Crown of Coral and Pearl by Mara Rutherford

It was, at least, a setting unlike others I’ve encountered, and it’s also where the relationship between the two sisters and the impact of their beauty-obsessed culture on the village’s girls is explored. And in the dark, forbidding castle, Nor learns more about the kingdom and its past-and its ties to problems that have been developing in her village.Īlthough I never found the worldbuilding convincing, I did rather like the image of the ocean village with stilt-legged houses sitting above the water and boats drifting between buildings and out to sea so residents could dive for dinner or pearls to sell. Zadie is indeed selected to marry the next king, but after she is injured, Nor is given some cream to use to cover her scar and sent in the guise of her twin. Although the two are practically identical in appearance, Nor has had a visible scar since the day she saved her sister from drowning and had a face-first brush with some blood coral. But no one leaves their home-except for the one chosen to wed the prince once every generation, and everyone knows that girl will be her beautiful twin sister, Zadie. This YA fantasy novel is told from the first person perspective of Nor, who dreams of one day seeing more of the world than her ocean village.

The opening lines quoted above made me curious about the two sisters mentioned, and although I never found it to be an especially immersive book, it was easy to focus on despite my difficulty concentrating (even if I did end up thinking the first part was better than the second and didn’t find it all that memorable overall). I read Crown of Coral and Pearl, Mara Rutherford’s first novel, around the time I first started struggling to get into any books a few months ago because, you know, 2020. In its natural form, it can hardly be considered beautiful at all. But whereas a pearl is prized for its luster, its shape, its lack of imperfections, coral is different. Both precious to our people, both beautiful enough to adorn the necks of queens. Sometimes I wonder if it was our names that determined our fates, or the other way around.

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Crown of Coral and Pearl by Mara Rutherford