The Book of the Unwinding

In Horn’s exciting follow-up to 2018’s The King of Bones and Ashes, it’s been a few months since Celestin Marin slaughtered many of New Orleans’s witches to increase his power and imprisoned his daughter, Alice, on the Dreaming Road, which is built of illusion and is slowly draining her life force. Alice’s resurrected niece Lucy draws powerful psychic Nathalie Boudreau into the attempt to free Alice, but Nathalie fears the price will be high. Meanwhile, several witch sisters are still trying to use witch and former exotic dancer Evangeline Caissy to find the Book of the Unwinding, which will reveal how to harvest the last bit of power in a world where magic is fading, and Alice’s sister, Fleur, is desperate to find the spell that will save Lucy from dying again. Though the scope of the book is daunting, Horn’s characters are terrific, and the superb worldbuilding is buttressed by scenes both wondrous and terrifying; the opening sequence, in which Nathalie must deal with her gruesomely transformed employer, is bone-chilling. The remaining witches must unite to face a dire threat when the Book of the Unwinding falls into the wrong hands. Horn leaves readers hungry for the next installment. (July)