Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

My Rating: ★★★★

Blanca and Roja del Cisne have grown up knowing that one of them will eventually be claimed by the swans. Roja knows she’s been marked by the swans since birth, but Blanca has spent her life trying to prevent either of them from being claimed. Thinking they cheated the swans, fate has finally come to make its claim. Split by lies and sibling rivalry, the sisters still fight to save the other. However, fate has other plans, and two local boys are about to get mixed up in a blood curse they don’t have a full handle on.

I picked up this book and quickly became absorbed in McLemore’s beautiful retelling of Snow-White and Rose-Red and Swan Lake. Told in rotating perspectives, the story focuses on two sisters, Blanca and Roja, who were born to be rivals. However, Blanca has tried her best to make sure that they appeared similar enough that the swans wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. I really felt for the sisters and how much they cared for each other. As much as the blood curse tries to split them up, they both fight like hell to save one another from the curse that has claimed so many woman in their family.

I also understand the natural rivalry between the two and really felt for Roja, who has never been the chosen one while Blanca’s light hair and complexion has everyone in the palm of her hand. It’s easy for the rivalry between the two to finally split them up once Blanca starts lying. As the sister everyone always favored, she has no idea that they’ve always been unintentional rivals in ways that aren’t related to their blood curse. Unfortunately, I know their unintentional rivalry before the blood curse comes into play from experience, so I knew exactly what Roja went through as the sister who was never chosen based on appearances alone.

My only complaint about Blanca and Roja’s story is that so much of it could’ve been resolved if they just talked. For sisters who have always been so close, I found it hard to believe that Blanca wouldn’t have come clean sooner rather than later. Of course, that would’ve made the story take a different direction, but I kept wondering how close they really were if Blanca didn’t think her sister and best friend wouldn’t notice that something was wrong in an instant. Close or not, siblings know when one of them is lying about something right away, and Blanca is a smart character. She would know this.

Right as the swans appear to claim the sister of their choosing, two missing boys from their town return from living as various entities in the forest and are taken in by the del Cisne sisters. It’s clear that Yearling is hiding something huge, and no longer under the protection of the forest, he takes refuge with Blanca. His story is filled with shame, anger, and the need to become invisible. I wasn’t sure where his story was going for a while, and I must admit that I was a bit confused during his early chapters, but it starts to take shape and take us on a wild ride. I also wasn’t expecting his storyline to end the way it did, especially because I thought his family had some sort of fight club going on with him and his cousin as constant contenders.

Page, the other missing boy, is misunderstood by his family and peers. As a transgender boy who goes by he/him and she/her, very few people in his small town understand him. He finds himself among peers who accept him without question and finds the love of his life, Blanca. I love Page and how much insight he has. Part of his friendship is Yearling thinking he’s protecting Page, but as the story goes on, Page reveals that they have been helping and protecting each other all along even though Yearling never realized it. I also felt bad for him because as much as his parents love him, he knows they don’t understand him, and it makes him dread the idea of returning home. Thankfully, his story is one of acceptance and I was happy with how his storyline ended.

The romance plots are both beautiful and sad with the sisters fighting to figure out how to save one another and how these two boys fit into that picture. Blanca and Page only have eyes for each other while Roja fights her feelings for Yearling. The romance is intertwined with the blood curse and quickly becomes important to the primary plot. I love that both romance plots are organic to the story and do not make any of the characters suddenly lose themselves like they do in many young adult novels.

I love the story and the characters. I just wish that the ending was different because it left me asking where the next chapter was since it doesn’t truly feel like an ending. Otherwise, it’s a wonderful story and I can’t wait to check out more of McLemore’s work.