The Mirrorwood

(Hardback)

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Description

Perfect for fans of the Twisted Tales series and Doll Bones, this thrilling, cleverly original (Kirkus Reviews) middle grade fantasy follows a girl without a face as she battles a deadly enchanted forest and learns the truth behind her worlds fairy tales.

Appearances are always deceiving

Fable has been cursed by what the people in her village call the Blight, a twisted enchantment that leaves her without a face of her own. To stay alive, Fable has to steal the faces of others, making her an outcast that no one trusts. When the fierce Blighthunter Vycorax comes to kill Fable to stop her curse from spreading, Fable narrowly escapes by fleeing into the thorny woods surrounding her small village.

The treacherous forest has been ruled by a demon-prince for centuries, a deadly place trapped in time. Fableand her opinionated feline companion, Mothis the first to dare enter in a very long time. There, she encounters a tediously chatty skull, dangerously meddlesome deities, and a beast so powerful it tears at the fabric of reality, leaving nothingness in its horrible wake.

Fable will soon discover that, in the Mirrorwood, nothing is quite like the stories say, and the perilous realm may be the only chance she has to break her curse and find her true self.

Reviews

"Realistic fans will have plenty to appreciate, as the girls slowly building friendship and their struggles to find their own cores independent of family influence or enchantments feel just as vital to the novel as the magic." -- BCCB
"Starts as a fairy-tale retelling but goes somewhere cleverly original once in the enchanted wood." -- Kirkus Reviews
"The author excels in setting expectations and then subverting them: the Withering offers advice; the demon prince turns out to be nice; a blessing given to the true prince turns out to be a curse. Fables twist ties in to themes of identity and self-confidence with gratifying neatness as the novel unfolds in unexpected directions through Fables and Vycoraxs competing motivations and pushes through multiple complications to a highly satisfactory conclusion." -- The Horn Book
"Fagans sinister, fast-paced fantasy adventure is elevated by Fable and Vycoraxs warm, slow-building friendship. This thrilling and unusual tale suggests that self-reflectionand self-acceptancecan be the difference between heroism and villainy."

-- Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

Deva Faganwrites fantasy and science fiction for kids, teens, and adults. She lives in Maine with her husband and her dog. When shes not writing, she spends her time reading, doing geometry, playing video games, hiking, and drinking copious amounts of tea. She is the author ofRival Magic,Fortunes Folly,The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle,Circus Galacticus,Nightingale, andThe Mirrorwood.You can find her online at DevaFagan.com.