The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door

Starred review from September 1, 2024

When Matthew Hall returned home to his family's farm after World War I, he exposed one of the greatest secrets of the late war: that a magical society has existed for centuries and that the war ended because one of those mages opened a door that should never have been opened and let a fae rampage over the battlefield. Matthew is the only survivor--and magical society wishes he weren't. His sister, desperate to cure the curse that has struck him down and to escape the confines of their small town and tiny farm, embarks on a quest to breach the bastions of magical power so that she can learn enough to break the curse. She enters a world that tries to break her instead and learns that it's founded on a gigantic theft and a huge lie that she and her friends have the power to take down, if they dare. VERDICT Parry's (The Magician's Daughter) latest will enthrall those who loved the post-WWI high-magic high society of Freya Marske's "Last Binding" series. Highly recommended for readers looking for an immersive world of power politics, magical societies, and world-shattering consequences.--Marlene Harris

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Starred review from September 15, 2024
At the battle of Artemis, a German mage summoned a faerie in the hopes of defeating the Allies in WWI. Unfortunately, the faerie escaped the summoning circle, killing hundreds and cursing several. After this tragedy, all the faerie doors were sealed, and faerie magic was forbidden. Matthew Hill returns to his family after barely surviving the faerie curse. His sister Clover, now knowing about the existence of magic, is determined to cure Matthew. Clover is able to pass the entrance exams to Camford, the magic university in England that previously only those in the elite families attended. After a rough start, Clover becomes friends with Alden, Hero, and Eddie. Learning about Clover's brother, her friends experiment with faerie magic and reopening the doors. Although they don't know it at the time, one of these experiments goes wrong and threatens the very existence of Clover's world. Like the best fantasy novels, Parry's latest (after The Magician's Daughter, 2023) serves as a mirror to our own world and the problems within it: the broken world left after a devastating pandemic and how hard it is to make systemic changes in an inherently corrupt system. This intelligent, vivid novel belongs in all library fantasy collections. Highly recommended.

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Starred review from September 30, 2024
Parry (The Magician’s Daughter) skillfully weaves together the mysterious and the mundane in this ambitious historical fantasy about hidden magic, dangerous ambition, and familial loyalty. In 1918, the accidental summoning of a fairy during the last days of WWI leaves many dead and a few survivors horribly cursed, prompting the secret magical community to prohibit any further dealings with the fae. Two years later, farmgirl Clover Hill enrolls at Camford, England’s prestigious university for the sorcerous arts, intent on breaking her brother’s increasingly debilitating fae curse. Though she’s scorned as a double rarity­—a woman and a scholarship student—she manages to befriend dashing, aristocratic Alden Lennox-Fontaine, fellow female scholar Hero Hartley, and botanist Eddie Gaskell. This quartet boldly pursues the forbidden secrets of the fae until they finally succeed in unlocking a door into Faerie country. Eight years later, the four have grown apart, haunted by the consequences of their actions. But when one of Clover’s former friends goes rogue, threatening to upset the balance of power, Clover must stop them, in the process discovering Camford’s deepest secrets. Parry paints a picture of a bygone era that is both attractive and subtly rotten at the core, exploring issues of power and privilege, duty and obligation. The results are complex, introspective, and impressive.