Rebel Flight

Rebel Flight: Book One of the Darkbeast Chronicles by Mindy Klasky, Book View Cafe (February 28, 2017). ISBN: 9781611386646. (also available in ebook format) Reviewed by John R. Clark, MLIS.

If for the entire twelve years of your life you’d believed that certain things were true and immutable, but when crunch time came, you acted in complete defiance of them, how would life unfold from that point? This is the reality Keara has entered. Before the defining moment when she realized her attachment to Caw, her Darkbeast, was too strong and important to break, she obeyed her strict mother’s rules. In addition, she barely questioned the religious structure that included slaying your Darkbeast on your twelth birthday, paying tithes, wearing a tax tattoo that had to be renewed every year, as well as accepting the brutality inflicted by white robed inquisitors when someone strayed from the boundaries imposed by religion.

However, her bond with Caw, the raven-like Darkbeast who has become as much a part of her life as anything, is too strong and when it comes time to kill him, she rebels. After letting him fly free, she flees he village of Silver Hollow, traveling at night until she catches up with the theater troup that had performed in her village just before her flight. Something in their freedom and skills lit a fire in her and she’s sure that joining them and traveling ever further from her village will be her salvation.

What she finds after the Travelers accept her, is a mix of friendship, scary moments, betrayal and a big surprise at the end of the story. Readers will fall easily into this well-crafted world and find themselves attached to various characters. Caw, Keara’s Darkbeast, comes across as both wise and wry, while Keara is both courageous and at times foolish, not unusual for a girl her age. It’s a fascinating read and leaves one eager to learn what comes next for them.