The Buried and the Bound
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this creature-filled fantasy, a trilogy kickoff, three teens' lives intertwine as they work to protect their mortal home—and one another—from the deadly machinations of a magical evil. Seventeen-year-old Lebanese American hedge witch Aziza El-Amin patrols Blackthorn, Mass., working to secure the borders between the real world and the fairyland of Elpheme by rescuing wayward shades and combatting aggressive monsters. White Leo Merritt, a 17-year-old cursed to forget his true love, becomes Aziza's ally in exchange for her help in breaking the curse. Unhoused necromancer Tristan, also white, 17, and only a year into his decade-long servitude to a wicked hag in the woods, fears he won't make it to the promised magical favor at the end of his bargain. When the trio team up to combat the forest hag's increasingly malevolent power, they unearth ancient town secrets and mysteries from their own pasts. Hassan (The Prince of Nowhere) employs a rapid pace and plentiful action while still prioritizing the cast's development into magnetic heroes. Overflowing with whimsy, danger, and a touch of humor, this alluring tale maintains a satisfying air of menace and unpredictability. Ages 14–up.
