The Splendid City

By: Karen Heuler

Narrated by: Lauryn Allman

A genre-blending story of modern witchcraft, a police state, and WTF characters, for fans of Alice Hoffman and Madeline Miller.

In the state of Liberty, water is rationed at alarming prices, free speech is hardly without a cost, and Texas has just declared itself its own country. In this society, paranoia is well-suited because eyes and ears are all around, and they are judging. Always judging. This terrifying (and yet somehow vaguely familiar) terrain is explored via Eleanor, a young woman eagerly learning about the gifts of her magic through the support of her coven.

But being a white witch is not as easy as they portray it in the books, and she’s already been placed under "house arrest" with a letch named Stan, a coworker who wronged her in the past and now exists in the form of a cat. A talking cat who loves craft beers, picket lines, and duping and "shooting" people.

Eleanor has no time for Stan and his shenanigans, because she finds herself helping another coven locate a missing witch which she thinks is mysteriously linked to the shortage of water in Liberty.

©2022 Karen Heuler (P)2022 Angry Robot

A Book that Needs Editing

The Orwellian world is there, but it doesn’t meet the standards of great literature simply because it needs more editing and thought. The individual parts do not equal a whole. Perhaps the author could write better for television. It was a rushed hodgepodge that gave no real meaning or insight to the reader.