A grim and despairing yet elegiac fantasy tale and unsentimental testament to humanity’s enduring spirit.
Thornbury’s debut YA fantasy novel features a girl on the run fighting to suppress her forbidden magic in a dying world.
The fantastical realm of Seramight is slowly succumbing to the Blight, a creeping malaise that kills anything it touches. When the city of Drasdark falls, only Terren remains, a final, multicultural refuge of haves and have-nots nestled between a long-drained sea and a bottomless chasm that separates the world of men from the magic-infused Deadlands. A single bridge—which is a living organism—spans the intervening gap. Those who tire of life may cross it, either dying at the midpoint or passing on and receding by degrees into the bleakness beyond. None ever return. Elika, who is 15 years old, watches the bridge, identifying those who cross so that her pack of street orphans can loot that person’s lodgings for coin and food. Life in Terren is hard, but Eli is surviving. Terren’s priests have long blamed magic for the Blight; to this end, they have decreed the living bridge’s destruction, but all attempts have failed. Eli, however, wounds it when she stabs it. This reveals her to be not merely infected with magic (an “Echo” in the local parlance), but a creature in full possession of it. Suddenly, the Blight hastens its encroachment. The people of Terren turn against the Echoes, first purging them with blood-salt before resorting to more violent measures. Eli wants her magic gone, yet she cannot rid herself of it—the harder she tries, the worse the situation becomes. Is there no way she can save herself, her pack, and her city?
The author writes in the third person, past tense from Eli’s perspective. The prose is a proficient blend of narrative action, inner reflection, and mostly naturalistic dialogue. Eli is an unusual protagonist: On the one hand she exhibits standard heroic traits (courage, determination, loyalty, compassion). On the other, she rails fiercely against her expected role. Rather than embracing the power within her, she clings stubbornly to what she’s been taught, risking her life and submitting to torture in her efforts to be cleansed. Thornbury’s depiction of magic—and Eli’s true nature—is as artful as the plot is pessimistic. There is little to feel good about in the barbaric acts the people of Terren suffer as the Blight approaches. The author neither glosses over these atrocities nor revels in them; instead, the reader is presented with a morose, almost moribund sense of inevitability. Humanity’s plight goes from bad to worse, ever spiraling downward. The effect is cheerless yet oddly refreshing in a genre that so often fails to make good on its threats. Eli’s journey can be read as a parallel to the emotional progression of one caring for a terminally ill relative. She passes through stages of loss, and the end is a foregone conclusion, yet it brings a kind of catharsis, clearing the way for new beginnings. Hard-bitten fantasists should approve.
A grim and despairing yet elegiac fantasy tale and unsentimental testament to humanity’s enduring spirit.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9780645497038
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Shadow Lore Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty.
In this retelling of a classic, a drama student’s obsession with beauty leads her down a dark—and possibly deadly—path.
Eighteen-year-old Penny Paxton is beginning her first year at Dorian Drama Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she hopes to follow in her starlet mother’s footsteps—and earn the love that her mother has never seemed to offer. At Dorian, Penny is mentored by Royal Shakespeare Company legend Orlagh Camran, who makes her the compelling offer of a portrait by the Masked Painter, a mysterious artist with the ability to gift his subjects everlasting youth and beauty. But shortly after Penny’s portrait is complete, several of the Masked Painter’s subjects are found murdered. Fearing that she’s made a terrible mistake and may become the next victim, Penny, who’s gay, begins to investigate the murders with the help of an unlikely ally. As she attempts to uncover the truth surrounding the Masked Painter and the murders, she’s forced to reckon with her own toxic obsession with beauty. This chilling, atmospheric novel, inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, is entertaining and full of twists, though some of the reveals feel contrived and some questions are left unanswered. The plot unravels at a leisurely pace but eventually builds to an action-packed (if somewhat convoluted) conclusion. Most characters are cued white.
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty. (content note, author’s note, bonus scene) (Fantasy thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250346797
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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