WHERE THE DARK STANDS STILL, by A. B. Poranek, Margaret K. McElderry Books, Feb. 27, 2024, Hardcover, $19.99 (young adult, ages 14 and up)
A girl makes a bargain with a demon in hopes of freeing her from dangerous magic in Where the Dark Stands Still, a YA fantasy novel by A. B. Poranek.
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. —Synopsis provided by Margaret K. McElderry Books
Inspired by Polish folklore, Where the Dark Stands Still reads like a pre-Disneyfied fairy tale where the setting is dark, the magic a bit wicked and the characters morally grey.
At the center of the story are Liska and the Leszy. While Liska is desperate to be rid of her magic, she does remember a time when it didn’t scare her. It’s that dichotomy that holds her in tense state. She has to come to terms with both sides before she can move forward. The Leszy is dedicated to his job as overseer of the woods, and he will let nothing get in the way of it, until Liska comes along…
When I first started Where the Dark Stands Still, I wasn’t sure how far I’d make it. Author A. B. Poranek’s use of third person present-tense — “The festivities of Kupala night are just beginning when Liska Radost leaves the village behind.” — isn’t my favorite. However, it only took a few pages before it felt right. This style lends to Poranek’s tale, pushing the story ever forward with a sense of immediacy.
From its enchanting cover to compelling text, Where the Dark Stands Still is magical. The tone offers an embrace of imperfection while balancing moments of light, dark and in between. It’s an engrossing read that has me wishing for more from the author.
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