• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2023 April #2
  In this viciously dark fantasy, a horrific siren who can't speak, thanks to a cruel husband who captured her and cut out her tongue, and a plague doctor who has watched the kingdom succumb to a plague impossible for them to stop leave their now-desolate city in search of a new adventure. When the two creatures stumble on a sinister cult of children who believe gods can resurrect them, their interest is piqued. But then, in the snow-covered, frigid forest, they meet the children's gods, the kind of monsters who enjoy taking apart a child and stitching it back together, and the siren and the doctor realize that it will take quick thinking, sharp teeth, and a lot of courage to get out alive. This novella is short but action-packed, unctuous, and deliciously creepy, a mash-up of Angela Carter's dark fairy-tale retellings and the poetic love story core of This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019). The book is overflowing with eerie body horror, sensory details of cold snow and warm blood, and terrifying monsters (both protagonists and villains). Copyright 2023 Booklist Reviews.

CASSANDRA KHAW is an award-winning game writer and former scriptwriter at Ubisoft Montreal. Khaw's work can be found in places like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. Khaw’s first original novella, Hammers on Bone, was a British Fantasy Award and Locus Award finalist, and their latest novella, Nothing But Blackened Teeth, was a USA Today bestseller, Bram Stoker Award nominee, and Indie Next Pick.