Quick Take
- Narration: Vico Ortiz, a non-binary Puerto Rican actor, is ideal casting for a protagonist whose identity sits at the intersection of gender exploration and hidden power. Their performance brings Calla’s uncertainty and growing confidence to life with real specificity.
- Themes: Identity and self-discovery under a constructed role, gender exploration within a rigid societal framework, found family and chosen loyalty
- Mood: Adventurous and emotionally open, with bursts of romantic tension and quiet introspection
- Verdict: A romantasy debut that earns its self-discovery arc through character work rather than shortcuts, with narration that makes Calla’s journey feel genuinely inhabited.
I started A River of Golden Bones on a Tuesday evening with low expectations. Romantasy as a genre has a tendency to promise transformation and deliver tropes, and the TikTok-sensation branding attached to A.K. Mulford’s name was not exactly a signal of restraint. Fifteen hours later, I had revised that assessment considerably. Mulford has written a novel that uses a familiar frame, the hidden heir, the sleeping curse, the quest across a monster-filled realm, to do something more specific and more honest than the premise suggests. And Vico Ortiz’s narration is precisely the reason the book’s central theme about identity and self-naming lands as well as it does.
The setup is efficient: twins Calla and Briar have spent their lives in hiding, protected from the sorceress who destroyed their Golden Court. Briar’s purpose is public, marry Prince Grae and save the kingdom. Calla’s purpose is to be the secret, the backup plan, the shadow. When the sorceress’s sleeping curse descends on Briar, Calla has to step out of the shadow and into a world that does not know she exists. The reversal is clean and the fantasy mechanics are well-handled, but what Mulford builds on top of that premise is more interesting: a story about what happens to a person who has been defined exclusively by their relationship to someone else when they are forced to define themselves.
Our Take on Calla’s Self-Discovery Arc
Calla uses she/they pronouns, and this is not a detail grafted onto an otherwise conventional protagonist. Mulford builds Calla’s gender identity into the fabric of her character in ways that feel integrated rather than performative. Calla’s discomfort with Wolf society’s rigid gender roles is connected to her discomfort with her own assigned role as the shadow heir. When she begins to explore who she could be outside those structures, the gender exploration and the narrative self-determination happen simultaneously, and Mulford has the good sense to let those threads develop at the same pace.
One reviewer described the book as helpful for navigating LGBTQ communities and proper terminology, which is a practical kind of compliment. Another called it a great upper YA book on self-discovery, which speaks to Mulford’s ability to make the emotional territory accessible without making it simplistic. The romance with Prince Grae, who has known Calla since childhood and whose loyalties are genuinely complicated by the position he occupies, is handled with enough tension to sustain interest without overwhelming the identity plot.
Why Listen to Vico Ortiz Perform This Character
The casting decision here is significant and clearly intentional. Vico Ortiz is a non-binary Puerto Rican actor who has spoken publicly about their own identity, and bringing that lived context to a character navigating gender exploration is not a trivial choice. Their performance tracks Calla’s internal development with remarkable precision: the early chapters, where Calla is cautious and self-contained, feel genuinely different from the later sections, where she begins to take up more space in the world. Ortiz does not announce this shift. They let it accumulate quietly.
The book’s pacing is generally assured, though several reviewers noted moments where the momentum dips, particularly in the middle sections crossing various Wolf kingdoms. Ortiz navigates those quieter passages without losing the listener’s investment, which is a meaningful contribution. The found family dynamics, with the group Calla accumulates over the course of the quest, are where Ortiz is warmest and most relaxed, and those sections are genuinely pleasurable.
What to Watch For in the Worldbuilding
Mulford’s fantasy world is functional and engaging, though it leaves some territory underexplored. The division between Wolf society, human society, and the other realms Calla passes through is sketched with enough detail to be credible but not elaborated enough to satisfy readers who want deep lore. One reviewer would have liked more worldbuilding, which is a fair critique. The novel’s priorities are character and emotional arc, and the world exists primarily to create the conditions for Calla’s development rather than to be interesting in its own right.
The Sleeping Beauty retelling elements, the sorceress, the sleeping curse, the need for the hidden heir to claim her birthright, are woven in lightly. This is not a faithful adaptation so much as a framework borrowed for its structural convenience. The book’s deepest influences are the identity-centered romantasy tradition rather than the fairy tale source material.
Who Should Listen to A River of Golden Bones
Readers who respond to romantasy centered on identity and self-discovery rather than action and combat, listeners who want LGBTQ representation integrated into the narrative rather than added to it, and fans of Mulford’s Five Crowns of Okrith series who want to see what she does with a new world will find this a satisfying listen. Those who want fast-paced action, dense worldbuilding, or a romance that resolves cleanly in book one should note that this is the first installment in a trilogy and several threads are left open. The book earns its ending without pretending to be complete.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does A River of Golden Bones work as a standalone, or do you need to read the full Golden Court trilogy?
It functions as a complete first act but is clearly the opening of a trilogy. Calla’s personal arc reaches a meaningful point by the end, but the larger plot threads involving the sorceress and the Golden Court are ongoing.
How central is the gender identity and she/they representation to the plot, and is it handled sensitively?
It is genuinely central, not decorative. Calla’s gender exploration is tied directly to her larger journey of self-definition after a lifetime of being defined by others. Reviewers from within LGBTQ communities have found the representation thoughtful and the terminology handled with care.
Is Vico Ortiz’s narration appropriate for listeners who aren’t familiar with their other work?
Completely. The performance is accessible and emotionally clear regardless of prior familiarity with Ortiz. Their ability to track Calla’s development subtly over fifteen hours is the production’s primary strength.
How does the romance with Prince Grae develop, and is it the primary focus of the book?
The romance is present throughout and provides consistent tension, but it is secondary to Calla’s identity arc. Grae is a complicated figure, his loyalty split between Briar and Calla, and Mulford does not resolve those complications quickly. Readers who want romance to be the dominant element may want to calibrate expectations.
