The Cassandra Curse (Muse Squad #1) by Chantel Acevedo.
Balzer & Bray, HarperCollins, New York, 2020.
MG fantasy, 360 pages.
Lexile: 650L .
AR Level: 4.6 (worth 12.0) .
Weird things have been happening to Calliope Martinez-Silva (call her Callie, please). She has a terrifying accident, her best friend transforms into a pop star, then she’s informed that she’s one of the nine Muses and a portal sends her to another country. It’s a lot for an eleven-year old! Thankfully there are some other young Muses too, which is timely because with her best friend unrecognizable, Callie needs some backup.
This book has so much going on. There’s the usual tween intrigue, but made bearable thanks to the magical and mystery aspects. There’s learning to be a muse, and all the different muses from around the world who each have specific powers and callings, and the many many people in Callie’s life and whom she meets on her adventures.
There’s also some family plotlines. Callie lives with her mother and two older twin brothers – their parents are divorced and her father moved to New York City with his new wife, who has some big news to share with them. I appreciated how sensibly this part was handled. Callie and her brothers aren’t happy their parents split, but don’t hate their stepmom either.
Their mom handles the situation appropriately, talking with them and keeping the lines of communication open. She never vilifies their dad or shuts down their feelings. It was hard to get a read on how their dad handled things given that he’s physically absent for the entire book and that the awkwardness between them is part of the plot, but he seems to be calling and keeping aware of major events in her life. The second book takes place in New York, so I assume that Callie’s father and stepmother will play a larger role then.
I’m curious how Acevedo will wrap this because it feels like the starter to a longer series. At the same time, knowing this was advertised as a duology had me more excited to read it. It’s nice to see diverse standalones and duologies in the MG market alongside the longer series!
Turning to the cover – I’ve never been so pleased and dismayed simultaneously. Having only two books to review spurred me to read this, but the cover didn’t draw me in. Having read the book, Jonathan Stroh definitely picked up details from the story – Thalia’s special shoes, Mela’s love of cats and constant headphones, the charms the girls have.
But he struggles with the skin tones and Nia’s hair, and the color balance on the whole front is off. I love detailed backgrounds, but the setting here shouldn’t pop more than the girls. Mela gets no highlighting and fades into the background while it’s difficult to tell that Thalia is white. The color scheme, the idea to make the girls subtly glow, the story-specific bits are lovely, but the execution is off.
If this were in a library I worked at, I’d remove the cover. The book underneath is vibrant pink, and I wish I’d had this for kids waiting on Aru Shah releases. Although the content, cultures, and characters are very different, students who enjoyed the group of girls in that series should like this as well.
The book opens with just Cuban-American Callie and her best friend, Venezuelan-American Raquel, who both live in Miami. Before long Callie meets the other junior muses, or as British Thalia calls them, the “muse squad.” Black Chicagoan Nia loves NASA and is allergic to cats, while Mela from New Delhi adores cats. Callie’s deceased aunt Annie Martinez is also in the mix as she taught Callie everything she remembers about poetry, grammar, and Greek mythology.
Spoilers this paragraph. Back in Callie’s routine life is an intelligent but unpopular girl named Maya Rivero who ends up playing a role in Callie’s very first muse mission. There’s also a decent cast of fellow students and teachers to surveil as Callie and friends try to determine which ones are evil in disguise.
Acevedo leaves plenty of clues and a few red herrings so that readers have a chance of following along with Callie as she tries to solve the various mysteries before here. At times, those clues were seeded a bit too heavily for this adult reader, but I think they were perfect for the intended audience.
This book has a fair amount of peril – nearly falling from a commuter train, an amusement park ride gone wrong, attacks from birds and other creatures, some blunt force trauma, an attempted poisoning, various curses, evil shapeshifters, and a veiled reference to suicide. Callie’s aunt died from cancer, and that’s also mentioned in the book.
The girls also sometimes leave class or school to investigate, and they are of course traveling magically and fighting evil without their parents knowing. Routine bullying from both children and teachers also occurs, but is typically called out within the text. Two characters are in foster/kinship care, and without discussing in depth (spoilers) that is handled beautifully and was an unexpected surprise. Callie and Nia are from different Christian denominations, and a few other religions are mentioned, but barely.
An exciting fresh take on classic mythology. Recommended.
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