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"A heart-pounding adventure. Magic and monsters lurk in every corner as a headstrong trio search for their place in Aden Polydoros's haunting world." --Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of
These Violent DelightsFrom the author of
The City Beautiful comes a haunting fantasy following Toma, adopted daughter of the benevolent undead, making her way across a civil war-torn continent to save her younger sister as she discovers she might possess magical powers herself.
The Kosa empire roils in tension, on the verge of being torn apart by a proletarian revolution between magic-endowed elites and the superstitious lower class, but seventeen-year-old Toma lives blissfully disconnected from the conflict in the empire with her adoptive family of benevolent undead.
When she meets Vanya, a charming commoner branded as a witch by his own neighbors, and the dethroned Tsar Mikhail himself, the unlikely trio bonds over trying to restore Mikhail's magic and protect the empire from the revolutionary leader, Koschei, whose forces have stolen the castle. Vanya has his magic, and Mikhail has his title, but if Toma can't dig deep and find her power in time, all of their lives will be at Koschei's mercy.
Praise for
The City Beautiful "An achingly rendered exploration of queer desire, grief, and the inexorable scars of the past."
-Katy Rose Pool, author of
There Will Come A Darkness"Chillingly sinister, warmly familiar, and breathtakingly transportive,
The City Beautiful is the haunting, queer Jewish historical thriller of my darkest dreams." -Dahlia Adler, creator of LGBTQreads and editor of
That Way Madness Lies
About the author
Aden Polydoros is an award-winning author who transitioned from female-to-male when he was 14. After going 'stealth' for over 10 years, he came out as transgender in order to support trans youth and vocalize how transitioning saved his life. His YA gothic fantasy novel,
The City Beautiful, won the Sydney Taylor Book Award and was a finalist for the Lambda Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Cybils Award, the South Carolina Book Award, and the 2022 World Fantasy Award.
