Extasia
My name is unimportant.
All you must know is that today I become one of the four saints of Haven. The elders will mark me and place the red hood on my head. They will give me my true name, and with my sisters I will stand against the evil power that lives beneath the black mountain—an evil which has already killed nine of our village’s men.
I will tell no one of the white-eyed beasts that follow me. Or the faceless gray women tall as houses. Or the girls I saw kissing in the elm grove.
Today I become a saint of Haven. I will rid my family of my mother’s shame at last and save my people from destruction. I am not afraid.
Are you?
From New York Times bestselling author Claire Legrand comes an emotionally searing and lyrically written novel that beckons readers to follow its powerful heroine into a world filled with secrets and blood—where the truth is buried in lies, and a devastating power waits, seething, for someone brave enough to use it.
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a 2023 Rainbow Book List selection
a Spring 2022 Kids’ Indie Next List pick
The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Craft in this feminist standalone from Legrand (the Empirium trilogy), a fusion of horror and queer romantic fantasy that advocates unity, self-empowerment, and societal change. . . . readers will be riveted by Legrand’s fierce female characters and their harrowing emotional journey.
Alongside the gory, insistent violence wrought by the town and the coven, Legrand’s lush and uniquely evocative prose keeps tensions high throughout Amity’s struggle with her magic, fury, and conscience. . . . Slow-burn horror meets a queer coming-of-age story, with compassionately explored themes of feminism, grief, trauma, faith, and abuse. A YA fantasy complement to Naomi Alderman’s The Power; fans of Legrand will find this an interesting new approach, as will readers of Rory Power and House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland.
Legrand crafts a fiercely unsubtle feminist fantasy that takes on the patriarchy and the toxicity of hate. Amity’s evolving sense of self joins horror-driven action that . . . will keep readers invested.
Legrand successfully brings a supernatural gruesomeness to her exploration of morality and agency.