House of Frank

Synclaire’s emotional debut novel (after the collection The Strange Accounts of Germantown and Other Peculiar Phenomena) is a cozy queer fantasy that occasionally becomes saccharine. Young witch Saika arrives at Ash Gardens, where trees grow from the ashes of the dead, to fulfill her sister’s dying wish that her ashes be planted. Ash Gardens is staffed with magical entities aplenty, including cherubs, a ghost, several witches (one of whom is part gargoyle), and a beast named Frank, who founded the Gardens with his late wife, Kye. When Saika proves unwilling to let go of her sister through the planting ceremony, Frank offers her time to grieve, enlisting her to stay on and help with upkeep of the house, which is battered by puzzlingly frequent and intense storms. Saika soon learns that everyone else living and working in the house has lost someone close to them, which leads to many heartfelt discussions of grief and healing. There’s not quite enough whimsy to counterbalance the therapy speak and all the characters are so unfailingly nice that the plot is sapped of much potential intrigue. Still, fans of The House on the Cerulean Sea looking for something to breeze through on a rainy day will find this does the trick. (Oct.)