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Sidekick Super Review: The Thirteenth Child (2025) by Erin A. Craig
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
The Basics
Page Length: 512
Audiobook Length: ~16.5 hours
Grade Reading Level: 7+
Target Audience Age: 14+
Goodreads Score: 4.03 out of 5
Buy it HERE
Setting: Fictional kingdom, Martissienes. Some settings in rural countryside, some in court, and some in the "in between" (between the world of mortals and the Gods)
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Topics: Gods/Goddesses, Fate, Medicine and Healing, Death, Royalty, Destiny, Poverty, Magic, Family
Plot: Hazel is the unlucky thirteenth child of a poor family. On the night of her birth, her parents are visited by the gods, and one of them—The Dreaded End—claims Hazel as his own, promising to make her a great healer. And then… he disappears. Left behind with her alcoholic parents and siblings, Hazel is treated terribly—after all, she is not truly their child to care for. She grows up sleeping in the barn, surviving on scraps after the other twelve children have eaten.
On her twelfth birthday, her godfather finally returns to collect her. He whisks her away to a beautiful cottage filled with wonderful things—especially books on medicine and healing. For years, Hazel studies and trains, learning everything she can. In time, she is given a powerful gift: when she touches a patient, she can see exactly what they need to be cured—or she sees the deathshead, a sign that their fate is sealed. The gods intend for them to die.
Hazel soon realizes that this gift is truly a curse—a burden that forces her to carry out the gods’ will or suffer the consequences. Every decision she makes—who lives and who dies—ripples outward in ways she cannot control. For every life she saves, she is haunted—literally—by the ghosts of those she has been forced to kill.
When she is summoned to the royal court to heal a king suffering from a mysterious plague, Hazel faces her most difficult choice yet: follow her own sense of right and wrong, or obey the will of the gods. But is either path truly right? Who will suffer because of her decision? And will her chance at love vanish along with the king’s life? Caught between court politics, her heart, and the demands of the gods, Hazel must navigate impossible choices with devastating consequences.
Themes: Life and death ethics, fate vs. free will, class inequality, blood family vs. found family, the cost of power, superstition and belief, sacrifice
You might like this book if you like:
Gothic/fantasy vibes
Folklore and mythology
Books like: Divine Rivals, One Dark Window, The Black Witch, Belladonna, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Gilded
Shows like: Grimm, The Sandman, Once Upon a Time, The Witcher, Carnival Row
Movies like: Snow White and the Huntsman, The Green Knight, Crimson Peak, Pan's Labyrinth
Other books written by this author: House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of the Salt series), Small Favors, Together, Apart
Teaching The Thirteenth Child in Class
Content
Language: Rare, very little
Sex/Romance: A little. There are romances between many characters. There is some passionate kissing, and one small section of more "graphic" descriptions. There is also some sexual innuendo.
Violence/Scariness: Quite a bit. The main character is a healer, so there are lots of descriptions of patients' injuries/illnesses. There is death, murder, beheadings, and self-mutilation. There are ghosts and hauntings. Parents mistreat/neglect a child.
Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: There is a lot of drinking in this book. The protagonist's parents are neglectful alcoholics. Other characters partake in celebratory drinking/smoking occasionally.
Class Novel-ability:
This would not make a good class novel. First, it is far too long. Additionally, the content is quite mature, dark, and potentially unsettling for a classroom setting. The heavy fantasy elements also may not appeal to a broad class audience, as it is especially suited for readers who already enjoy the genre. However, I personally loved this book, and I believe many other students would as well. It has the potential to deepen a love of reading for fantasy fans or even spark that interest in someone new to the genre.
The Star Qualities
This is the perfect dark fairy tale. It has romance, kings and queens, and gods and goddesses—but these are the gods of death and chaos. The king is infected with a deadly plague, and the lovers are burdened with evil parents and powers that doom nearly every decision they make. It’s intriguing, gothic, and a perfect blend of Brothers Grimm–style storytelling with fresh, unique fantasy elements.
This truly feels like a unique fantasy. Some stories in the genre can feel trite and repetitive, but not this one. Both the storyline and the characters stand out as original. It doesn’t feel like a repeat of anything else I’ve read. Instead, it delivers all the fantasy elements we know and love while telling a story that is completely its own.
The author has several other fantasy books that students can dive into if they enjoy this one. She also has a popular bestselling series that fantasy lovers will definitely appreciate. If your students get hooked, there’s plenty more for them to explore!
Book Talk Read Aloud Section
If you have the physical book, read pages 1- middle of page 6 (through the 4th paragraph, "Me.")
If you don't, read the same pages in the Kindle reading sample here.
"Reading Like a Writer" Mentor Texts
The author does a really good job of creating drama through the way she structures her writing. She uses a lot of paragraph breaks and short sentence fragments, which slow the reader down and make certain moments stand out more. It adds intensity and makes the emotions feel stronger. You can see this clearly in all of these passages. It’s an easily imitated technique that I think students need to learn.
This first passage also uses repetition, symbolism, juxtaposition, and alliteration. Working together with the paragraph breaks and short, dramatic fragments, this creates a very melancholic tone. Students could pull so many different craft moves from this passage to recreate in their own writing.
This next passage also uses repetition and parallel structure really effectively. It includes a dramatic ellipsis as well. When you pair those strategies with the paragraph breaks and sentence fragments, it creates an extremely dramatic and powerful effect.
This final passage is one of my favorites in the whole book. The imagery and sensory details are amazing—you can see the colors, hear the music, and feel the disorienting, almost dreamlike atmosphere. This passage also has tons of figurative language, including similes, metaphors, and personification that really bring the scene to life in the reader’s mind. There are a lot of strong craft moves here for students to learn from and analyze.
Sentences for Combining and Imitation
Sentence sets for combining:
"I knew I was staring, knew my mouth was open, hanging agape, knew I needed to say something–a salutation, a greeting, anything–but I found it impossible to form words." (p. 42)
I knew I was staring.
I knew my mouth was open.
I knew it was hanging agape.
I knew I needed to say something.
I needed to say a salutation.
I needed to say a greeting.
I needed to say anything.
I found it impossible to say words.
"My fingers trembled, brushing vials of foxglove and hemlock, oleander and castor bean, and my heart thudded painfully in my chest, beating faster and faster until I could feel it in my throat, creeping higher and higher as the room spun about me. (p. 259)
My fingers trembled.
They were brushing vials of foxglove and hemlock.
They were brushing vials of oleander and castor bean.
My heart thudded painfully in my chest.
It was beating faster and faster.
I could feel it in my throat.
It was creeping higher and higher.
The room spun about me.
"The servants were doing their best to keep everyone comfortable, passing out folded fans and flavored ices, but the air held too much tension and the desserts were left abandoned, melting into colorful messes that dotted the table linens and drew flies." (p. 391)
The servants were doing their best to keep everyone comfortable.
They were passing out folded fans.
They were passing out flavored ices.
But the air held too much tension.
The desserts were left abandoned.
They were melting into colorful messes.
They were messes that dotted the table linens.
They were messes that drew flies.
Sentences for Imitation:
"Since Bertie had been taken away–taken away screaming and crying, his face full of tears and snots and stop thinking of that, Hazel–five of my other siblings had left home too: Genevieve, Armand, Emmeline, Josephine, and Didier, gone in quick succession." (p. 36)
"We couldn’t go on like this, slicing each other with daggered confessions so sharp the cuts weren’t felt until the blood began to fall.” (p. 384)
"Ninety-nine years sounded so vast and yet was nothing: a wisp of breath, a flutter of moments, the hiss of a candle's flame." (p. 491)
Used this book in your classroom? Tell us how in the comments!
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