Where the Dark Stands Still

By: A. B. Poranek

Narrated by: Ola Forman

A New York Times bestseller

A girl with dangerous magic makes a risky bargain with a demon to be free of her monstrous power in this “dark, devastating, and gothic” (Kirkus Reviews) young adult fantasy perfect for fans of An Enchantment of Ravens and House of Salt and Sorrows.

Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than death: one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.

Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.

Everything

I absolutely loved this book. It was fantastic and heartbreaking at the same time. I loved it more than I can describe.

Beautiful and Heartbreaking

A. B. Poranek, when I catch you A. B. Poranek! Absolutely fantastic read, so many surprising twists to the plot. The ending left me DEVASTATED. 😭

What was that ending?!

This book was delightful. I enjoyed the magic system and world building. The ending was kind of a drag like how are you gonna end on that note leaving me with questions yet feeling like the story is complete.

Enchanting

I love the magic behind this book so much! all the folklore entwined into the story us so magical! I will recommend this story always!

beloved

I loved the story, keeping me enthralled all the way though and I swear i cried a bit in the end. Only thoughts right now are I must know if there's a second book