Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The haunting adult debut from bestselling YA author Craig (The Thirteenth Child) follows Greer Mackenzie, who, along with the rest of her neighbors, is trapped within the small town of Mistaken by a perimeter of Warding Stones, massive rock formations that cut the village off from the outside world. Anyone caught outside the stones after sunset is dragged back into town by a mysterious force that takes no heed of any obstacles in its path. The stones, a gift from the higher power known as the Benevolence, are intended as protection from the Bright-Eyeds, malicious creatures that inhabit the wilds outside town. Greer, who is considered odd for both her wanderlust and uncannily powerful sense of hearing, nevertheless adheres faithfully to rites and rituals honoring the Benevolence and the stones. One night, however, the Wandering Stones move, advancing on the town and leaving Greer's love, Ellis Beaufort, on the other side of the boundary. Determined to bring him back, Greer must learn to evade the Warding Stones' magic, unraveling many of Mistaken's secrets in the process. The dark and twisting plot combined with Craig's vivid depiction of the northern wilderness and the horrors hiding within it keep the pages turning. Fans of eerie fairy tales are sure to be pleased. (Sept.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Greer Mackenzie has always dreamed of seeing the world beyond the borders of her settlement of Mistaken, and her work as a mapmaker only adds to that desire. However, she and everyone else who lives in Mistaken are trapped there by the Warding Stones that surround their tiny community. These stones also keep out the monsters, known as the Bright-Eyed, that live in the woodlands beyond Mistaken's borders. Greer makes plans with her childhood love, Ellis Beaufort, to find each other during the Hunt (a hide-and-seek courting game that pairs up couples to marry), but when the Hunt begins, she is shocked to see Ellis walk through the boundary of the Warding Stones and be hunted by a creature. Determined to save Ellis, Greer discovers that the history of their town is not what its residents have been told. She and Mistaken have mysterious origins, and all will come to light as the Bright-Eyed face the travelers. The novel starts off at a slow pace, but the second half quickly sets up an action-filled sequence of events. VERDICT Craig's (The Thirteenth Child) adult debut pulls from Scottish folklore to explore a woman's desire to be free.--Kristi Chadwick
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A gothic historical romantasy that takes place in an imaginary North American coastal region and features frontier-esque hardships, feminist concepts, and truly frightening supernatural creatures. When you grow up in a town named Mistaken, things don't always go as planned. Greer Mackenzie is 27 and more than ready for this year's Hunt, a kind of 18th-century Sadie Hawkins Day in which Mistaken's unmarried people find future mates. Greer and her longtime beau, Ellis Beaufort, heir to the local bakery, can't wait for their marriage. Unfortunately, Greer's father, Hessel Mackenzie, owner of the lucrative lumber mill, has other plans--and, unbeknownst to Greer, so does Ellis. There's hardscrabble survival aplenty, whether it's Greer's friend Louise catching rabbits for her underserved family's stew or Greer heading off beyond the town's Warding Stones with a canvas sack containing deer jerky, hand-knit socks, and other provisions to keep her safe in the land of the Bright-Eyed and the Gathered. The Bright-Eyed turn out to be shape-shifting, blood-sucking beasts; the Gathered an isolated group of zombified survivors. No one seems to fully understand this new world, even if the Bright-Eyed have managed to instill fear in both Indigenous people and European settlers. Toward the end, Greer learns more about the origin of the Bright-Eyed. She's told they're ruled by a queen who was "intrigued by the idea of a new world, a new continent to see, to explore, to feast upon. She had an insatiable hunger formore." Unfortunately, Greer's story and the background information on Mistaken take so long to tell that once the violence and battles for the souls of humans versus demons begin, it's difficult to remember that at one point the novel centered on the cruel inequality women in early colonial societies faced. Instead, the action turns to teeth, talons, and turncoats, with an intriguing but strangely unsatisfying strand about how evil came to the shores of a land so bounteous and yet unexplored. Fascinating worldbuilding with a strong and surprising feminist twist. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
