Aerie by Maria Dahvana Headley

The stunning sequel to Maria Dahvana Headley’s critically acclaimed Magonia tells the story of one girl who must make an impossible choice between two families, two homes—and two versions of herself.

Aza Ray is back on earth. Her boyfriend, Jason, is overjoyed. Her family is healed. She’s living a normal life, or as normal as it can be if you’ve spent the past year dying, waking up on a sky ship, and discovering that your song can change the world.

As in, not normal. Part of Aza still yearns for the clouds, no matter how much she loves the people on the ground.

When Jason’s paranoia over Aza’s safety causes him to make a terrible mistake, Aza finds herself a fugitive in Magonia, tasked with opposing her radical, bloodthirsty, recently escaped mother, Zal Quel, and her singing partner, Dai. She must travel to the edge of the world in search of a legendary weapon, the Flock, in a journey through fire and identity that will transform her forever.

Told in Maria Headley’s trademark John Green–meets–Neil Gaiman voice, Aerie is sure to satisfy the many readers who can’t wait to return to the spellbinding world of Magonia.

Gelezen voor de NEWTs readathon van Book Roast:
Acceptable in Care of Magical Creatures: boektitel beginnend met A.

Hmm, jammer genoeg kon Aerie me niet zo pakken zoals Magonia dat had gedaan. Nog steeds graag gelezen, maar het gevoel van ondergedompeld te zijn en weg van de wereld had ik deze keer niet. Ik kon het boek gemakkelijk opzij leggen en ik heb er ook veel langer aan gelezen dan ik zelf had verwacht.

De wereld blijft complex, boeiend, fascinerend, en de auteur heeft ongetwijfeld een heel gedetailleerd beeld van alle hoekjes en kantjes, maar op papier bleef het precies wat vaag en moeilijk te bevatten.
Intrigerende elementen of personages werden geïntroduceerd, om dan nooit meer vermeld te worden of slechts vaag benoemd te worden.
De grote confrontatie was ook nogal verwarrend en plots voorbij.

Mooie boodschap en fascinerende ideeën, maar de uitwerking ontbrak. Jammer.

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this duology, and I really liked getting to know the characters. I liked the embedded commentary about psychiatric hospitals being detrimental to well-being.

I found this duology's treatment of race to be disappointing. It felt like an afterthought, for Jason to suddenly reveal to the reader in Aerie “By the way, one of my moms is black, and I have seen people be racist to her” and for Aza to make a very quick comment that during the year she spent being perceived as a black woman, she learned that white people are still racist. I feel like there was a missed opportunity for Aza and Eve to have had some conversation pertaining to race, in the year between the books' main action.

I also found it frustrating that Jason doesn't know which of his moms gave birth to him, and that thread was left hanging. Was he adopted? Was he made from an egg from one mom, fertilized by someone else, and gestated in the other mom? I want to know more.

I really appreciated the normalization of same-sex parents in this duology. Jason having two moms is not a source of anything dramatic—no homophobic violence, and no one acting weird about it. It's refreshing to see LGBTQ characters, especially lesbians and queer women, be present in a story, and not have the story be about coming out or interfacing with homophobia.

Overall, I think that Magonia and Aerie were really good! I want more stories about Magonians and Rostrae, especially Jik! I want to read about the Rostrae-led revolution in Magonia! I want to read about Dai's life before meeting Aza! I want to read the Flock's realization that he had to leave Zal! I want more!