Discussion Post for Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore & Elliott McLemore
Editor’s Note: Hi everyone, it’s your host, @LibraryOfDreaming. I want to apologize for the lack of updates here on the website. Once again, I’ve been going through some intense health issues and I just haven’t had the capacity to update the website the way I would like. I’m hoping to get back in the groove but in the meantime the best way to keep up with all our book club’s news is to follow me over on Instagram. I’m going to do some housekeeping around here to catch you all up on some old updates. Happy Reading!
[ID: A dark green book cover with an illustration of the back of a person's head with three daggers sticking in their dark braided hair. A brown hand reaches for the top dagger where a mysterious person's silhouette is reflected in dark red. The book sits on a gray woden floor on a bed of loose book pages surrounded by book page confetti and light green eucalyptus leaves. A silver, dagger with a curved blade and a brown wooden handle sits to the right of the book with a bronze, green, and pearl brooch balanced on the handle.]
The #ChronicallyIconicBookClub’s March read was VENOM & VOW by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore!
Summary:
Two enemy kingdoms are forced to work together to break a curse in this lush YA fantasy, featuring a transgender prince and a bigender dama/assassin in the lead roles.
Cade McKenna is a transgender prince who’s doubling for his brother.
Valencia Palafox is a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana.
Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect.
Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, and the prince Gael has vowed to destroy.
Cade doesn’t know that Gael and Valencia are the same person.
Valencia doesn’t know that every time she thinks she’s fighting Patrick, she’s fighting Cade.
And when Cade and Valencia blame each other for a devastating enchantment that takes both their families, neither of them realizes that they have far more dangerous enemies.
Cowritten by married writing team Anna-Marie and Elliott McLemore, Venom & Vow is a lush and powerful YA novel about owning your power and becoming who you really are - no matter the cost.
I (@LibraryOfDreaming) really enjoyed the chronic pain and cane user rep in this one. It felt so wonderful to see these kinds of characters in a lush fantasy world! But I did have a few quibbles with the plot and the last quarter of the book.
The rest of the group also loved the queer, trans, gender-fluid, bigender, and nonbinary representation especially with characters who also had chronic pain. The fight and dance scenes were definitely my favorite and we all commented how immersive and fun they were. The disability rep felt incredibly lived-in and real. You could really tell that it was based on personal experience.
Unfortunately, we all wanted a bit more from the world-building. It had a lush, high fantasy setting but sometimes we felt like the political side was underdeveloped. A few people felt like the ending (especially the resolution to Cade’s arc) was too ambiguous and would’ve liked to see it expanded on more.
Discussion Questions:
What did you think of this book? (How many stars did you rate it?)
What was your favorite part of the book?
What was your least favorite part?
What did you think about the disability rep in this book?
What did you think about Val and his/her development throughout the book?
What did you think about Cade and his journey throughout the book?
What did you think about the setting and fantasy elements of this book?
What did you think about the romance?
What do you think about the resolution of the mystery/the curse?
Was there anything you wish was different/anything about the book you would like to change?