This Dark Descent

July 24, 2023
Seventeen-year-old Mikira is a talented horse jockey and scion of a renowned family of enchanted equine breeders whose fortunes have declined since attracting the ire of cruel Lord Rezek Kelbra. When Rezek discovers that Mikira’s father is an unlicensed enchanter, the lord sets an ultimatum: win the Illinir, a series of deadly races, on an unenchanted horse, or forfeit her father and the family business. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Arielle, also an unlicensed enchanter, hides a secret—she can create golems, powerful creatures from a forbidden magical tradition whose enchantments can go undetected. The girls’ paths collide when Lord Damien Adair, the youngest son of an upstart noble house, approaches them with a plan to win the Illinir, taking his own revenge on house Kelbra in the process. Josephson (The Crow Rider) merges grounded magical lore with electromechanical technology to develop a grim and corruptly governed city populated by morally ambiguous characters. Via Mikira and Arielle’s witty alternating perspectives, Josephson presents them as ever-evolving figures with interestingly complementary approaches to the world and the circumstances they find themselves in. Jewish folklore involving golems and dybbuks is woven throughout, and Jewish history strongly informs the backstory of this fantasy world’s people. Ages 14–up.

August 15, 2023
In the complicated political fantasy landscape of Enderlain, Mikira Rusel and Arielle Kadar are strong young women forced into dire circumstances. Ari uses banned Kinnish magic, based on the Jewish myth of the golem, to feed herself. Mikira is from a family who breeds magical horses. Early in the story, Ari is assaulted and robbed, while Mikira's father, who is deeply in debt and using illegal enchantment to enhance his horses, is arrested. Using the girls' desperation to their own advantage, Damien Adair and Rezek Kelbra, the sons of two warring noble houses, each devise plots to gain power to control the city. Damien enlists Ari and Mikira in a devious plan to win the Illinir, a series of dangerous horse races held once every decade: Mikira will be the jockey, and Ari will create a golem disguised as a horse. While this dual narrative told in the girls' alternating points of view is original and engaging, the multiple storylines and numerous characters lead to plot holes that may confuse readers. The languid pace of most of the story leads up to an ending that comes too quickly and leaves many open storylines and unanswered questions. While it's obvious that a sequel is in the works, the perplexing nature of this book might leave some readers feeling unfulfilled. The main characters have olive or light skin. An elaborate yet convoluted high fantasy that references Jewish folklore. (map, family trees) (Fantasy. 14-18)

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Starred review from August 1, 2023
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Mikira Rusel's family was once famous in Enderlain for the enchanted horses they bred--horses that ran in races like the Illinir, a dangerous, five-event competition with rich rewards. But now they barely scrape by as their debts rise. When her father is caught practicing illegal magic, Mikira strikes a deadly deal with Rezek Kelbra, the ambitious, manipulative heir to one of Enderlain's four great houses. If she can win the Illinir on an unenchanted horse--an impossible task--Rezek will forgive her father and her family's debts. If she loses, he wins their ranch. With no real choice, Mikira finds herself joining forces with Damien Adair, a mysterious son from a powerful family who has his own grudges against Rezek, and Arielle Kadar, a girl who practices an illicit, persecuted form of magic and who can create a golem horse for Mikira to ride undetected. Josephson uses Jewish history and mythology to great effect when shaping her rich, turbulent world, which is surgically built around fragile power structures. Romance, much of it queer, lingers in the background, but the real heart of this series starter is the complexity of its characters: the story unfolds through Mikira and Arielle's alternating perspectives, and each girl is as purposefully made as Arielle's golems. An uncommonly arresting fantasy that questions the price of goodness, the cost of magic, and the depths of humanity.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 23, 2024

Gr 9 Up-Game of Thrones meets The Hunger Games-with horses-in a dark fantasy that is in turns gripping and maddening. Mikira is a jockey in illegal horse races who survives in a repressive surveillance society, in the capital city of Enderlain. After entering into an unwise bargain with an evil young lord, Rezek, Mikira enters into a counter-alliance with Lord Damian Adair, who hires an unlicensed Kinnish enchanter, Arielle, to build a golem-horse to help Mikira win a high-stakes steeplechase famous for on-course assassinations. This book is at its best when it grapples seriously with what it means to be Jewish in the fantasy genre. Josephson portrays the entwined history, theology, and magical systems of Kinnism and Sendism (the Jewish and Christian stand-ins). Arielle and Damian both grapple with their own fraught connection to their culture as well as to a hostile majority. This brings positive associations with Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver. The class and political dynamics of Enderlain are on shakier ground. Most prominently, Damian is repeatedly disparaged for being a spoiled nobleman, the scion of a diseased aristocracy. But his family's ennoblement has happened within his lifetime and his parents were first-generation immigrants, suggesting fluid class dynamics. Moreover, the rival reformer tempting Mikira's sympathies from Damian is a princess? That doesn't sound like it will end with systematic change! Alongside exciting racing scenes, there is also plot silliness, such as strategist Damian leaving a signet ring he needs in the hands of a man he has killed-in order to get that ring. VERDICT Alternately engrossing and messy, this adventure is for large collections wishing to diversify their fantasy shelves.-Katherine Magyarody

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