The Rebellious Earthling: Tale of The Turquoise Mirror

Andi Hayes depicts a hellish alternative setting to Earth in her archetypal, crowd-pleasing fantasy novel. The Rebellious Earthling: Tale of The Turquoise Mirror is a story of an evil underworld set on the planet Tartarus, where an innocent goblin race is seduced and infected, mutating into the grotesque, malevolent population of trolls who serve the demonic fallen angels in the Land of Turquoise. Hayes uses the infectious bite from the demon-like overlords, who spread a wildfire of depravity, as a beautiful allegory for the sin and evil that corrupts those of weak moral constitutions. She skillfully develops this concept by using the infection to represent the depraved aspects of human nature that both society and morality dictate must be repressed, and the subsequent struggle to achieve this.

This book has many of the features of dark fantasy, and ultimately, it is an archaic fantasy story that incorporates classic fantasy tropes whilst also retaining various features of fairy tales, such as the helpless and hyperbolic heroine and the sexualized antihero.

Andi Hayes conjures many captivating descriptions and employs elaborate imagery that creates a fantastical picture of the setting. It is evident that each word, sentence, and phrase has been carefully selected, and Hayes undeniably gives as much depth and purpose in the vernacular choices that she makes. Unfortunately, Hayes could be accused of over deliberation in trying to make her sentences as eloquent as possible, leaving some of her sentences with the feel that each individual word has been replaced with a synonym from a thesaurus. As a result, many over-articulate words have been crammed into sentences where less would suffice to meet the delicate simplicity required for the narrative. Moreover, Hayes struggles with genre tropes in moments, particularly where consistency of language is concerned, as she flits from colloquial- to archaic-language styles without sufficient justification. However, there is ample compensation as the narrative is deliciously violent and gruesome, a definite crowd-pleaser for lovers of gore and repulsive depictions. Hayes’ torture stories are used to great effect as they specify the level of evil that grips Tartarus so that we can feel genuine disgust toward the quantifiable extent of the sin, rather than relying on rudimentary terms of wickedness.

Ultimately, The Rebellious Earthling: Tale of The Turquoise Mirror is a delightfully dark story that carefully maintains an enjoyable fairytale-esque quality that makes the story an enjoyable and effortless read.