Review: On This Unworthy Scaffold by Heidi Heilig (#Ad)

I received this eProof for free from Greenwillow Books via SparkPoint Studio for the purposes of providing an honest review.

On This Unworthy Scaffold by Heidi Heilig

Published: 27th April 2021 | Publisher: Greenwillow Books | Source: Publisher
Heidi Heilig's Website

Jetta's home is spiraling into civil war. Le Trépas--the deadly necromancer--has used his blood magic to wrest control of the country, and Jetta has been without treatment for her malheur for weeks. Meanwhile, Jetta's love interest, brother, and friend are intent on infiltrating the palace to stop the Boy King and find Le Trépas to put an end to the unleashed chaos.

The sweeping conclusion to Heidi Heilig's ambitious trilogy takes us to new continents, introduces us to new gods, flings us into the middle of palace riots and political intrigue, and asks searching questions about power and corruption.

Acclaimed author Heidi Heilig creates a rich world inspired by Southeast Asian cultures and French colonialism. Told from Jetta's first-person point-of-view, as well as with chapters written as play scripts and ephemera such as songs, myths, and various forms of communication, On This Unworthy Scaffold is a satisfying finale to the epic fantasy trilogy. It will thrill readers who love Claire Legrand's Furyborn, Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer, and N. K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season. The StoryGraph

My other reviews of the Shadow Players Trilogy:
For a Muse of Fire (#Ad) | A Kingdom for a Stage

WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features racism, forced institutionalisation, a trans person disguising themselves as a different gender for their safety, murder, and description of corpses.

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Review: A Kingdom for a Stage by Heidi Heilig

A Kingdom for a Stage by Heidi Heilig

Published: 8th October 2019 | Publisher: Greenwillow Books | Source: Bought
Heidi Heilig's Website

Jetta is a prisoner. A prisoner of the armee, a prisoner of fate, and a prisoner of her own madness. Held captive in Hell’s Court—now the workshop of Theodora, the armee engineer and future queen of Chakrana—Jetta knows she needs to escape. But Theodora has the most tempting bait—a daily dose of a medication that treats Jetta’s madness.

But the cost is high. In exchange, Jetta must use her power over dead spirits to trap their souls into flying machines—ones armed with enough firepower to destroy every village in Chakrana. And Theodora and her armee also control Le Trépas—a terrifying necromancer who once had all of Chakrana under his thumb, and Jetta’s biological father. Jetta fears the more she uses her powers, the more she will be like Le Trépas—especially now that she has brought her brother, Akra, back from the dead.

Jetta knows Le Trépas can’t be trusted. But when Akra teams up with Leo, the handsome smuggler who abandoned her, to pull off an incredible escape, they insist on bringing the necromancer along. The rebels are eager to use Le Trépas’s and Jetta’s combined magic against the invading colonists. Soon Jetta will face the choice between saving all of Chakrana or becoming like her father, and she isn’t sure which she’ll choose. The StoryGraph

My other reviews of The Shadow Players Trilogy:
For a Muse of Fire (#Ad)

WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features abduction, imprisonment, torture, a person being burned alive, a massacre, and murder.

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A Novel Cover Up: Leo Nickolls on For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are designed. I have been fortunate enough to interview Graphic Designer Leo Nickolls about how he designed the cover for For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Leo Nickolls and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

Can you tell us about the cover for For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

I’m not sure how much detail I can go into without potentially spoiling the story here! But I hope it tells readers that it’s a fantasy story based around shadow theatre (with some shadowy secrets) with a hint of the supernatural. The concept of the cover is based on what I read in the manuscript, so the goal was to - like all good book covers should - show the nature of the story: a girl with powers she can only just control, in a war-torn country involving a tyrant leader - which hopefully is alluded to with the er, combustible look of my design!

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Mental Illness in YA Month Review: For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig (#Ad)

For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig

I was sent this proof for free by The Bent Agency for the purposes of providing an honest review.

A young woman with a dangerous power she barely understands. A smuggler with secrets of his own. A country torn between a merciless colonial army, a terrifying tyrant, and a feared rebel leader. The first book in a new trilogy from the acclaimed Heidi Heilig blends traditional storytelling with ephemera for a lush, page-turning tale of escape and rebellion. For a Muse of Fire will captivate fans of Sabaa Tahir, Leigh Bardugo, and Renée Ahdieh.

Jetta’s family is famed as the most talented troupe of shadow players in the land. With Jetta behind the scrim, their puppets seem to move without string or stick—a trade secret, they say. In truth, Jetta can see the souls of the recently departed and bind them to the puppets with her blood. But the old ways are forbidden ever since the colonial army conquered their country, so Jetta must never show, never tell. Her skill and fame are her family’s way to earn a spot aboard the royal ship to Aquitan, where shadow plays are the latest rage, and where rumor has it the Mad King has a spring that cures his ills. Because seeing spirits is not the only thing that plagues Jetta. But as rebellion seethes and as Jetta meets a young smuggler, she will face truths and decisions that she never imagined—and safety will never seem so far away.

Heidi Heilig creates a vivid, rich world inspired by Asian cultures and French colonialism. Her characters are equally complex and nuanced, including the bipolar heroine. Told from Jetta’s first-person point-of-view, as well as chapters written as play scripts and ephemera such as telegrams and letters, For a Muse of Fire is an engrossing journey that weaves magic, simmering romance, and the deep bonds of family with the high stakes of epic adventure. From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features offpage mass murder, but seeing the result of mass murder on page - the dead bodies, on page murder, off page torture, racism, suicidal ideation and discusses suicide.

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A Diversified Bookcase with Heidi Heilig and The Ship Beyond Time

A Diversified Bookcase is a feature where authors of diverse YA recommend other diverse YA novels by other authors to their characters. Today the wonderful Heidi Heilig, author of the incredible The Girl From Everywhere and the recently released sequel, The Ship Beyond Time, is stopping by to recommend books the to crew of the time-travelling ship, The Temptation.


As someone who wrote an entire series about traveling the wide world in a time-hopping pirate ship, it should come as no surprise that I adore diverse books-- especially those written by #ownvoices. After all, every seasoned traveler knows that locals make the best guides.

My own characters in The Ship Beyond Time are a diverse bunch, and with all the amazing #ownvoices books coming out this year, I have some great recommendations for those long midnight watches when the sea is quiet and the wind is calm.

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Review: The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig (#Ad)

The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig

I received this eProof for free from Hot Key Books via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

WARNING! I cannot review this book without spoiling the others in the series. Read no further if you're planning on reading this series and don't want it spoilt for you.

Nix has spent her whole life journeying to places both real and imagined aboard her time-travelling father’s ship. And now it’s finally time for her to take the helm. Her father has given up his obsession to save her mother—and possibly erase Nix’s existence—and Nix’s future lies bright before her. Until she learns that she is destined to lose the one she loves. But her relationship with Kash—best friend, thief, charmer extraordinaire—is only just beginning. How can she bear to lose him? How can she bear to become as adrift and alone as her father?

Desperate to change her fate, Nix takes her crew to a mythical utopia to meet another Navigator who promises to teach her how to manipulate time. But everything in this utopia is constantly changing, and nothing is what it seems—not even her relationship with Kash. Nix must grapple with whether anyone can escape her destiny, her history, her choices. Heidi Heilig weaves fantasy, history, and romance together to tackle questions of free will, fate, and what it means to love another person. But at the centre of this adventure are the extraordinary, multifaceted, and multicultural characters that leap off the page, and an intricate, recognisable world that has no bounds. From Goodreads.

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Heidi Heilig's MuggleNet Diverse Books Reading Challenge

Heidi Heilig, YA author of The Girl From Everywhere and the forthcoming sequel The Ship Beyond Time, had a guest post on MuggleNet last week for their Author Takeover feature, A Reader’s Revolution Recs from Heidi Heilig where she shares 30 diverse recs. It's a wonderful list of YA and middle grade novels written by authors of colour and native authors. Within the post, Heidi says:

"Just imagine: what would your year look like if you read only marginalized authors? What would the world look like if we all did the same? And how many books do you read each year, anyway? If it’s more than 30, I challenge you to pick up every one of these."

Looking through the list, there are a fair number of books there I actually really liked the sound of, and with not one of this authors being caucasian, well... it's one of my own goals this year to read more authors of colour, and if I read all of these authors, I'm pretty sure I'd be well on my way to acheiving this goal. When I tweeted about giving this a go, Heilig thre down the gauntlet:

@Jo_Scribbles @MuggleNet YES! I DARE YOU

— heidi heilig 🇺🇸 (@heidiheilig) February 23, 2017

I have actually being challenged - dared - by an author. I can't exactly back down now, can I? So I'm taking up this challenge, and will record how I do in my reading challenges page.

How about you join me in taking up Heidi's challenge? Book mark the post, and see how many you can get through in a year!

Continue reading Heidi Heilig's MuggleNet Diverse Books Reading Challenge

Review: The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig (#Ad)

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

I received this eProof for free from Hot Key Books via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Sixteen-year-old Nix Song is a time-traveller. She, her father and their crew of time refugees travel the world aboard The Temptation, a glorious pirate ship stuffed with treasures both typical and mythical. Old maps allow Nix and her father to navigate not just to distant lands, but distant times - although a map will only take you somewhere once. And Nix's father is only interested in one time, and one place: Honolulu 1868. A time before Nix was born, and her mother was alive. Something that puts Nix's existence rather dangerously in question...

Nix has grown used to her father's obsession, but only because she's convinced it can't work. But then a map falls into her father's lap that changes everything. And when Nix refuses to help, her father threatens to maroon Kashmir, her only friend (and perhaps, only love) in a time where Nix will never be able to find him. And if Nix has learned one thing, it's that losing the person you love is a torment that no one can withstand. Nix must work out what she wants, who she is, and where she really belongs before time runs out on her forever. From Goodreads.

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