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Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2023
384 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
A contemporary fantasy YA debut from Rochelle Hassan about monsters, magic, and wicked fae, perfect for fans of The Darkest Part of the Forest and The Hazel Wood.
As the only hedgewitch in Blackthorn, Massachusetts―an uncommonly magical place―Aziza El-Amin has bargained with wood nymphs, rescued palm-sized fairies from house cats, banished flesh-eating shadows from the local park. But when a dark entity awakens in the forest outside of town, eroding the invisible boundary between the human world and fairyland, run-of-the-mill fae mischief turns into outright aggression, and the danger―to herself and others―becomes too great for her to handle alone.
Leo Merritt is no stranger to magical catastrophes. On his sixteenth birthday, a dormant curse kicked in and ripped away all his memories of his true love. A miserable year has passed since then. He's road-tripped up and down the East Coast looking for a way to get his memories back and hit one dead end after another. He doesn't even know his true love's name, but he feels the absence in his life, and it's haunting.
Desperate for answers, he makes a pact with Aziza: he'll provide much-needed backup on her nightly patrols, and in exchange, she'll help him break the curse.
When the creature in the woods sets its sights on them, their survival depends on the aid of a mysterious young necromancer they're not certain they can trust. But they'll have to work together to eradicate the new threat and take back their hometown... even if it forces them to uncover deeply buried secrets and make devastating sacrifices.
"With gorgeous prose and rich worldbuilding, this gripping dark fantasy slowly unfolds its tale of broken hearts, family secrets, and self-empowerment as it follows its three appealing, well-rounded narrators and a variety of interesting secondary characters... A wonderful start to a new trilogy." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Overflowing with whimsy, danger, and a touch of humor, this alluring tale maintains a satisfying air of menace and unpredictability." - Publishers Weekly
This information about The Buried and the Bound 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.
Rochelle Hassan grew up reading about dragons, quests, and unlikely heroes; now she writes about them, too. She is the author of the middle grade novel The Prince of Nowhere and young adult fantasy novel, The Buried and the Bound. She lives in New York.
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