Living in a kingdom where the country’s poor get sacrificed to appease the infernal monster across the poison sea in hell, Alesta, who’s poor, plus-size and autistic hasn’t got a lot going for her. When her attempt to prove herself goes awry, her best friend and heir to the throne—Kyrian—decides to take the blame and ends up being tithed in her place.
Determined to end the sacrifices forever and get back at the monsters who killed her friend, Alesta travels to the depth of hell only to find her friend alive—but monstrously transformed.
Confronted with the truth about the tithings that threatens to turn their worlds upside down, Alesta and Kyrian must stick together to figure out how to save everyone and not lose each other in the process.
To a Darker Shore has an incredible premise with all the goodies YA readers love: angst, monsters, dangerous adventures, an unexpected monstrous childhood-friends-to-lovers romance with loads of pining and fantastic representation (both MCs are autistic). Alesta and Kyrian’s story will pull you in for sure.
While I loved the set up and the world-building, the pacing did meander a lot of times.
To be fair though, I struggle with pacing in pretty much every fantasy book so keep that in mind.
There’s a difference between things happening and them actually having an impact and while the first half of the story featured a lot of the further, the latter was often absent and thus made me feel overwhelmed with everything going on while not giving me a lot to work through at the same time. This changes after a pretty big reveal but to get to that point was tough at times.
The pacing may not have been the greatest but the characters surely were. Alesta and Kyr’s story fascinated me and the switching POVs kept me invested throughout. Their storylines gave us deeper insights into what motivates them and why they act the way they do (which counteracted the meandering pacing beautifully). I love stories where you can really see the characters taking care of each other and the fierce protective vibes from both Alesta and Kyr had me grinning at times. That protectiveness also gives ample space for discussing and pondering what it means to be worthy or valuable or good enough in society and how to accept yourself and let go of that notion that you have to be useful to be accepted, valued and loved. An important message that is sure to resonate with (younger) readers.
Lovers of fantasy stories with original premises and the friends to lovers trope with a monstrous twist will rejoice at getting their hands on To a Darker Shore.
To a Darker Shore is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of April 30th 2024.
Will you be picking up To a Darker Shore? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
A da Vinci-esque teen girl inventor on a Dante-esque journey through hell to save her best friend.
Plain, poor, plus-size, and autistic, Alesta grew up trying to convince her kingdom that she’s too useful to be sacrificed like so many of their country’s poor to appease the infernal monster across the poison sea in hell.
When Alesta’s attempt to prove herself with inventions goes awry, her best friend and heir to the throne, Kyrian, takes the blame expecting leniency―and ends up tithed in her place.
To end the sacrifices forever, Alesta plans to kill the monster that killed her friend. She travels to the depths of hell only to find Kyrian, alive, but monstrously transformed.
There’s no escaping hell or their deeper feelings for one another, and the farther they go, the closer they come to uncovering a truth about the tithings that threatens to invoke the wrath of not only monsters but the gods as well.
