Unseelie

December 5, 2022
Seventeen-year-old twin sisters search for truth and treasure in Housman’s beguiling debut, a fae-inspired fantasy series opener. Autistic changeling Iselia “Seelie” Graygrove and her identical twin sister Isolde, who both have olive skin, have survived on the streets by grifting and stealing ever since they were forced to leave home for their parents’ safety (“They aren’t safe when I’m around,” Seelie says). While robbing Wildline Manor, home to a family of powerful enchanters, Seelie finds a magical compass that seeps into her skin as a tattoo, pointing the way to a mysterious treasure. The sisters reluctantly team up with shape-shifter Raze and healer Olani to seek out and split the treasure, while the compass’s owner relentlessly pursues them. As their journey takes them across a danger-filled land and through the realms of Faerie, the quartet slowly bonds, and Seelie learns to wield the magic she’s always tried to suppress while managing heightening anxiety surrounding increasingly dangerous encounters. Housman spins an imaginative tale that’s part heist and part quest, set against a fanciful backdrop of magic and mystery peopled by characters whose genuine chemistry and varyingly antagonistic personalities conjure a sweet found-family dynamic. Ages 13–up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Literary.

January 15, 2023
A young changeling learns to embrace her own magic in this duology opener. Seelie and Isolde have big plans. Newly 17, they roam the world in their trusty, enchanted caravan, the Destiny, seeking riches and kindness and a path back to the home they were forced to leave when Seelie's secret was discovered. After Mami realized Isolde had been taken and Seelie left in her place, she retrieved Isolde from the faeries and adopted the changeling baby. But changelings, representing things beyond human ken, are feared and misunderstood in their village. As Housman movingly describes in her author's note, some folklorists theorize that the changeling myth developed as a way to describe behavioral differences observed in autistic children. Seelie experiences the world as a sometimes overwhelming place--sounds and physical sensations can easily cross the line into abrasive, and social interactions with people who do not understand her are taxing. Like our own, Seelie's world is unkind to those who do not fit the norms, but she begins to claim and love the power inherent to her identity. Joining the sisters on this journey are Raze and Olani: fellow adventurers and opponents-cum-allies with their own tangled, painful histories that are slowly revealed. A heist gone wrong, excursions in different faerie realms, a fledgling romance, and a brownie who appears as a cat keep the story bubbling along, its charm balancing the heavier moments. Seelie and Isolde are cued as Latina; Olani reads Black. An intriguing, magical debut. (map) (Fantasy. 13-18)

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February 1, 2023

Gr 6 Up-The popular theory that changeling folklore was originally produced to explain the existence of autism is the basis for this fantasy novel. Iselia or "Seelie" and her sister Isolde are living on the run since they were cast out of their small village due to prejudice against Seelie, who was a changeling swapped for Isolde. Stealing to survive, Seelie and Isolde find a compass that is supposed to lead to an ancient treasure. Reluctantly teaming up with a shapeshifter, who can only turn into birds, and a healer who is better at fighting, the sisters attempt to find this treasure while fleeing the original owners of the compass. Their journey becomes dangerous when a spirit inhabiting the compass attempts to take control of Seelie's magic. Although the first 200 pages get off to a slow start, exciting action sequences and a twist ending in the second half mostly make up for it. The true selling point of the novel is the autistic main character written by an autistic author, a breath of fresh air to readers who have made do with autistic coded characters and stereotypes. Readers spotting the title can be forgiven for thinking this is a Holly Black-style anti-hero story-and the sections that take place in the magical realm are the strongest parts of the book-but this book is definitely for a younger audience and not quite so dark. VERDICT Hand to fans of Soman Chainani's The School for Good and Evil and fantasy fans looking for autistic representation.-Jeri Murphy

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