“It’s true that I contain more than one thing,” Cielo said. “And sometimes the balance shifts.”
Understanding rustled through me, soft as leaves. It wasn’t quite the same, but I’d often felt I didn’t fit inside the boundaries of the word girl. It reminded me of a country I could happily visit, but the longer I stayed, the more I knew I couldn’t live there all the time. There were moments when I sorely wished to be free of the confines of this body, the expectations it seemed to carry. [loc. 847]
Teodora di Sangro is a strega, a witch: her particular gift is transformation, and her bedroom is cluttered with the enemies of the di Sangros, in their new forms as mirrors, music boxes, shoehorns and the like.
One day a messenger arrives from the Capo, summoning the heads of the five great families to the capital to discuss the new management. Teo's father is struck down by invisible poison, and Teo sets out with her brother Luca to represent the family. But there are many perils on the road -- not least the charming shapeshifter, Cielo, who is sometimes a young man and sometimes a young woman. (Their pronouns shift with their appearance.) Cielo knows more about magic than Teo has ever learnt: Teo's dead mother taught her of the 'brilliant life', 'battling the harshness of this world with as many forms of beauty as possible', but Cielo tells Teo about the brilliant death, and Teo begins to understand the root, and the branches, of her own powers.
This is a well-plotted fantasy novel with a YA feel and a setting reminiscent of medieval Italy: the gender theme distinguishes it from a plethora of similar works. Vinalia, like medieval Italy, is a strongly patriarchal society, but Teo learns to question the inherent misogyny. Why can't she be her father's heir, even though she's a girl? Why do men get all the power? Capetta explores Teo's internal and external metamorphoses with sensitivity and restraint, but she isn't coy about the sexual elements: nothing too explicit, but Teo is comfortable with the notion of being attracted to girls as well as boys.
The magical system is intriguing, and I'd have liked more about the 'old gods' who, despite the theocratic Order of Prai, are still worshipped. Cielo and Teo are excellent protagonists, Cielo's joyful acceptance of their fluidity a nice contrast with Teo's gradual discovery of her powers, and though there are some dark and bloody developments the overall mood is optimistic and positive. There's a sequel, The Storm of Life, which does not seem to be available in ebook format. That's vexing, because The Brilliant Death, though effective as a standalone, doesn't resolve all its threads.
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