Nightbirds
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • In a dazzling new fantasy world full of whispered secrets and political intrigue, the magic of women is outlawed but four girls with unusual powers have the chance to change it all.
Magic is illegal in Simta, but for the right price, the wealthy can always partake. They need only procure a visit with a Nightbird, girls who can gift their rare powers with a kiss. Usually a tight-knit group, this Season’s Nightbirds couldn’t be more different. Matilde, the group’s veteran, relishes the feeling of power and freedom she thinks her Nightbird status affords, but rebels against her family’s growing expectation that she finally choose a suitor and pass her magic on to the next generation; fiery orphan Sayer, resigned to this life as a means to support herself, resents each transaction and the world Matilde so reveres; and novice Æsa, fears her own magic and thinks her very existence is a sin.
But when the Nightbirds find themselves at the heart of a deadly political scheme that shakes the world as they know it, they must put their differences aside and band together to fend off those who would exploit them. In doing so, they discover their magic is more powerful than they could have ever imagined, and they see the Nightbirds system for what it is: a gilded cage. United, they are a potent force that could upend the patriarchal system that would hunt them as witches. But wielding their power could cost them more than they are prepared to lose. They must make a choice: to remain kept birds or take control, remaking the city that dared to clip their wings.
Fiercely feminist and set in a thrilling, intoxicating world evoking the Jazz Age—full of speakeasies with magic cocktails, sharp-edged, duplicitous glamour, and handsome rogue alchemists—Nightbirds is an exciting debut fantasy that dazzles as powerful girls emerge from the shadows to determine their own fates.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this dazzling, fiercely feminist novel, teen witches dubbed Nightbirds bestow temporary doses of their unique abilities via kiss on the wealthy, highborn men of Simta's Great Houses in exchange for protection from puritanical, magic-banning powers-that-be. A madam strictly regulates access to the girls, hiding their identities until they retire to marry a Great House man and birth a new generation. Mathilde, a veteran Nightbird, believes what she's always been told—that intrinsic magic is rare; that she must not wield her magic, only gift it; and that the system keeps her safe. Then, the first evening she works with two novice Nightbirds, street-savvy orphan Sayer and sheltered immigrant Æsa, a religious zealot launches a violent attack, sparking a chain of cataclysmic events both personal and political. Debut author Armstrong uses lush, seamlessly incorporated worldbuilding, kaleidoscopic third-person-present narration told via realistically rendered characters, and fraught queer and straight romantic subplots to explore issues of classism and misogyny. With a pace that never flags and a harrowing, high-stakes plot, this distinguished read boasts texture, heft, and heart. The protagonists cue as white; supporting characters have varying skin tones. Ages 12–up.
