THE LONELIEST PLACE

Evie returns once more to the Dark Sun Side, a terrifying land of nightmarish creatures.

This trilogy closer takes place just weeks after 12-year-old Evie narrowly escaped the Dark Sun Side in 2023’s The Nighthouse Keeper. Evie has been living with her aunt Desdemona, believing her parents’ lives were lost in a house fire—but she discovers they’ve been held captive in the Dark Sun Side by the demented creature called the Clackity. Evie, who’s cued white, strikes a bargain with the Clackity and embarks on a series of quests: Succeed, and she gets her parents back; fail, and she risks losing her own life. Accompanied by the lovable Bird, her tattooed companion who’s nestled into her skin and sends her warnings, Evie bravely uses her resourcefulness and altruism to tackle tasks that take her through places like an otherworldly ocean, desert, and forest. The most captivating of these expeditions takes her to the Winterlands, a place that’s striking and chilling in its beautiful descriptions. It’s only in this world that Cáceres’ otherwise evocatively creepy black-and-white illustrations fail to capture the vivid, haunting beauty described in the text. Senf’s storytelling is riveting and wildly imaginative, and her story is populated with unique, otherworldly creatures and characters. Evie’s death-defying crusade makes for a satisfying, compelling closing to the series.

A fitting finale for a top-notch series.