Review: The Brilliant Death

The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Brilliant Death gives us an unusual story of witchcraft in which Teo, a young woman from a powerful Italian mob family, has been hiding her power from her family while she systematically uses it to eliminate her family's enemies. A crisis of power in which her father is attacked magically results in the revelation of her power to her brothers. She leaves her family with her younger brother Luca to broker peace with the local Capo and try to get a cure for her father. Along the way she encounters the gender-fluid Cielo, a strega who can shift shapes and genders with ease. They become her mentor as the two try to save her family, figure out what happened to Cielo's mother, and most of all why the strega in their area are diminishing in numbers.

This book grabbed me right from the start and though I felt it lost momentum a bit in the latter half, I really enjoyed the imperfect heroine who goes against the gender constraints of her family and cultural expectation. Capetta is definitely an author to watch.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from Viking along with a paper review copy, in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews