A Review of The Mother's Wheel
Will love or hate rule? Who, in the end, can you count on as family when you are the only one of your kind? Their destinies entwined, Sil, Dinitra, and Fir reunite and must choose between each other and the worlds they once called their own.
Plot
The Mother’s Wheel is the third and final book in Robin Kirk’s The Bond Trilogy. And while I was so sad for this unique series to end, I was certainly not disappointed. The plot is fast-paced and gripping. Once I was a couple of chapters in, I found myself unable to put the book down. And the author had plenty of loose ends to tie up from the previous two books, but she managed it beautifully. Fans of the series will be completely satisfied as they turn the last page.
Characters
While book one was in Dinitra’s point of view and book two was in Fir’s point of view, this book shifts perspective to a mutant named Sil, an extremely intelligent amphibious girl who is desperate to find a place for herself and her friends in the world. Sil was by far my favorite narrator of the series. While she is the least “human”, she was the most relatable to me and had a beautiful way of thinking that made her a joy to follow. We also meet a large cast of new characters who follow the author’s theme of being morally complex and compelling.
Setting
Due to the main character of this book being a mutant, someone few characters from the previous books would spend time with, we get the chance to explore some previously unmentioned areas of The Bond’s world. And through these new places, we see the previous parts of the world learned about in Books One and Two in a new light. And the author has beautiful descriptions that make the reader feel as if they’re sitting right in the tree tops with Sil or fighting on the battlefield with Dinitra.
My Recommendation
In the epic conclusion to her The Bond Trilogy, Kirk weaves nail-biting tension with poetic prose that will make any YA Fantasy fan swoon. This book cements the concept of the series as a whole as a reflection of what it means to “belong” to the world, to a group, to another person. At it’s core, this book and others before it are a beautiful study of human and “not-so-human” nature.