2019 Imaginales YA Award Winner: "Les Guerriers de Glace"

Estelle Faye wins the Imaginales Fantasy YA Award with Les Guerriers de glace (2018)!

So, I’ve only just heard of this YA award, and I can’t find what other titles were on the shortlist, but the choice of this novel as best YA fantasy surprises me.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice enough, but I was the only one to root for this novel on another YA award committee and the other librarians disliked it so much that it didn’t even make it to the shortlist.

So, here are some of my (non-exhaustive and entirely subjective) pros and cons:

PROS:

• The story takes place in a medieval, Scandinavian-like setting. Which is a personal favorite of mine.

• The mystery of the soldier with amnesia who may or may not be the hero’s long-lost brother is never resolved. I love this because, even though this is targeted at children, the author doesn’t take the easy way out: she creates a sense frustration that the reader has to learn to accept.

• The friendship and loyalty (et plus si affinités?) between the two main characters is very sweet.

• The red touches in the illustrations.

CONS:

• The book looks a bit like a “school” edition.

• The ending is a bit rushed and the explanation of who the “guerriers” actually are is underwhelming

• To me, this belongs to the realm of children’s literature and not YA. I would recommend it for readers who are around 10.

But I’d still recommend it. It’s cute!

On a different note, I will be attending the festival who is behind this award this coming weekend! Can’t wait to see what they have in store for us!

Until then, happy readin'!

Illustration by Nancy Peña (from her blog).

#MiddleAges #Fantasy