Brightly Woven

Reader: Elise S.
Age: 14
Title: Brightly Woven
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Publisher: Egmont USA
Pub Date: March 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: Yes
Annotation: When the weaver Sydelle Mirabil is taken away from her desert village by the wizard Wayland North, she is angry and confused. As they travel towards the capital to prevent war, they are followed by an evil hedge-wizard. It soon becomes clear that Sydelle is no ordinary weaver, and the power she wields could either save the kingdom, or destroy it.
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: The main character, Sydelle, totally kicks butt. She's strong, capable, and has really cool magical powers that she doesn't know about. We need a lot more heroines like her. The plot is engaging, and has enough twists so that I couldn't guess what was going to happen. The love interest was funny, sweet, and unique. The antagonist was completely evil and shudder-worthy. The world was well planned out, and had cool goddesses. All together, it was one of the best books I've read in a long time.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: Watching Sydelle fully come into her powers was great. You knew from the beginning that she was special, but to see her use all of her ninja-ness was awesome girl-power.
Were you disappointed with the book at all: The climax let me down a little bit. The fact that in the end it was the queen who whacked the bad guy was questionable - I wanted Sydelle to use her magic in a huge duel, and defeat evil all by herself.
Cover: The bright, rich colors of the cover were great, really stood out from the shelf, and got me interested. The fabrics fit with the story, and brought one of those great 'oooh' moments when I got how it fit in with the story. The girl on the cover looked as much like Sydelle as I could reasonably expect. I like how the images fit in with the story, but don't try to tell the whole plot.
Did you finish: Yes
Age Range: 12-17
Quality: 5Q Hard to imagine a better book
Popularity: 4P Broad general teen appeal