This first impression is…unsettling. It’s based on the fairy tale of Rapunzel but the resemblance is purely superficial. The young prisoner has convinced herself she isn’t one. After all, she’s kept in her tower as a way to safeguard people from her deadly touch. She’s pampered, well fed, clothed in sumptuous attire and gets to visit a king in his palace once a year. How is that imprisonment?
Yet Selestra is at the beck and call of an immortal king, one who feeds on the souls of the desperate and unfortunate and she can’t help but feel a growing unease about it. True, the people who come do so of their own free will to take place in a deadly game of chance that may result in reward or death. But the king terrifies her with his steely gaze and poisonous gifts.
The magic the author has created is different from any conjuring I’ve ever read and the description of it creeps under the skin until it coils, cold and sickening, in your stomach. In short, this is new territory we’re plumbing, disturbing and promising alien horror and possible delight. If this is your poison, brace yourself for its sting.
Yet Selestra is at the beck and call of an immortal king, one who feeds on the souls of the desperate and unfortunate and she can’t help but feel a growing unease about it. True, the people who come do so of their own free will to take place in a deadly game of chance that may result in reward or death. But the king terrifies her with his steely gaze and poisonous gifts.
The magic the author has created is different from any conjuring I’ve ever read and the description of it creeps under the skin until it coils, cold and sickening, in your stomach. In short, this is new territory we’re plumbing, disturbing and promising alien horror and possible delight. If this is your poison, brace yourself for its sting.