These Shattered Spires
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In this YA high fantasy, four magical rivals must work together to survive a deadly competition. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Gideon the Ninth.
Entombed beneath a tooth-filled sky, the world rots. At the heart of the decay world is Fourspires Castle, home to arcanists from the four disciplines--bone, blood, botany, and stone.
When the king is assassinated, chaos erupts. To crown a new ruler, the arcanists and their human familiars must kill or be killed in a bloody fight to the top of the Fifth Tower.
Amid the bloodshed, four rival familiars must work together . . . Taro, a bone witch still obsessed with her ex. Nixie, a botanical familiar who will do anything for her freedom. Elliot, a cursed and vengeful blood familiar. And Alix, a banished stone familiar shrouded in secrets.
Together, the four Wyrdos are not just fighting to survive, but to lift the curse on their world and find out what really lies beyond the decay of Fourspires.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rival teen witches unite to circumvent their doom in this heartrending trilogy opener from Salter (Where the Woods End). Wresting magic from an element is injurious, excruciating work, so arcanists, those able to use this power, enslave magically gifted children, dubbed familiars, to perform the extractions. Fortunate familiars live into their 30s, but when someone inside the dome-encased Fourspires Castle commits regicide, bone witch Taro, botanic witch Nixie, stone witch Alis, and blood witch Elliot—each an 18-year-old familiar to the head arcanists of the four disciplines—fear their days are numbered. Royal tradition dictates that the head arcanists vie for the throne via mortal combat, after which all the losing arcanist's familiars must die. According to a Fourspires ghost, though, survival lies outside the dome. To break the centuries-old curse anchoring this dome, Taro, Nixie, Alis, and Elliot must join forces, but a failed attempt could end in apocalypse. Salter deftly balances the intersectionally diverse characters' grim existence with gleefully gruesome worldbuilding, snarky banter, and fraught queer romance. Candid close-third-person narration alternates between the quartet's perspectives, revealing the pain and yearning that underlie the protagonists' outsize personalities while fostering tension and drive. Ages 14–up.
