MAGGIE TURNCOAT

After her father is executed by a mad queen, a girl uses magic to fight for the oppressed in this YA fantasy debut.

Dravon Galain, a former captain in the queen’s military, is about to be executed. He kneels before a crowd in the castle courtyard, which is surrounded by Dawn’s Gate, the capital of the High Desert kingdom. His wife, Audrie, and their daughters, 10-year-old Tris and 14-year-old Maggie, look on in horror, sure that Dravon isn’t the turncoat the queen believes he is. After the killing by firing squad, Dravon’s corpse is left in the courtyard. Maggie sneaks in and takes his military jacket, vowing to clear his name. She fastens the single button left on the coat and “vanishes without a sound.” Though magic is mostly gone from the world, Maggie is whisked into a dark, strange realm. She eventually wakes in an alley by the castle and receives help from Elly Babblewatts, a teenage tinkerer. Maggie soon learns that she and her family must hide from angry mobs and the queen’s hunters, called Shadow Lurkers. Thanks to the teleporting coat, she gains a reputation as a powerful witch. Eventually, she unites with oppressed people in the kingdom, including Salavan of the Lost Sabers tribe. Will they be enough to end the queen’s “empire of chains”? Miller’s series opener brings readers into a world rife with social ills, including “indentured child workers” and a queen who enslaves those critical of her governance. Maggie gradually learns more about her magical coat, traveling frequently to the eerily beautiful “Sorrow's Deep,” which provides one of the principal narrative thrills (“She finds that her vertical momentum does not carry to the next world, but horizontal momentum is maintained”). At times, the large cast and the detailed society of the author’s worldbuilding crowd out his protagonist. The reward for readers is an intriguing, fragile allied force—including the priestess Mos Marry, who wants magic eliminated—that may prove troublesome for Maggie even if the contingent topples the queen. The final scene offers a shocking moment that’s hopefully addressed in the sequel.

An astutely written tale that eschews fantasy melodrama to explore social dynamics.