Review by Booklist Review
The author of best-selling novel Wicked (1996) is returning to Oz with a three-book series that picks up the story of Elphaba's granddaughter, Rain. Seven women populate an isolated island, carefully performing their rituals in order to keep time flowing as it should. It's vital that there be exactly seven--and once a year, a civil servant visits to make sure that everything is perfectly in order. So when a green-skinned girl washes up half-drowned on their shores, they worry their decision to let her stay or not might cause turmoil not just for their own inner politics but for the rest of the world as well. The Brides of Maracoor once again shows Maguire's rich, mesmerizing world building, full of small, frustrating human absurdities--from the silliness of government norms to the small betrayals within a family. It also shows off his gift for crafting compelling characters--Helia, the eldest bride, is a fascinating matriarch, and Lucikles is a relatable man just trying to do his job without alienating or losing his family. It's an intriguing, witty start to a fantastical proposed trilogy.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
There must always be exactly seven brides in exile on the island of Maracoor Spot--but in the complex, enticing fantasy that launches bestseller Maguire's latest trilogy, a spin-off of his Wicked Years series, the balance is upset when the green-skinned Rain crash-lands offshore with a talking goose in tow. She has no memory of where she's from or how she got there, and her arrival upends the brides' status quo, which is further shaken by the death of one of their own. When overseer Lucikles arrives from the mainland of Maracoor Abiding for his annual check-in, he's left reeling in the face of these changes--and doubly so when he returns home to discover that Maracoor Abiding has been attacked by an enemy navy. Blame for the attack falls on Rain due to the suspicious timing of her arrival. Meanwhile, one of the brides is accused of murder, and Maracoor itself begins to unravel. Maguire cleverly teases out the characters' motivations and desires, turning what at first appears to be a straightforward tale into a gripping page-turner. Fans will revel in this triumphant return to the world of Wicked. Agent: Moses Cardona, John Hawkins & Assoc. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Ten years after the "Wicked Years" waved good-bye with Out of Oz, Maguire sends us spinning back to those wizardly lands with a new trilogy set 25 years after Wicked first landed. Here, Elphaba's emerald-skinned granddaughter, Rain, washes up on a foreign island and is taken in by a community of single women with secret religious practices of their own. Did her arrival lead to the subsequent assault by a mysterious navy? What kind of magic is at work? With a 125,000-copy first printing.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A mysterious young woman washes up on the shore of a secluded island in the first of a new trilogy from Wicked author Maguire. There are always seven Brides of Maracoor, no more, no less. They live their entire lives in seclusion on their island, Maracoor Spot, where every day they go down to the water and weave their nets, a ritual that divides time into the well-ordered daily segments that allow civilization to function. Each year the Minor Adjutant, currently a bureaucrat named Lucikles, arrives from the mainland nation of Maracoor Abiding to check on the brides and bring them a replacement baby girl if one of their number has died. But one day, a young woman with green skin washes up on their shores, her arm flung around a goose and her hand clutching a raggedy broom. Rain, the green girl, can't remember much of anything about her life before she washed up on the beach, leaving the brides to discuss among themselves what to do with her. Maguire's longtime fans will remember Rain from Out of Oz (2011), but even newcomers will instantly connect the dots between her green skin and her broom, and if that's not enough there are those odd rumors of flying monkeys looking for a green girl. Maguire is setting up for a spinoff trilogy here, and the obviousness of Rain's origins for readers new and old alike allows him to spend more time fully creating the world of Maracoor Abiding with wonderful attention to detail. Sketching out just enough about Rain to build momentum for Book 2, this first installment does excellent character work with the people around her, particularly with regard to the power struggles among the brides on their strange island, with their strange task of weaving time. The larger world of Maracoor Abiding, with its priestesslike brides, mysterious artifacts, and its own systems of magic, myth, and politics, has echoes of Greek mythology and looks to be fertile ground as a setting for more books. An expertly crafted introduction to a new series of magic and adventure. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
