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
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
A sexy, swoony, action-packed duology opener.
Teens from different social spheres collaborate, investigating magical mysteries while navigating their shared attraction.
When 18-year-old Wren Hayes doesn’t receive a magical gift from the three Fates—Dawn, Day, and Dusk—she’s shunned by Aurilian high society. Unbeknownst to Wren, 19-year-old Damien, a thief from the Void (a part of the city she’s forbidden to visit) has taken the locket that should have been her gift from the Fates. He’s shocked to discover a photo of himself inside. Using his own Fates’ gift—a mirror with powers of invisibility—Damien infiltrates a party and steals a silver watch from a guest. But his gift isn’t fully functioning, and Wren tackles him, sending them both tumbling into the mud. They tussle and exchange flirty barbs before Damien makes off with his prize, losing Wren’s locket in the process. Unsure why someone from the Void would possess such a gift and determined to uncover why hers was “unjustly kept” from her, Wren tracks down Damien. Seeking answers of his own, he agrees to work with her. Their well-crafted dance of desire and restraint is on point (“She stifled a stunned noise as I placed a menacing kiss—a mere graze of my lips—on the back of her hand”), melding seamlessly with the plot. The story addresses sexism, privilege, and wealth while hurtling the characters into a whirlwind of action and disturbing revelations. Wren presents white, and Damien has tanned skin.
A sexy, swoony, action-packed duology opener. (map) (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9798217117215
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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