The Collagist
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
After Romilly' s mother' s death of a strange fever years ago, neighbors and family fled her village. Bereft, her father becomes increasingly withdrawn, revealing little of their family history that Romilly longs to understand. When her beloved uncle mysteriously disappears from his boat on a cloudless night at sea, she senses her father' s growing terror— a terror she shares when she spies an enormous Being opening a sail-shaped flap of sky over their wheatfield. Romilly suspects these inexplicable events are connected, but how? With the help of unlikely allies— the healer Arra, Robbie the boisterous crow, and the kestrel Mira— Romilly must convince her father to dismantle the wall to his greatest secret, and that of the Being that exists in the world beyond.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Holmberg details a family saga buried under years of secrets in this cumbersome gothic fantasy debut. Most of Romilly's memories of her childhood are shadowed by her mother's mysterious illness. Following her mother's death, villagers suddenly flee their homes and Romilly takes up her mother's place in assisting her emotionally withdrawn father on the family farm. When she learns that her seafaring uncle has gone missing, she persuades her father to help her look for him. Despite them fearing the worst, they find him safe on a remote island in an abandoned cabin once owned by her great-aunt. Exploring further, Romilly realizes that the island is inhabited by strange animals, including a talking crow named Robbie and a kestrel named Mira. After Romilly and her uncle reveal that they've both seen a mysterious sky being, they endeavor to make contact, setting their family on an unexpected path. Dense and overwrought prose hampers narrative clarity and buries the more intriguing elements of Holmberg's worldbuilding, such as the lore behind the enigmatic being and Romilly's ancestry. Romilly and her family cue as white. Ages 12–up.
