Children of Daedala by Caighlan Smith (review)

In this sequel to 2016's Children of Icarus, a nameless protagonist must navigate warring factions of teens thrust into a labyrinth to fend for themselves, all while struggling with the memories of being exiled from one of these factions when she was a little girl. The protagonist recounts her complicated history in Fates, the faction to which she belonged, as well as her experiences after being sent away to die, which left her distrustful yet self-sufficient. When Kleos and Harmonia—the warring all-male and all-female factions, respectively—are implicated in an attack on a Fates base, she infiltrates both groups to uncover the truth and save those in Fates to whom she is still loyal. Although the novel's setting, story, and mythological source material are noticeably reminiscent of Percy Jackson or the Maze Runner series, Smith is frequently not as effective in balancing the conflicts between groups or the threat of the labyrinth itself—its supposedly menacing beasts and inherently stifling geography—with the romantic averted eye contact, hand holding, and blushing. The young characters' feelings remain overemphasized yet underdeveloped even as the unwieldy amount of triple agents and double-crosses make those feelings even more knotty. Still, like the first book in the series, this installment ends with some much-needed closure but manages to leave the door open for continued adventure. WJ