Review: Kingmakers by Sophie Lark
Kingmakers , a saga written by Sophie Lark, is the perfect mix of both thriller and romance, brought to life by the characters Anna Wilks and Leo Gallo.
Anna and Leo have been friends since childhood, due to their families being mafiosos in their respective regions. Upon their eighteenth birthday, they are sent to a classified school hardwired for training mafiosos, called Kingmakers. This school is defined by harsh discipline and a relentless work ethic, but each student attending has a drive unlike any average adolescent.
However, there is no guarantee of surviving school – there is always a possibility of death during the activities and hostility from competing students. Kingmakers follows Anna and Leo as they try to maintain their relationship, and perhaps more, while battling other students and surviving their cut-throat school.
This saga was a blend of thriller and romance like no other. While there were elements of a romantic relationship between characters, there was still a grander plot guiding the story and making it exciting for non-romance lovers. I enjoyed it greatly as the characters were very precise and disciplined, unlike unnecessarily flawed characters in other books whose authors so desperately try to make them relatable.
Another element I enjoyed was the exciting dangers that were consistently being thrown at all characters. There truly was no dull moment, and I feel as if the author was trying to display how the world keeps moving and does not stop for you; therefore, do not get caught up in your own life and forget what is around you.
While I truly enjoyed this book, some parts seemed rather unnecessary. Between mafia families, there is expected to be rivalry; however, some characters were rivals just to be rivals, and oftentimes, such rivalries did nothing to move the plot along. Some characters were mentioned once with a long paragraph of sheer hatred towards the main characters, and then were never mentioned again. This confused me at some points, as at random moments a new character was introduced and another would be forgotten. Despite this, this saga was very enticing and easy to read once the characters were fully introduced.
While this saga may be fiction, some elements of the book are educational and beneficial for adolescents to learn.
The characters in Kingmakers display resilience, discipline, strength, and courage. Each character has their own flair, but ultimately, they strive to be their strongest self, showing great discipline and perseverance. Youths nowadays lack discipline and often indulge in pleasure after quitting a difficult project or activity. Reading this saga would not only be interesting, but also inspire adolescents to mimic the actions of the characters, pasting their traits into their own.
Another lesson gleaned from Kingmakers is the ability to withstand immense pressure and pain. Leo is often subjected to pressure, as he is the top-ranked student in all physical and most academic tests. Yet despite all this, he still manages to persevere and stand firm, as in his head he is not breakable. If adolescents adopted this trait or mimicked it, the world would have a tougher, more resilient incoming generation, one that can withstand any obstacle thrown at them with composure.
While some readers argue romance sagas are non-educational, I disagree, as Kingmakers sets ideal standards for young adults through its characters, a hopeful line inspiring young adults to adopt these traits. Related
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New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
They Were Enemies in War. Now Their Grandkids Are in Love.
THE SCRAPBOOK, by Heather Clark Germany's cultural identity was spoiled by fascism. Some of its most transcendent contributions to literature, music and the arts are mistrusted now, as coming from a country that, for a dozen years, was led by a ranting authoritarian who scapegoated a socially vulnerable group, locked up its members in slave labor camps without due process (much as America is locking up undocumented immigrants today in CECOT, a forced-labor prison in El Salvador), and went on to organize their deaths. 'The Scrapbook,' the first novel by Heather Clark, the author of a well-received biography of Sylvia Plath, imagines a love affair shadowed by the Holocaust two generations later. It's 1996, and Anna, an American senior at Harvard, falls for Christoph, a blond German with an archaic torso, a fencing scar on his left temple and a somewhat flickering attentiveness. Early on, Anna and Christoph realize that their grandfathers had fought on opposite sides in World War II: Hers was one of the first Allied soldiers to help liberate the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, and to arrive at Hitler's mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden. She treasures a scrapbook of his photos. In an author's note, Clark writes that her own grandfather's wartime photos are collected in a similar scrapbook. Christoph's two grandfathers, meanwhile, served in the German Army (the Wehrmacht, not the S.S., he emphasizes), though one was a teenager drafted in the war's final days and the other deserted and joined the Resistance in 1943 — or so Christoph claims to believe. After an initial idyll in Anna's Harvard dorm, the romance shifts to Germany, where Christoph shows Anna not only Dachau and Berchtesgaden but also Nuremberg's Palace of Justice, where Nazi officials were tried after the war; the Black Forest, which makes her think of 'witches and gingerbread'; and the Christmas market in Hamburg, where the glühwein inspires her to wonder, 'What had I done to deserve such happiness?' As Christoph tutors her in German history and philosophy ('Have you read Habermas?' he quizzes), she low-key tries to figure out how complicit his family was with Nazi crimes. Were the impressive 19th-century antiques in his parents' music room plundered from Jewish families? Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Chicago Tribune
11 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
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Los Angeles Times
11 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Review: Kingmakers by Sophie Lark
Kingmakers , a saga written by Sophie Lark, is the perfect mix of both thriller and romance, brought to life by the characters Anna Wilks and Leo Gallo. Anna and Leo have been friends since childhood, due to their families being mafiosos in their respective regions. Upon their eighteenth birthday, they are sent to a classified school hardwired for training mafiosos, called Kingmakers. This school is defined by harsh discipline and a relentless work ethic, but each student attending has a drive unlike any average adolescent. However, there is no guarantee of surviving school – there is always a possibility of death during the activities and hostility from competing students. Kingmakers follows Anna and Leo as they try to maintain their relationship, and perhaps more, while battling other students and surviving their cut-throat school. This saga was a blend of thriller and romance like no other. While there were elements of a romantic relationship between characters, there was still a grander plot guiding the story and making it exciting for non-romance lovers. I enjoyed it greatly as the characters were very precise and disciplined, unlike unnecessarily flawed characters in other books whose authors so desperately try to make them relatable. Another element I enjoyed was the exciting dangers that were consistently being thrown at all characters. There truly was no dull moment, and I feel as if the author was trying to display how the world keeps moving and does not stop for you; therefore, do not get caught up in your own life and forget what is around you. While I truly enjoyed this book, some parts seemed rather unnecessary. Between mafia families, there is expected to be rivalry; however, some characters were rivals just to be rivals, and oftentimes, such rivalries did nothing to move the plot along. Some characters were mentioned once with a long paragraph of sheer hatred towards the main characters, and then were never mentioned again. This confused me at some points, as at random moments a new character was introduced and another would be forgotten. Despite this, this saga was very enticing and easy to read once the characters were fully introduced. While this saga may be fiction, some elements of the book are educational and beneficial for adolescents to learn. The characters in Kingmakers display resilience, discipline, strength, and courage. Each character has their own flair, but ultimately, they strive to be their strongest self, showing great discipline and perseverance. Youths nowadays lack discipline and often indulge in pleasure after quitting a difficult project or activity. Reading this saga would not only be interesting, but also inspire adolescents to mimic the actions of the characters, pasting their traits into their own. Another lesson gleaned from Kingmakers is the ability to withstand immense pressure and pain. Leo is often subjected to pressure, as he is the top-ranked student in all physical and most academic tests. Yet despite all this, he still manages to persevere and stand firm, as in his head he is not breakable. If adolescents adopted this trait or mimicked it, the world would have a tougher, more resilient incoming generation, one that can withstand any obstacle thrown at them with composure. While some readers argue romance sagas are non-educational, I disagree, as Kingmakers sets ideal standards for young adults through its characters, a hopeful line inspiring young adults to adopt these traits. Related
