A shrewd, absorbing fantasy showcasing extraordinary characters worth rooting for.
A teenager harboring potential magical powers vows to confront the red-eyed stranger who’s been haunting her in this debut YA novel.
Nyla’s unusual silver hair and purple eyes are indicative of someone with magical abilities. But she has none, her hair and eyes having changed colors after a fatal fire took her family two years ago. In fact, her home country of Tenebris somehow lost most of its magic centuries before. But there is a legendary waterfall that reputedly grants desires, and Nyla braves the treacherous Shadow Forest to find it and its good fortune. Along the way, she meets Xander, a fellow teen without a family. Their run-in with a hideous ogre in the forest—and its apparent, inexplicable death—leads both teens to suspect that Nyla has magical powers that she’s unaware of. Moreover, a man with scarlet-colored eyes and a crystal ball seizes her lucid dream-visions and seems intent on killing her. Answers regarding her magic’s source and this enigmatic villain may lie on the other side of Tenebris—in a creepy, abandoned manor from Nyla’s childhood. Shaffery wisely zeroes in on the sublime cast in this fantasy series opener. While individual backstories and the sinister presence targeting Nyla gradually come to light, the growing relationships truly drive the engrossing story. Nyla and Xander display genial natures that will quickly earn readers’ sympathies. Even when they annoy each other or occasionally fight, the two remain warmhearted, with Xander “just maybe a bit overconcerned” with Nyla’s well-being. They later team up with a supernatural ally whom they don’t immediately trust and spot other fantastical beings as well, including a fire-spitting “nocturnal creature” with “charcoal eyes” called a pyrosa. Though the memorable ending leaves paths for the sequel, this introductory tale illuminates much of the unraveling mystery and skillfully explores a fair amount of Tenebris’ relatively compact landscape.
A shrewd, absorbing fantasy showcasing extraordinary characters worth rooting for.Pub Date: June 3, 2022
ISBN: 9798986173207
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Somberly beautiful.
A girl goes in search of her missing sister and discovers a strange hidden world of dreams.
Corin, who’s 18 and dark-skinned, strives to protect her 12-year-old sister, Elly. But life as a thief is full of struggle, poverty, and loss, even without Corin’s avoidance of other relationships. Elly clings to the promise of fairy tales, like the one that says a princess lies sleeping in an underground castle after pricking her finger on a spindle. After the sisters fight and Elly runs off, Corin searches for her in Gyldan’s old network of tunnels—and finds the tale is true: Cursed Princess Amelia, golden-haired, with eyes like “sea glass” and porcelain skin, lies asleep, surrounded by flowers. Corin enters the princess’ dreamworld—the place “where your subconscious desires come to life.” She meets Briar Rose, Amelia’s alter ego, who experienced her share of sadness and wanted to fall asleep. Also in the dreamworld is green-skinned Malicine, the nonbinary demon who, despite having placed the curse of eternal slumber on Amelia, is mostly friendly. All three are running from things they can’t face, though the dreamworld may not give them a choice. Pham’s debut, a Sapphic reimagining of “Sleeping Beauty,” explores mental health and asks a lot of readers as it seesaws between emotional confrontations, time jumps, and scenes where one character inhabits the memories of another, all of which demand intense engagement. Still, the ending is earned as well as positive.
Somberly beautiful. (content note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9798217113026
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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
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