A contemporary fantasy YA debut from Rochelle Hassan about monsters, magic, and wicked fae, perfect for fans of The Darkest Part of the Forest and The Hazel Wood
As the only hedgewitch in Blackthorn, Massachusetts―an uncommonly magical place―Aziza El-Amin has bargained with wood nymphs, rescued palm-sized fairies from house cats, banished flesh-eating shadows from the local park. But when a dark entity awakens in the forest outside of town, eroding the invisible boundary between the human world and fairyland, run-of-the-mill fae mischief turns into outright aggression, and the danger―to herself and others―becomes too great for her to handle alone.
Leo Merritt is no stranger to magical catastrophes. On his sixteenth birthday, a dormant curse kicked in and ripped away all his memories of his true love. A miserable year has passed since then. He’s road-tripped up and down the East Coast looking for a way to get his memories back and hit one dead end after another. He doesn’t even know his true love’s name, but he feels the absence in his life, and it’s haunting.
Desperate for answers, he makes a pact with Aziza: he’ll provide much-needed backup on her nightly patrols, and in exchange, she’ll help him break the curse.
When the creature in the woods sets its sights on them, their survival depends on the aid of a mysterious young necromancer they’re not certain they can trust. But they’ll have to work together to eradicate the new threat and take back their hometown … even if it forces them to uncover deeply buried secrets and make devastating sacrifices.
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“Expertly weaves these three titillating story lines, featuring chilling and thrilling faerie monsters and creatures, into a multilayered magical adventure about companionship, sacrifice, and survival.”
— Booklist
“With gorgeous prose and rich worldbuilding, this gripping dark fantasy slowly unfolds its tale of broken hearts, family secrets, and self-empowerment…[A] romantic fantasy that has a bittersweet bite.”
— Kirkus Reviews“Prioritizing the cast’s development into magnetic heroes…[and] overflowing with whimsy, danger, and a touch of humor, this alluring tale maintains a satisfying air of menace and unpredictability.”
— Publishers WeeklyBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Rochelle Hassan grew up reading about dragons, quests, and unlikely heroes; now she writes about them, too. She is the author of the middle grade novel The Prince of Nowhere and the young-adult fantasy novel The Buried and the Bound.
Dan Bittner is an actor and voice talent and winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards for audio narration. He has starred on stage and on the screen, in movies such as Men in Black, Adventureland, and the Producers: The Movie Musical. He has also appeared onstage as Macbeth and Sherlock Holmes in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Nikki Massoud is the Audie Award–winning narrator of over thirty audiobooks. Also an experienced actor, her television credits include guest starring on Love Life, Emergence, and Madam Secretary, and her stage credits include Wish You Were Here at Playwrights Horizons and Othello at New York Theatre Workshop. She is also an Atlantic Launch Commission writer. Based in New York City, she is a first-generation Iranian-American immigrant who was raised in Montreal and Washington, DC.