Review Detail

This book was fantastic.

Selkie is a great protagonist, who is strong and interesting, but doesn’t try to save the world all on her own. It is a little hard for Selkie to come to terms with her Otherworld heritage, but once she does the girl is tenacious.

Not only that, she accepts the help of other people she knows she needs. Don’t get me wrong, Selkie would rather go it alone – just to keep these people safe. But Will, Ben, Kelsey, Safford, and even a couple of minor characters are just too integral to the story to leave out. I absolutely loved that these characters were important, fully conceived, and well through their own story arcs and character development. A good heroine like Selkie has an awesome team backing her up, and a fun sidekick like Kelsey.

The world-building is so well done. The author writes with personal knowledge of Boston, the real world setting, but not with so much detail that we get bored with it. Just pertinent information about various places in Boston is shared, and it is so well done that I feel like I could recognize these places! The same for the Otherworld, of which we only get to see the Seelie court. However, I feel like I could find my own way from Boston to the gates of the faerie castle because it was so well written!

The Verdict: Skylar Dorset’s debut novel is an astoundingly well-done urban fantasy in the style of Neverworld and Daughter of Smoke & Bone. If you’re looking to get swept up in a world-spanning fantasy adventure, check out the Otherworld series!