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Transformation, enchantment, and the emotional truths of family history teem in Kathleen Jennings' stunning debut, Flyaway.
In a small Western Queensland town, a reserved young woman receives a note from one of her vanished brothers―a note that makes her question memories of their disappearance and her father's departure.
A beguiling story that proves that gothic delights and uncanny family horror can live―and even thrive―under a burning sun, Flyaway introduces readers to Bettina Scott, whose search for the truth throws her into tales of eerie dogs, vanished schools, cursed monsters, and enchanted bottles. Flyaway enchants you with the sly, beautiful darkness of Karen Russell and a world utterly its own.
"[W]onderful...In spellbinding, lyrical prose Jennings lulls readers into this rich, dreamlike world. Lovers of contemporary fairy tales and magical realism will find this a masterful work." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Jennings's debut novella is pure, poetic Australian gothic, filled with haunting emotions, fairy-tale action, and sharp prose." - Library Journal (starred review)
"An exquisite gem of a book, a story which hoards its secrets and reveals its answers slowly, patiently, rewarding the reader who's willing to go on a strange and haunting journey...Subtly sinister and utterly, utterly magical." - Grimdark Magazine
"A fairytale wrapped about in riddles and other thorny bits of enchantments and stories, but none of them quite like any you've heard before. Kathleen Jennings' prose dazzles, and her magic feels real enough that you might even prick your finger on it." - Kelly Link
"Half mystery, half fairy tale, all exquisitely rendered and full of teeth." - Holly Black
"Achingly gorgeous...As tangled and densely interwoven as a tuft of dusty fur snagged on a barbed wire fence, Jennings' debut novella is both deeply indebted to the Australian gothic tradition and vibrantly, bewitchingly itself. A dark, delicious shrike's feast of a fairy tale." - Brooke Bolander
"Brilliant light washes through these pages, a perfect foil for the novella's shadowy, all-too-serious battles of class, community and family. Sly visitations from imported, half-naturalised folklore add further layers of mystery and wonder to a more-than-magical tale of history's grip, the land's memory, and the harm we cannot help but do to ourselves and each other." - Margo Lanagan
This information about Flyaway was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kathleen Jennings is a writer and illustrator in Brisbane, Australia. She was raised on fairy tales on a cattle station in Western Queensland, and practiced as a translator and a lawyer (which is all stories, isn't it?) before returning to undertake a Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing (Australian Gothic Literature) at the University of Queensland. Her short stories have appeared on Tor.com, in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, in anthologies from Candlewick, Ticonderoga and Fablecroft Publishing, and elsewhere. Flyaway is her first novel. As an illustrator, she has been shortlisted for one Hugo and three World Fantasy Awards, and has won several Ditmars.
If you liked Flyaway, try these:
by Susan Choi
Published 2026
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Orange World and Other Stories
by Karen Russell
Published 2020
A stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases Karen Russell's extraordinary, irresistible gifts of language and imagination.
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