A smashing hero leads the charge in this diverting tale of perilous other worlds.
Getting abducted is only the start of a half-Elf, half-mortal’s ballooning troubles in Parker’s fantasy sequel.
Alex lives in both the mortal world and Eledon, an enigmatic land inhabited by Elves after they were forced to leave Earth. She’s been looking forward to her three-month vacation from her modeling career in the mortal world, but her relaxation plans didn’t include helping her grandmother clear out a warehouse in the Elf city of Meridian. Before Alex can finish the job, someone grabs her and takes her to a familiar enemy: Lord Fissure, a Rock Elf (“He was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch, the only Elf I truly hated”) who wants the magic of the Keys of Eledon. (As the Keeper of the Keys, Alex may be able to “fix” a practically uninhabitable island.) Other heartless baddies pop up as well, hoping to coerce her into using her skills with the Keys. To get back to Eledon, Alex must traverse the Underworld and the mortal world (of another time), all while bumping heads with gods, various fantastical creatures, and Mentors, the powerful beings who created Eledon. Parker’s follow-up to The Epsilon Account (2023) feels like a collection of subplots. Alex moves from one dilemma to the next through a constantly changing environment confronting a variety of foes. There is a cohesive through-line; her goal through all of this is getting home, and at least one villain has a fairly consistent presence. The story rarely slows down as Alex is pitted against vicious monsters, lethal robots, and a few double-crossers. As in the series’ preceding installment, Alex is tough, valiant, and compassionate; at one point, she leads a dangerous mission to destroy a red crystal solely for the benefit of an oppressed group of people. Readers just joining the series will surely become fans of Alex, who makes appearances in many of Parker’s multiple book series.
A smashing hero leads the charge in this diverting tale of perilous other worlds.Pub Date: March 8, 2024
ISBN: 9798883766748
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
