We Shall Be Monsters

June 1, 2024

Wees (Nocturne) returns with a fairy-tale fantasy. Gemma lives in an antiques shop with her mother, Virginia, near the woods, which conceal an enchanted gateway to fairyland. Her mother has warned her never to enter the woods, but when a witch takes Virginia, Gemma will have to enter fairyland to rescue her and break the witch's curse. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2024
The woods call to three generations of mothers and daughters in this dual-timeline modern fairy tale. In a Michigan tourist town, Virginia Cassata and her daughter, Gemma, live above an antique shop bordering the woods. Every day, Gemma is drawn to wander the fairies' forest, and every night Virginia steals away her memories with an enchanted hairbrush. Desperate to protect her daughter while also thwarting a witch's curse, Virginia will let this selfish magic rip her apart if it means keeping Gemma close. Fifteen years prior, Clarice and her daughter, Virginia, live above an antique shop bordering the woods. Every day, Virginia is drawn to wander the fairies' forest, but rather than erase her recollections, Clarice scares her into staying away--until Virginia falls in love. The consequences of this human-fairy coupling ripple forward and backward in time, reflecting Clarice's own unrequited desires and enticing the Slit Witch, who curses the family with ruin by Gemma's 15th birthday. When the witch captures Virginia, Gemma must follow half-remembered steps to embrace her fey heritage. "It's an old story, isn't it?" Virginia, perennially caught in the middle as both daughter and mother, muses. "The sins of the mother, repeated, because the daughter tricks herself into believing that she can save her own daughter from the ache of regret." Wees' contemporary fairy-tale language favors layered repetition of motifs over narrative plot twists, which lessens the emotional impact of Gemma discovering these secrets and lies by omission. Inspired worldbuilding details, like Clarice offering up human-wrought antiques to be enchanted by the fascinated fairies, are sorely underutilized, especially for a story that tracks three generations in the same setting. While the epic quest transforms all three by the end, the reader may feel unfulfilled. Despite compelling explorations of monstrous impulses in women, this dark bedtime story cannot see the forest for the trees.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2024
Virginia and her daughter, Gemma, live alongside a stretch of fae woods in Michigan. Before Virginia and Gemma lived there, Virginia and her mother did, and the family has owned and operated an antiques shop there for quite some time. They have also engaged with the occupants of the enchanted forest, including fae queens, princes, witches, and monsters. The three generations of women are all caught up in a curse that, one way or another, will end on Gemma's fifteenth birthday. The curse was placed on Gemma's father, Virginia's true love. He is slowly turning into a monster who has the potential to kill Virginia. Gemma, days before her birthday, sets off into the woods to end the curse. The reader, like Gemma, won't understand anything about the context of the curse or its history in the beginning, but in alternating chapters, Virginia and Gemma tell their stories, doling out clues. In addition to the appealing mystery element, the dark, fairy-tale vibe will be catnip to readers. This is no cozy fantasy but a tale of families, secrets, discovery, and twisty lives. Fans of Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden will find another author to add to their list of must-reads.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 2, 2024
Wees (Nocturn) delivers an enchanting, eerie, and lyrical fantasy that blends fact and fairy tale. It alternates perspective between 14-year-old Gemma, growing up above a Michigan antiques shop on the border of deep woods that mysteriously beckon to her, and Gemma’s mother, Virginia, who tells Gemma frightening stories of the woods in an attempt to scare her away from them and uses her magic to remove Gemma’s memories of experiences she’s already had among the trees. Despite her mother’s efforts, however, Gemma is continually drawn to the woods, uncovering the magic and secrets lurking within. Virginia too was once drawn to the woods, a recklessness she paid for dearly when a witch cursed her true love, Gemma’s father, to transform into a beast. When, spurred by Gemma’s incursions into her domain, the witch returns and abducts Virginia, Gemma embarks on a perilous journey to save her mother and lift the curse before her 15th birthday. Wees’s rich exploration of parent-child bonds delves into themes of defiance, protection, and the enduring power of love. Evocative prose brings this dark, folkloric world to life and makes it easy to sink into both protagonists’ perspectives. Skillfully told and compulsively readable, this is sure to be a hit with fans of atmospheric fantasy.