my always."

It's mentioned in the book a few times, but it's not the plot of the book, and doesn't even really drive the plot that much. It's simply a fact about Sal, like Sal's messy hair or scrawny, underfed body. The creativity of that bumped the book up a bit for me. Now if we can only get Sal a better written book for the sequel...

The first few chapters were extremely confusing and almost made me give up on this book. It didn't get really good until about the 7th or 8th chapter and there were still areas further on that were confusing.

I've seen several reviews compare this to a bad version of The Hunger Games but I personally find that to be a poor comparison. A fight to the death scenario isn't unique to The Hunger Games and the setting and premise of this book is entirely different.

I found the ending of this book to be both predictable and surprising. It left me wanting to know what comes next but I don’t feel a burning desire to have the next book in my hand RIGHT NOW.

I really enjoyed this book! I appreciated Sam's gender fluidity and loved that she/he could be so ruthless and determined one minute and then shy and tender the next. Now I can't wait for book two!

Sallot Leon knows what it’s like to fight for what you want. Growing up on the streets and being forced to rob noblemen and street fight by your gang leader will teach you that very quickly. But Sal isn’t like all of the others forced into this behavior—Sal is the last of their race. After a brutal civil war during their childhood, Sal’s entire country is wiped out by a devastating magical force that becomes banned from the continent by the end of the war. But not before Sal lost everything they ever had. When Sal robs a noble girl who has a flyer stating that the new Queen needs a new member of her inner circle that she keeps to do her bidding—and killing—Sal seizes the opportunity for freedom and the chance at revenge for those who left their country to die. But Sal is tested far beyond what they imagined as they and twenty-two other auditioners are put through a series of tests—and are allowed to discreetly kill each other to eliminate the competition. There can only be one Opal…and Sal has to be it to avenge Nacea. Welcome to the Left Hand Auditions.

First things first—am I the only one who thought “Ha, Sallot. Shallot…They’re an onion. Lol”? Just me? Okay.

As I’m sure is the case for many other readers, I saw this book being compared to Sarah J. Maas’s work and I was sold. Was that an accurate description? Not really. If we’re going to compare this book to another well-known fantasy series, I’d go with Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series and I would anticipate a similar divide in its receipt with some readers loving it and some hating it.

So let’s just jump right in here to the main reason most readers will probably pick this book up: the main character’s genderfluidity. Firstly, if I had read the entirety of the description on Netgalley, I wouldn’t have requested this book. Simply put, I’m still learning about the different gender spectrums and don’t know enough or can identify with the main character’s identity. But from the little that I know, I don’t think this is the best representation. Sal prefers to identify with whatever gender they’re currently dressed as whether it be male or female (“they” is never used after Sal gives this explanation). I know that this is not valid for all genderfluid people and how they want to be addressed isn’t hinged upon how they chose to dress that day. But, okay, if we’re going with this “address me as I’m dressed” concept, then why doesn’t Sal ever select their clothes themselves? They consistently allow their servant to choose their clothes every day and Sal seemingly just runs with whatever Maud chooses and identifies as that gender for the day. I don’t really think that’s how it works. Maybe Sal simply doesn’t hold their gender that closely to their heart? Nope. Sal repeatedly gets angry at another auditioner for referring to them as “she” when they’re dressed as a “he.” So why doesn’t Sal choose their own clothes and gender for the day??? Furthermore, the only detail we get about Sal’s clothes is that they’re mostly all black so the identifying marker that Sal hinges their gender upon is if they’re wearing a dress, and therefore a girl for the day, or pants, and therefore a guy for the day. Great way to reinforce gender norms and basically imply that girls can’t wear pants?? Beyond all of that, the way that Sal’s gender is represented makes it seem as though genderfluidity is commonplace and widely accepted in their world. However, there are scenes where Sal’s gender is assumed (i.e. when Elise states that she isn’t only attracted to men yet doesn’t ask Sal what they identify as) and scenes as aforementioned when Sal becomes upset at another person for assuming the wrong gender, implying that it is not so commonplace or accepted, especially considering no other characters are ever asked what their gender is. It was all just confusing for me and I definitely can’t say I feel any more educated than before reading this which is truly a shame.

Because of the characters all being referred to as numbers rather than by names, I found it quite difficult to keep all of them straight. The main ones that are focused on eventually became separated in my mind but I often found myself thinking “wait, who’s that again?” when an auditioner would die. I do think the number concept was cool and original but with there being so many it was just too difficult to remember them all. Although admittedly I am not the best at keeping large castings of characters straight as I had the same problem in Throne of Glass, The Hunger Games, and every other book along the same lines as this one. And along with a large cast, usually comes little to no character development which is exactly the case here. Sal did have some development along the way but there isn’t much to say about the other characters, including the Left Hand of the Queen which were the only characters I actually cared about the entire book.

I did like the plot and the pacing of the book mostly. I do hope that when this book is printed a map is included of the world as it was difficult to picture all of the places mentioned by the characters. However the world is fairly well-explained and I enjoyed learning about the history of Igna and how it became a country. I also really enjoyed the twists that were thrown in and didn’t connect the dots myself when reading so they were a cool surprise. I do think that some parts of the plot were a bit clunky, such as Sal seemingly being able to read after two lessons and the characters only having to complete one conditioning class the entire time, but overall I did enjoy the plot and it kept me engaged.

Lastly, the romance was just a little too insta-lovey for me. Insta-love is a fine line for me between loving it and thinking it’s too farfetched. This is the latter. I just cannot picture how a character can go from being robbed by someone to falling in love with the person after one tutoring session. The interactions definitely felt genuine between the characters but a few hour tutoring sessions in a week doesn’t exactly add up to I-would-die-for-you feelings in three lessons.

Overall, this isn’t a remarkable book by any means. If you’ve read Red Queen, The Hunger Games, and by some stretch Throne of Glass, then you have read this. With the unique feature of a genderfluid character being written so muddily, I can’t really even recommend this on that level. But I did find myself entertained by the book and I am invested enough in the storyline at this point that I am going to read the next book when it is released.

I unique world with fleshed out characters however the world building was lacklustre.

I like trying new authors, as it gives me an opportunity to try new things and give new people a chance, which completely paid off as this was such a good read. I wasn't hooked from the start, but I was very happy by the end. A must read

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller is scheduled to the released on September 5, 2017 by Sourcebooks Fire and is a young adult sci-fi fantasy. I have to admit that I truly loved reading this book and felt it was interesting from the first page. I really did not want to put it down. Miller is an amazing writer! The way she created a story that is truly unique, yet very believable. This book really got under my skin because of Miller’s very vivid, realistic characters and setting. The story is about Sal, a street fighter and highway thief, that auditions for a place on the Queen’s Left Hand. Which is her trusted band of assassins. I will not give away any of the plot line, you must read this to find out. I found this book to be an amazing read and I cannot wait for the next book in this series. I highly recommend this book!

Imagine someone thinking, can there be a book that's a crossover between the Hunger Games, a tiny bit of Game of Thrones (I should have spotted that one from the blurb), a Divergent-like training setting, numbers instead of names and of course a gender fluid character? And this is the result.

It might sound like a nice mixture but its mostly just confusing.

Our character, Sal is gender fluid but that's all you'll get. At roughly 10% you get a quote saying "I dress how I want to be addressed, he, she, or they." which is awesome but that's all the explanation we're given. And no, I don't need to have an explanation but this is a brand new world I'm entering and a line like that makes me believe that acceptance is something that won't be an issue and yet we get a few scenes where the character gets emotional whenever someone does anything to show acceptance, which leads me to believe its not a given? But I don't know?

Our character and 22 more are all named using numbers, 1 to 23 and they wear masks as they compete for the Left Hand as the Queen's assassin aaaand I'm bored to death. We get no names, no facial characteristics, nothing. In theory its a nice way to make everyone equal (?) but it gives the readers nothing to connect with or care for that matter.

Plus a few things don't make sense:
• If any one of the 23 candidates are caught with enough evidence of killing anyone they'll be disqualified. Then what's the point?
• Our character is illiterate but goes from barely being able to read "cat" to suddenly reading when the plot demands it?

The one thing that made this book interesting was the one thing that didn't get explored. The gender fluidity might as well not be there, it is barely mentioned and it changes nothing as far as the plot goes or even the character. Was that on purpose, was it a bait? Who knows. The rest is just Hunger Games with a touch of everything in between.

Anytime you combine court intrigue with high stakes and a morally ambiguous lead, you have a book I'm almost certain to enjoy.

Mask of Shadows certainly fits the bill. The story features a gender fluid main character, Sal, whose resolve and cunning not only serve the plot well, but also make for compelling emotional tension, particularly as they build relationships to other characters.

The use of numbers for the names of many of the minor characters did make it difficult at times for me to keep them straight, or care about them. However, this felt somewhat deliberate, mimicking the distance Sal wanted to impose between themself and their competition. There is an artless simplicity to the prose in this novel that joins the personality of the main character well, creating a unique and effective voice.

Overall, this story put me in mind of a fantasy version of The Hunger Games, if Katniss was more calculating and dangerous, and the goal was not only survival, but becoming the queen's assassin. The world-building is dark and downright haunting, and the narrative delivers on it. I'm eager to see what happens next in the series.

This book was not perfect but overall Mask of Shadows is a strong opening to a new duology that I look forward to continuing.

This is a book where Nevernight meets Throne of Glass. I loved the main character and how they handle gender and gender identity. The main character was likeable and the main story was interesting to follow. The only issue I had was the history/backstory of the different nation's. It was a little confusing for me. Other than that, I highly recommend this book.

Didn't enjoy this book and ended up not finsihing it.

Sal is genderfluid so I'm going to use 'they' pronouns for this review. Sal uses he, she or they depending on how they dress, but switching between the three would be far too confusing for this review, though it wasn't confusing at all in the book.

I really did enjoy this book. It took me a while to read because it was a little slow to get into but when I finished it, I was really happy with the book altogether. The characters were varied and interesting, both the Left Hand, the other auditioners and the friends Sal surrounds themselves with. I liked how they all had their backstories and were all working towards them, for example, Sal never judges Maud for looking forward to the pearls she'll get if Sal becomes Opal, especially when they find out what Maud wants the money for. Sal learns to trust other people and it's a slow process, the character arc being quite satisfying for me. Sal being a genderfluid character was neither brushed over, nor focused on to the expense of the plot. Other characters used the wrong pronouns for them and they became annoyed especially when they had explained it but others used the right pronouns and we could make the assumption about how Sal was dressed on those pronouns.

The world-building, especially the history of the war and the people, was really enjoyable for me. I really liked how each country had its own history and culture, though I could have done with a bit more explanation on some points. I liked how Sal never forgot their own country and the wrongs done against it and the Shadows were a suitably frightening threat (I can see why Sal freaked out at the thought of them being back because that was a fairly terrifying consequence of magic).

The thing I think could be improved for this book was I felt the plot was a little cliche. The ending surprised me, especially with the revelations about one of the Left Hand, but the whole 'auditioners have to try and kill each other' was not that original, although it was done in a different way than I've seen before.

All in all, I would recommend it so four stars!

I really wanted to like this, but it did not pan out. Not comparable to Maas or Bardugo as marketed; while the prior two write books I can't put down this one was a struggle to get through. I will say that based on what I've seen, the representation of gender-fluidity seems to be well-received from members of that community, and it has at least one other character of a non-hetero sexuality. So if you want it just for the representation, that aspect seems well-done, but it's truly a small part of the book since it's just part of Sal's character and not the focus of the story. I thought it was a good choice to not include any physical descriptions of Sal that might lead you to assume their assigned gender at birth, or at least nothing that I picked up on.

But outside of that, the story was sadly lacking. The plot is basically Throne of Glass, with Sal joining an audition to become one of the Queen's assassins. Unfortunately, all the contestants go by number, which made them all muddle together and I could not describe more than two of them with any kind of defining characteristic. Characterization overall was flat, and I couldn't get a good grasp on anyone's personality. The other assassins are ruthless, but teacherly? Live a sorrowful, shadowed life but are constantly quipping at each other? I couldn't give a compelling description of any single character (except Maud, who was great) if I tried. The world-building was spread too thin, with many interesting things hinted at but never satisfactorily introduced. There were auditioners who grew up in a circus famed for its dangerous stunts - I want to hear more about that! And people who had magic and lost it - I want more about how magic worked, and the transition away from it.

Sal's motivation left me constantly underwhelmed. They want revenge for the destruction of their homeland, but up until Sal chanced upon an announcement for the audition, they were content to only work toward joining the army as a private? And despite having been only a street fighter and never killed anyone, Sal is now perfectly willing to murder at the drop of a hat? Sal's blind faith in the queen was annoyingly naive, and I could not forge any sort of emotional connection with them, despite their nightmares and memories of the shadow massacre. It started out with promise, nearly ground to a halt in the middle, and picked up in the second half but not enough to make me enjoy it or want to read the second one.

What drew me to this book was the cover, I didn’t even read the description. That’s why I was so pleased to find that I liked reading this book. While I had an ebook ARC of it, when I would much prefer the physical book, I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve seen people online complain that this is strikingly similar to The Hunger Games, which is odd because I felt like it was almost an exact copy of Throne of Glass.

As you can see from the excerpt, this story follows Sal, a gender-neautrual individual. I’m always so happy to see a fellow LGBTQIA character, and was thrilled that the main character was in my six-letter label.

Sal goes through a series of tests, with a constant threat to her life, much like Throne of Glass. While there wasn’t a love triangle, something that makes me love a book, there was a love interest that wasn’t the main message of the story. Sal was in this competition for vengence and love just happened to come across in the story. It’s refreshing to see that, when so many YA books have the romance overshadow the message and plot of the book.

Sal also doesn’t constantly mention their fluid gender, but it’s there and it’s a huge part of them. Words weren’t necessary when describing their gender. It was the feeling they had and acceptance of their body and gender.

I think this book would be good for any LGBTQIA individual, especially the gender-neutral individuals, because it made me feel good, as a gay woman, and may make the gender-neutral feel accepted. That being said, I think this could be a learning experience for the rest of the readers.

* I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review*


*sigh* this book took me almost a month to read, I just couldn't get into it. In my opinion it was just okay. Nothing all that special about the story or plot. There were a few moments where I felt like I started to get into the story but then I soon dropped out again.