About This Book
Reach for this book if your teenager is struggling with feeling gaslit or unheard in academic or competitive environments. It is a powerful choice for readers who feel like outsiders and need to see a protagonist validate her own reality against a world that calls her hysterical. The story follows Effy, a young architecture student who enters a contest to redesign the estate of a famous late author. There, she encounters a rival scholar and a decaying house that holds dangerous secrets about the fairy tales she has always believed were real. This atmospheric Gothic fantasy explores themes of institutional sexism, healing from trauma, and reclaiming one's voice. While it contains dark themes and mentions of past assault, it offers a deeply cathactic journey of self-advocacy and truth-seeking for mature teens.
