THE SHADOW WAR

Teens rip open the universe in an attempt to defeat the Nazis in this queer World War II fantasy.

It’s September 1942. Eighteen-year-old Liam, a gay, White academic prodigy who recently graduated from Princeton, has traveled to Germany (by commercial airline, one of the few historical missteps) in search of a medieval manuscript he hopes will help him understand and refine his mysterious powers. Liam has learned to access a parallel universe full of dark energy that he hopes will defeat the Nazis. Unfortunately, the Nazis know how to reach it, too. Liam is soon joined by Jewish siblings Daniel and Rebeka—out for revenge after they were sent to the Łódź ghetto and the rest of their family was murdered—and two members of the resistance—Simone, an Algerian-born Muslim lesbian, and Phillip, a Black American from the U.S. Army whose secret mission is never fully explained. Slimy monsters cross into our universe; the protagonists react with violence—and romance—while fighting for justice. Nonstop action, consistent worldbuilding, and a large cast of sympathetic characters, all of them marginalized in some way, create an engaging story.

A coherent and ultimately hopeful alternate reality.