Rutabaga's Reads 2025: Part 17

My third young-adult (YA) compilation post for this year features The Gilded Wolves trilogy. Prior to this YA set, I’d only read middle-grade books written by the author.

The Gilded Wolves (Jan. 15, 2019) by Roshani Chokshi.

<This is the first novel in a trilogy.>

The wealthy hotelier of L’Eden is a treasure seeker, heir of House Vanth, which was declared a dead line 10 years ago. Séverin Montagnet-Alarie wants his House back. In order to reclaim his birthright, he needs the Babel Fragment for the Order of Babel. To help him is a diverse group of rapscallions: Laila is an Indian cabaret dancer whose ability to read unforged objects that she touches has a sinister backstory, Zofia is a Jewish engineer kicked out of university for being Jewish with a Forging affinity for solid matter (mostly metals and crystals), Tristan Maréchal is Séverin’s brother-in-arms with a Forging affinity for liquid matter (specifically, that present in plants) who has an enormous pet tarantula named Goliath, and Enrique Mercado-Lopez is a Filipino historian banished from his home who wishes he could Forge, but no ability manifested by his thirteenth birthday. Helping with the heist is Hypnos, patriarch of House Nyx, the son of Haitian slaves and a French aristocrat, who, for all of his handsome bluster, really could use some good friends. They’re going to pull off a grand heist that’ll place them all in danger.  They need the Horus Eye, which mysterious rival Roux-Joubert does not want them to have, but to find the Fragment, they will need to locate Fallen House’s meeting place, and no one knew of it even before it was Fallen and had an actual name. Séverin wants the Fragment to become patriarch of the House he grew up in, but the Fragment can wield unimaginable power. Perhaps, even, the power of godhood, but they might lose themselves and break the world in the process.

            Having read Chokshi’s six middle-grade novels from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, I decided I was overdue to try one of her YA novels. The first in The Gilded Wolves trilogy is a YA fantasy with an alternate, magical history that’s tantalizingly dark yet extravagant, multiethnic and inclusive. It’s a confection of sumptuous prose, glittering (mis)adventure and dazzling imagination. The story is evocative and immersive, the characters devilishly charming, and the writing smartly takes on colonialism and cultural appropriation without bogging the story down. We’ve got societal outcasts saving the world, and I expect it’s going to be epic.

            Favorite line: “Secrets keep my hair lustrous.” --Séverin, p. 13

The Silvered Serpents (Sept. 22, 2020) by Roshani Chokshi.

<This is the middle novel in a trilogy.>

<Alert: Potential spoilers ahead.>

The Fallen House has been thwarted, but it’s come at a terrible price. It haunts all of them, Séverin most of all. He’s obsessed with finding The Divine Lyrics, a legendary book which would grant him immortality and godlike powers. Laila seeks it also, but she’s kept her true reason for wanting it a secret. They all think the garnet ring Zofia Forged for her is counting down the days until her birthday, which it is, but it’s way more than that. Séverin, Laila (acting as his mistress), Enrique (a historian), Zofia and Hypnos (House Nyx patriarch) miraculously calculate the coordinates of the Sleeping Palace near Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia. They go with Delphine Desrosiers, matriarch of House Kore, Ruslan Goryunov the Bald, patriarch of House Dazbog, which historically trades “in secrets and parchment,” and Eva Yefremovna, “blood Forging artist of impeccable skill” and Ruslan’s cousin. The Sleeping Palace is a near-forgotten mansion of crystalline, ice-Forged animals, broken Muses, mutilated statues without hands and a string of unsolved murders. Secrets are carried by ghosts of the past, and they’re coming to light. The path is gilded with diamonds and treasure, but it’s also inlaid with freezing cold and booby traps.

            The middle novel in The Gilded Wolves trilogy is alluringly dark and dangerous, exquisitely grand and glamorous. The center YA fantasy is a complex filling of smart writing, detailed worldbuilding and epic plotting, making what could be thorny and overwhelming into a story that’s fluid and graceful, even in its horrific moments. Chokshi doesn’t simply place words on the pages willy-nilly, but with the distinct skill of an artisan. It is sleek and diverse, but beware, it’s sometimes bloody, too.

The Bronzed Beasts (Sept. 21, 2021) by Roshani Chokshi.

<This is the final novel in a trilogy.>

<Alert: Potential spoilers ahead.>

Godhood is coming, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie can feel it, but the group is fractured. Séverin has seemingly betrayed his friends: Enrique Mercado-Lopez, Hypnos Leclair, Zofia Boguska and Laila. Laila thinks the others are dead until they stir to life, and Hypnos’ face falls when he sees the Mnemo bug smashed. Without those clues, they must locate Delphine Desrosiers’ safe house and wend their way through the twisted waterways of Venice on their own. They will find each other, Séverin is determined that this will be so. He’s in possession of the Divine Lyre, and he’s balancing the unhinged whims of Ruslan Goryunov, Patriarch of the Fallen House. They know that the location of the temple where the Divine Lyre can be played is Poveglia (a.k.a. Plague Island), but they don’t know how to access the temple. Laila’s time is winding down. 10 days and counting and already there are times where she can’t feel – not the breath in her, sometimes not even a cut deep enough to cause blood to course down her arm. There are gondola rides on the canal, cemeteries, hidden masquerade balls (courtesy of House Janus), explosions (courtesy of Zofia), siren skeleton songs and shining ziggurat steps. There’s making and unmaking, possible remaking, and there’s always a price to pay.

            Readers return to the darkly alluring, intriguing world in the final installment in The Gilded Wolves trilogy. It’s a beautiful YA fantasy with sparkles and blood, elegance and manipulation, love and angst, mythology and realism, fantastical truths and harsh realities. “The Bronzed Beasts” wraps up a dazzling and dangerous treasure hunt with clues, introspection, history, diversity and inclusion. There’s colorism and its lasting effects on their characters, though readers see that all of these main characters are beloved and worthy of love. To immerse oneself in this trilogy is to have one’s heart wrenched, feel the enduring power of emotion and laugh aloud at Hypnos’ comic relief. What a compelling farewell to a masterfully-imagined, thoughtful fantasy series.