Archives de catégorie : Fantasy

RIVER OF SPIRITS de Shana Targosz

In her beautifully written and fiercely imaginative middle-grade novel, debut author Shana Targosz delivers an utterly original take on Greek mythology that’s a tale of friendship, sacrifice, and an incredibly nuanced portrayal of grief for a younger audience.

RIVER OF SPIRITS
(THE UNDERWILD, Book 1)
by Shana Targosz
Simon & Schuster, Spring 2025
(via Writers House)

Senka lives between the realm of the Living and the realm of the Dead. As ward to Charon, the Ferryer of the Underworld, Senka assists Charon in ferrying recently departed souls across the river and into their afterlife. Although Charon has mentored her, and messenger-raven and tutor Mortimer has taught Senka a bit about the realm of the Living, there’s so much about the Underworld Charon has been keeping from her. Senka knows Charon forbids her from straying too far from their home (it’s Rule number five in the Rules for Ferryers, after all), and though she doesn’t understand why, she listens—there is nothing she wants more than to prove she can be a model Ferryer.

When a young boy’s soul gets yanked away by the river’s current, and when the boy’s living sister, Poppy, arrives in the Underworld and pleads for Senka’s help to find him, Senka is literally dragged downriver, far from everything she’s ever known. Lost in the Underworld, Senka and Poppy encounter malevolent spirits of lore and eccentric ghosts—and not all are willing to let souls slip through their grasp.

But the Living can’t stay in the realm of the Dead for long, and there are only three days until Poppy’s soul will also become lost to the Underworld. Senka must utilize everything she has learned in order to save Poppy from a fate worse than death. As Poppy and Senka dodge angry demigods, hungry wraiths, tricksy shape-shifters, and terrifying dragon chimera, Senka gets closer and closer to learning the truth of her own past. Soon, Senka won’t just need to save Poppy’s life—she’ll also need to save her own. . .

Shana Targosz is an Oregon Literary Fellow and the recipient of the Edna L. Holmes Fellowship for Young Readers. An alumni of Author Mentor Match (#AMM), she is a former Pitch Wars mentor and current AMM mentor, and has been a guest host on Grace Lin’s #kidlitwomen podcast.

THE SLINGER SERIES de Graci Kim

X-Men meets Pokémon in this endlessly inventive new middle-grade series from New York Times bestselling author Graci Kim—if Professor X was a Korean king, and magic literally came from our dreams!

THE SLINGER SERIES
by Graci Kim
Disney Hyperion, Spring 2025
(via Writers House)

Book 1: DREAMSLINGER

Book 2: ROYALSLINGER

Fourteen-year-old Aria Loveridge is a carrier of the dreamslinger gene—a rare genetic mutation that causes fire, wind, poison, or ice to blast from her hands after a nightmare. Like all dreamslingers, Aria is a total outcast—hated and feared by the public. But thanks to her dad, a celebrated Texan professor of dreamslinger welfare, things are about to change. His groundbreaking work to build Dreamslinger Homes in every US state is going to give teenagers like Aria a safe haven, and Aria couldn’t be prouder.

But when Aria accidentally lights the camera crew on fire during her dad’s live-streamed national announcement, her dad’s career goes up in flame too. And in an attempt to save his life’s work, Aria strikes a deal with the government—she’ll enter the mysterious and dangerous Annual Slinger Trials in the Royal Kingdom of Hanguk as a spy, in exchange for her dad’s project getting the green light.

Aria knows the risks. After all, the hermit kingdom’s been closed to the world for the past ten years—ever since their royally-trained slingers unleashed a series of fires, hurricanes, ice storms, and poisonous plagues that took thousands of lives. And this is the first time they’ve opened their controversial training contest to the world. But apart from the cut-throat competition, nothing in the Trials is as Aria expected. Flying palanquins? Trees that grow snacks? Dream creatures that give you real-life superpowers? And . . . new friends?

Soon, Aria begins to question everything she thought she knew about being a dreamslinger. And when her spying leads her to discover shocking truths about her own family and history, Aria has to decide where her loyalties lie—to her dad, to the kingdom, or perhaps even, to herself.

Graci Kim is the award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author of the Rick Riordan Presents series The Last Fallen Star, a Korean mythology-inspired middle-grade that was in TIME Magazine for Kids, praised as a “sparkling yarn” by Entertainment Weekly, and has been optioned for a television series by the Disney Channel. It was named a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Children’s Book, an Amazon Best Book, an Indigo Best Book, a Barnes & Noble Young Reader Pick, and a Whitcoulls Kids Top 50. In 2022, Graci was awarded the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent. Before she became an author, Graci was a New Zealand diplomat and a cooking show host.

BEHIND THE CRIMSON CURTAIN d’E.B. Golden

Firin and Bregan never should have met, let alone started a relationship that would haunt them their whole lives.

BEHIND THE CRIMSON CURTAIN
by E.B. Golden
47 North/(Amazon, September 2024
(via Laura Dail Literary Agency)

Firin is a face-changing con artist trained by her domineering father. Bregan is an actor turned heroic leader in the Reform movement that’s overthrowing the coal-choked island of Luisonn.

As the flames of revolt settle, Firin joins Bregan on the stage. She’s determined to create a life with the honorable man she never forgot. But love and truth are hard to hide—especially when one of Firin’s victims, now President, chooses Bregan as his right-hand man. In a web of war and false identities, Firin must choose a side. Will the price of freedom be her heart?

« A steamy, epic romance with two backdrops — a revolution and the theater — that somehow work together perfectly.” – Ali Hazelwood, author of The Love Hypothesis and other TikTok sensations/New York Times bestsellers

“A lyrically haunting love story masterfully woven into a world that is a poignant mirror to our own. Genre fans will be enraptured by the morally gray cast, shocking plot twists, and imaginative foray into the world of theater. Fans of Erin Morgenstern, Shannon Chakraborty, and R.F. Kuang will be undone. Perfect for readers who love their fantasy razor sharp. » – J. Elle, New York Times bestselling author of House of Marionne and Wings of Ebony

Though born and raised on the coast of Maine, E.B. Golden spends most of her free time exploring the mountains of southwest Colorado with her husband and daughter. Since she could hold a pen, she’s used speculative fiction to make sense of a nonsensical world, and when she’s not writing, she’s usually traveling or coaching other writers, because the world always needs more stories.

HOUSE OF THE BEAST de Michelle Wong

Celebrated artist Michelle Wong, illustrator of The Legend of Korra comics, makes her literary debut with this fantasy novel brimming with romance and horror, centered on a young woman who is seeking revenge on her aristocratic family, aided by the powers of a dark and alluring god who appears only to her in the form of a handsome young man—also featuring gorgeous black-and-white illustrations throughout by the author.

HOUSE OF THE BEAST
by Michelle Wong
Harper Voyager, June 2025

Growing up poor and outcasted as a child born out of wedlock, Alma learned to make her peace with solitude, so long as she had her mother. But when her mother becomes desperately ill, Alma discovers a clue about her estranged father and writes a message begging for help. Little does she know that she is a bastard of House Avera, a powerful magical family that serves a dark and frightening elder god, the Dread Beast.

In exchange for her mother’s medicine, Alma agrees to sacrifice her left arm to the Beast in a ceremony that binds her to House Avera. Regardless, her mother soon passes as a result of her father’s selfish nature.

Now vengeance is the only thing that keeps Alma going. That, and the strange connection she has with her god—a monster who is constantly by her side, an eldritch being taking the form of a beautiful prince with starlit hair that only she can see and hear. He tells Alma that she has been chosen to bring change upon Kugara, and with his help, Alma plots to destroy the House that has stolen everything from her.

Michelle Wong is a writer and artist from Hong Kong with over 50K followers across social media platforms. She’s illustrated for various clients such as HarperCollins, IDW, Dark Horse, and more. This is her debut novel.

THESE SHATTERED SPIRES de Cassidy Ellis Salter

A crossover upper-YA gothic fantasy, with the snark and worldbuilding of Gideon the Ninth mixed with the romances and backstabbing of The Atlas Six.

THESE SHATTERED SPIRES
by Cassidy Ellis Salter
On submission
(via Zeno Agency)

The world of Fourspires, is lucious in its grotesqueness. It is a world constantly on the edge of self-destruction and, whether you’re slinking through the rerouting passages of the library or fighting off cutlery-welding starvings in the poisonous forests of the Ulcer, it propulsively pulls you through unforgettable tableaus.

The crumbling castle of Fourspires is the centre of the sole city that exists under the desecrae, a bloody, domed sky that encloses this small world. This is a world where mirrors are banned lest they allow horrors through, where dead nuns stalk the corridors looking to snap the necks of rule breakers, and where magic is real but comes with a price. Because you can reanimate the dead, control someone through their blood or simply make the flowers grow, but it comes with pain. Pain so unbearable you would do anything to avoid it. Which is why Fourspires developed a system of human familiars. Now Arcanists can go about their days quite happily, knowing that their young familiars will be forced to take the pain for all their magic.

Taro and Nixie just graduated from The Academy of familiars. And they’ve been assigned to the head arcanists of the Bone and Botanist disciplines. As high familiars they see each other all the time, but they can never talk, never touch. Which is a shame for Taro because she thinks they’re in love and Nixie is her girlfriend. It’s also a shame for Nixie, because she hates Taro with a passion and wants to throttle her. Despite their differences, on the eve our story begins, Taro and Nixie are planning to escape. Anything’s better than the life of a familiar and, if they can just sneak out of the castle, maybe they can kiss each other or kill each other – whichever’s more practical.

But that’s the night the Tick Tock king finally dies and everything is thrown into chaos. In 48-hours, Taro and Nixie will have to accompany their arcanists into The Fifth Tower and kill or be killed in the fight to the top…

THESE SHATTERER SPIRES is a twisty, multiple-viewpoint tale that keeps you guessing until the very last page. It’s also a very prescient, very necessary novel, prominently featuring queer characters, characters struggling with their gender identity and characters with selective mutism.

Cassidy Ellis Salter is a queer, non-binary author from London’s Brixton. They have published two middle grade books (The Bone Snatcher and Where the Woods End) and THESE SHATTERED SPIRES is their first fantasy for older readers. They work in marketing in their day job and have a personal author TikTok account where their videos have amassed more than a million views and they now have just shy of 10,000 followers. Alis’ struggle to discover themselves as non-binary is very much based on Cassidy’s own coming to terms with their gender identity.