Lakesedge
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
There are monsters in the world.
When Violeta Graceling arrives at haunted Lakesedge estate, she expects to find a monster. She knows the terrifying rumours about Rowan Sylvanan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem.
There are monsters in the woods.
As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably drawn . . .
There's a monster in the shadows, and now it knows my name.
Praise for Lakesedge
'Lakesedge is an intense tale of mystery and magic that will have lovers of gothic romance eager for the next instalment.' - Juliet Marillier
'A shadow-drenched fairytale that readers will happily devour. Lyndall Clipstone's lush prose lends itself to a world both dark and elegant, brimming with monsters and a young woman brave enough to face them.' - Emily Lloyd-Jones
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Clipstone's literal-leaning, overwhelmingly white fantasy debut runs the Gothic trope list aesthetically but founders under a looping compulsion for self-sacrifice. Foundling Violeta Graceling, 17, can see her younger brother Arien's nightmares—shadows that claw her through his hands and draw their pious foster mother's violence to burn death god The Lord Under out of him. But when regional lord Rowan—a beautiful, facially scarred 19-year-old who purportedly murdered his family—notices Arien's power and spirits him to the cursed Lakesedge Estate, Violeta forces her way in, obsessed with protecting Arien. Rowan plans to use Arien's magic to mend the Corruption that is poisoning Lakesedge and consuming him. But as dark visions stalk the halls, Violeta discovers that the estate's secrets connect to the magic she traded away in a devil's bargain years ago—and she might have to choose between her attraction to Rowan and mending him and Lakesedge both. Narrator Violeta's controlling reflexes and an unsubtle blurring between desire and violence combine disturbingly with challenges repeatedly solved through self-harm, resulting in a linguistically lush fantasy of helplessness whose plotting frequently bends around emotion rather than developing its own ideas. Ages 14–up.
