The Echoed Realm

Vrana brings readers back to the blurry dimension between dream and reality in this heady, hazy sequel to The Hollow Gods. Three years after Miya Delathorne broke free of Black Hollow and entered the ethereal realm, old ties threaten to pull her back. Her companion, Kai Donovan, struggles with how tethered he has become to Miya and is tempted to trade their connection for another. Meanwhile, Miya’s parents are desperate to find their missing daughter and enlist Dr. Mason Evans to investigate her disappearance. What at first seems a familiar battle of good vs. evil is cleverly turned on its head as Vrana pulls readers down the rabbit hole into her strange, folkloric world. Readers will need to stretch their imaginations to make sense of the environs and decipher the metaphors that saturate this narrative. While Vrana’s imagery-heavy prose assists the worldbuilding, it hinders the plot, and readers will spend much time uncertain of the characters’ objectives or what the narrative is building to. This will be best enjoyed by fans of book one and readers of dark, ambiguous fantasy. [em]Agent: Emmy Nordstrom Higdon, Westwood Creative Artists. (Aug.) [/em]