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The Lustrous Dark by Loretta Chefchaouni

Review: The Lustrous Dark by Loretta Chefchaouni

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

The Lustrous Dark
Loretta Chefchaouni
Peachtree Teen
Published May 19, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Lustrous Dark

For fans of Sabaa Tahir and Guillermo del Toro comes The Lustrous Dark, a sweeping YA fantasy inspired by a Moroccan folktale, in which a young midwife’s apprentice rises up to take back the power that’s been stolen from women.

Orphaned as a baby, Shay has spent her life training as the midwife’s apprentice. Her role grants her stability, yet Shay has always yearned for more. Namely, motherly affection and answers regarding her mysterious birth—neither of which the midwife deems practical to provide.

After Shay discovers her birth mother, Hind, is still alive and addicted to a magical drug called Snow, she determines to get the woman clean. But when Hind betrays Shay to get her hands on more Snow, Shay’s abandoned within a deadly forest and forced to rely on a band of monstrous ghouls for safety.

Shay’s realm has long stood on the brink of war between the men who control magic and the revolutionaries who want to eliminate it. But in the forest, Shay hears the pleading call of ancient spirits who claim that not only has magic been stolen, but she has the power to return it. With the help of a spitfire revolutionary and the boy who’s winning over her heart, Shay discovers the horrific truth of who produces Snow and will have to decide for herself whether to heed the spirits’ charge or fade into obscurity.

This emotionally raw and gorgeously rendered fairytale combines the lush worldbuilding of This Woven Kingdom with the mother trauma of Snow White and a dash of Tim Burton. Steeped in mysticism and mythology, The Lustrous Dark confronts injustices against women with a righteous scream that’ll inspire readers to rally against the patriarchy and oppressive regimes worldwide.

My Review

The author’s note at the beginning of the book shares how Chefchaouni came to write this story. She shares a bit about its personal connection to her life. I loved having that context as I went into the story. It definitely has the feel of a book that’s wrestling with deep things.

Shay herself wrestles with her feelings about her adoptive mom. She longs for a connection with her biological mother and has both fears and desires regarding her own hidden magical abilities. Those experiences felt incredibly real.

The portrayal of addiction is a little more stigmatized than I’ve seen lately, especially in young adult fiction. While the story explores some of the predatory behavior of groups in power and the role that Snow plays in that power structure, the story doesn’t delve very deeply into the illness of addiction. The most prominent character battling addiction is portrayed as both a victim of her addiction and an untrustworthy person. Both Shay’s behavior and this other character’s are realistic. I think the story would have benefited from additional context on addiction as an illness.

That aside, I thought the story and its themes of addiction as a means of subjugating a population made for a powerful vehicle for reimagining the Moroccan folktale. The fantasy landscape is filled with intricate details that all feel like they could have their own stories. The large cast of characters is handled well.

All in all, this evocative fantasy, exploring complex feelings about the pull of biological connections and the unique power of femininity, makes for a fascinating read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Vague reference to sex. Vague reference to sexual abuse.

Spiritual Content
The story contains some folklore tales about how the story’s monsters came to exist. Magic has been outlawed and stigmatized as a result of using a powerful drug called Snow. Some babies are born with magical abilities. A strong tea can suppress the ability. Midwives have a special spiritual affinity, since they spend so much time near the veil between life and death in the course of their work.

Violent Content
Several scenes show traumatic birth events. (Babies that must be revived after birth, a mother dying in childbirth.) Brief, graphic descriptions of execution by hanging. Brief, graphic descriptions of a group of monsters consuming someone’s remains. And brief, graphic descriptions of a soldier killing a woman. A vampire-like character attacks a woman and boasts of killing others.

Drug Content
A powerful drug called Snow is highly addictive. Shay tries to help an addicted woman who isn’t ready/able to give up her addiction.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Deep Is the Fen by Lili Wilkinson

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Deep Is the Fen
Lili Wilkinson
Delacorte Press
Published April 16, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Deep Is the Fen

Merry doesn’t need a happily-ever-after. Her life in the charming, idyllic town of Candlecott is fine just as it is. Simple, happy, and with absolutely no magic. Magic only ever leads to trouble.

But Merry’s best friend, Teddy, is joining the Toadmen—a secret society who specialize in backward thinking and suspiciously supernatural traditions—and Merry is determined to stop him. Even if it means teaming up with the person she hates most: her academic archnemesis, Caraway Boswell, an ice-cold snob who hides his true face under a glamour.

An ancient Toad ritual is being held in the sinister Deeping Fen, and if Merry doesn’t rescue Teddy before it’s finished, she’ll lose him forever. But the Toadmen have been keeping dangerous secrets, and so has Caraway. The farther Merry travels into Deeping Fen’s foul waters, the more she wonders if she’s truly come to save her friend . . . or if she’s walking straight into a trap.

There’s nothing the Toadmen love more than a damsel in distress.

My Review

Something about this book reminded me of some of my favorite things in Mary Watson’s books. I guess it’s that it feels both like it’s set in the real UK world and simultaneously in a separate, fantasy world at the same time. I love that worldly/otherworldly vibe in this book.

The story also contains some themes that beg to be explored. (Think THE TROUBLED GIRLS OF DRAGOMIR ACADEMY, but YA) Women who have power are witches and imprisoned. Men form secret societies in which they promote and celebrate forbidden power. It invites some thinking.

It also has a great rivals-to-lovers thread weaving through it, and since that’s one of my favorite tropes, I knew I would be hooked on it. And I was! I loved Merry and Caraway’s characters. (And their names.) I liked the pacing of their getting to know one another and learning things about each other. Also, I liked the evolution of Merry’s besties trio. I liked that the author didn’t write Teddy and Sol out of the story.

I devoured this whole book in a single afternoon. The setting is immersive and the characters engaging. By the time I finished the last page, I was already looking at what else Wilkinson had written so I could get more of this incredible storytelling.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
One of Merry’s best friends is Black and transgender. Several characters are queer.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Merry stumbles onto two people in bed together and quickly leaves.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic, most often women. These people are labeled as witches and imprisoned in a forced rehabilitation program. Only 100 spells are legal. Anything outside the legal spells must be purchased from an approved vendor, one of the three companies that basically run everything.

Merry can see threads of magic in people. Some people have unnatural threads that she believes come from using illegal magic. The threads can be used for other nefarious things.

The Toadmen are an elite society with secret, sacred rituals that promise power and opportunity to members.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some brief torture and scary images. A man severs a nerve in another man’s face, effectively making him unable to smile ever again. Someone tortures a man in an attempt to manipulate someone. Someone cuts a man’s throat. Another man dies by suicide in order to protect someone else.

Someone uses stones and rings to control others.

Drug Content
Drugged (or magicked, I guess) food and drink make people see things that aren’t there or make them easily manipulated.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of Deep Is the Fen in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Historical, Horror, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
Andrew Joseph White
Peachtree Teen
Published September 5, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

Mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all.

London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. According to Mother, he’ll be married by the end of the year. It doesn’t matter that he’s needed a decade of tutors to hide his autism; that he practices surgery on slaughtered pigs; that he is a boy, not the girl the world insists on seeing.

After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School. The facility is cold, the instructors merciless, and the students either bloom into eligible wives or disappear. So when the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its rotten guts to the world—as long as the school doesn’t break him first.

My Review

This book makes me realize how often I eat while I’m reading. I do not recommend doing that while reading this book– which is probably an obvious idea. It’s a horror novel, after all.

One of the main reasons this book hit my TBR list is that I was so blown away by the author’s debut, HELL FOLLOWED WITH US, which is a post-apocalyptic horror novel. If you ever wondered how post-apocalyptic stories and reimagined history could overlap, this pair of books would make a good study.

If I had to describe this book in under ten words, I would say, GIRL, INTERRUPTED but make it queer horror/historical fantasy. Just like his debut, Andrew Joseph White delivers stark prose and anguished characters. The relationships between some of the characters provide bright spots and soothing moments between the intensity of the other scenes.

I really appreciated the romance thread and the hopefulness that a few of the characters find as they form relationships with one another. It does get into some pretty intense body horror and gruesome medical descriptions, so this won’t be a novel for everyone. I also appreciate that the author includes a content warning at the front of the book.

All in all, horror will never be my favorite genre, but I am absolutely in awe of writers like Andrew Joseph White who deliver fast-paced, deep stories with incredible characters and unforgettable moments. If you’re looking for a dark, twisty horror novel with a hopeful undertone, grab this one immediately.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Silas is transgender and has autism. Another character is transgender. Brief mentions of women who have romantic feelings for each other.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used a bit frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
In one scene, a man grabs Silas and forces a kiss on him. Kissing between a boy and girl. Some characters shame others for being sexually active or for doing something perceived as flirting or being alone with a man.

Spiritual Content
Characters with violet eyes have the ability to see into the spirit realm and communicate with the spirits of people who have died. When men do this, it’s a sign of power, but women with this ability are told they’re sick and must be “treated.” (Read: tortured until their captors are satisfied they are submissive enough.)

Violent Content
Very specific descriptions of medical procedures, such as a hysterectomy. Some instances of torture. For example, one woman is forced to walk with glass in her shoes every day. A girl throws another girl down the stairs. At one point, a girl attacks another girl, choking and hitting her. A girl bites another girl. A man presents a woman to an audience after having removed her eyes, tongue, and teeth. The woman has apparently self-inflicted wounds on her wrists that look as if she bit herself.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE SPIRIT BARES ITS TEETH in exchange for my honest review.