Fans of empowering feminist fairy-tale retellings will love this.
Four reimagined fairy-tale heroines must confront their inner demons to break a curse.
Ella, Yuki, and Rory attend the prestigious Grimrose Académie for Elite Students in the Swiss Alps. They are currently grieving the death of one of their best friends, and while Ari’s death by drowning has been deemed either an accident or suicide, her closest friends have their doubts. When they find an old book of fairy tales hidden in Ari’s things, full of strange annotations in her handwriting, the girls start working—along with new student Nani—to investigate Ari’s suspicious death. As they put together the pieces and discover other deaths that happened at Grimrose, they start to wonder if there was magic involved in Ari’s death—magic that may also be at the core of their very lives, cursing them to unhappy endings. Grief, identity, and friendship intersect in this enthralling mystery with dark magical undertones that ingeniously plays with fairy-tale tropes to tell a feminist story about empowerment and grappling with how to break away from the confines of societal expectations of girls. Reminiscent of the works of Anna-Marie McLemore and Elana K. Arnold, this book ends with the promise of more to come. The main cast is queer and features diversity in disability and mental health. Rory and Ella default to White; Yuki’s name cues her as Japanese, and Nani is Black and Native Hawaiian.
Fans of empowering feminist fairy-tale retellings will love this. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-72822-887-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
A delicious winter romance that shimmers with classic fairy-tale magic.
An 18-year-old’s encounter with the pale, mysterious, golden-eyed Starmaker transforms her from hamlet girl to magical apprentice.
Aurora Finch discovers she possesses the rare ability to channel sunlight—magic essential to the survival of snow-covered Reverie, her mountain village, “with peaks so high the Sun [cannot] rise above them.” Now she faces a harsh choice: Leave everything behind to train at the Starmaker’s enchanted castle or die as the untapped magic destroys her from within. Griffin excels at worldbuilding; the story is filled with elements and characters that feel both whimsical and real, from Tilly, a living snow angel who’s searching for herself, to Constance, an immortal rabbit. As the antagonism between Aurora and the cold, centuries-old Starmaker melts, their love story, which forms the heart of this tale, crackles with tension. Aurora emerges as a compelling hero—stubborn and brave—who refuses to be diminished by the overwhelming responsibilities thrust upon her. The romantic storyline proves both strong and emotionally involving as the author brings fresh twists to familiar elements, exploring the power of stories and how they shape our understanding of the world. White-presenting Aurora faces a devastating truth that creates urgency and heightens the emotional stakes that drive the story to its conclusion. This satisfying, sparkling fantasy will capture hearts with its well-developed setting and captivating love story.
A delicious winter romance that shimmers with classic fairy-tale magic. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781728256184
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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