The Branded is a fantasy book by Jo Riccioni. It is the first book of a duology and will be released in the U.S. on June 11, 2024.
We aren’t huge romance fans over here at Frivolous but we ended up enjoying this book despite the romantic bits. The main concept behind the book is that some people are more resistant to disease, the “pure,” and others have inky blue markings on their body which "brands" them as more prone to disease. In this era of COVID, it's interesting to explore a world in which people who are resistant to disease are seen as higher class, or royalty. Since resistance to disease is hereditary, women are prized as breeders, bringing some gender issues into play.
The setting seems to be modeled after a nordic medieval kingdom, which is post an apocalyptic event which they call “The Great Malady.” It’s unclear to us if “The Great Malady" is just the advent of the “Brume,” (which is another name for the brandings that mark some as susceptible to disease), or if there was another element to this world racking event. This might be intentionally ambiguous, to be explored more in the second book.
As opposed to some other books in this genre we’ve read recently, the characters are easy to distinguish between. Nara, the main character, is fighting for survival and sometimes wants or needs to make slightly selfish choices. This makes her a more realistic character than her twin sister, Osha, who tends to be pretty much perfect. The romantic rivals are a bit typecast, but as we said, that part is not the reason the book kept our interest.
A few of the things we particularly enjoyed were:
• The world building. Seeing how the branding divides the population and society is organized around keeping disease at bay. It’s about what matters more, freedom or being safe. Some of the characters are forced to grapple with how to reconcile their beliefs when they realize the political views they’ve been fed for their whole lives are unjust.
• The elements of magic are artfully presented by the author. Nara is discovering magic and the existence of her own magical skills along with the reader in a way which makes it seem more natural.
Two of the main issues we had with the book were
• The end was rather abrupt, as if we just read the first half of one long book
• far too many mentions of one character's mole.
This was a fun, quick read that also poses some thought provoking concepts. We think this would be a great read for people who enjoy books like The Grace Year, Six of Crows, Iron Flame or Hunger Games. There is also a potential twist that we are excited about, although, as writers ourselves our minds are often thinking of unexpected turns that don’t come to fruition. So don’t quote us on that. We’re looking forward to the next book to find out!
[TW for book: sexual assault]
Thank you to Angry Robot for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are our own.