Morning Star Best Books of 2019

2019 Locus Recommending Reading List

Strange Horizons Best Books of the Year

"An absorbing fantasy about the power of art, family secrets—and obsession. Ivy and her sisters have a secret. Their Great-Aunt Maeve is actually the reclusive author Adela Madden, who wrote Ivory Apples, a book that still, many years after publication, inspires a steady stream of fan mail. And some of those fans can be obsessive. That secret only becomes more urgent for Ivy when, wandering in the woods at Maeve's house, she stumbles upon a secret grove full of sprites, one of whom steps into her. So when a woman named Kate Burden strikes up a friendship with the girls and starts insinuating herself into their lives—and talking about how much she loves Ivory Apples—Ivy is immediately suspicious. But Kate's intentions are far more sinister than even Ivy suspects, and Piper, the sprite living inside her, is too much an agent of chaos to help. Soon Ivy and her sisters are plunged into a nightmare, and the cost of keeping Maeve's secret proves to be greater than they could have imagined. Goldstein (Weighing Shadows, 2015, etc.) has crafted a dark, suspenseful tale in which the power of the faery world is appealingly disruptive and dangerous. The dreamlike quality of portions of the book sometimes works to undercut the impact of genuinely traumatic events, but overall the story is gripping and unusual enough to keep the reader invested. This dark, eerie tale about the lengths people will go for a taste of magic will keep readers guessing until the end."

—Kirkus

"Ivory Apples is a haunting story of what a classic fantasy work can do for and to its readers and its creator; on the other, it's a pretty wonderful, clear-eyed, and unsentimental fantasy novel entirely on its own terms."

—Locus

"As a heroine, Ivy is strong and stubborn in the face of adversary and shines through with wit and resilience, coming of age in the most difficult of circumstances and suddenly finding herself responsible for a young family while fleeing for her life and sanity. She shows intelligence and resourcefulness beyond her young years and is a heroine of the time."

—British Fantasy Society

"Ivory Apples is a legendary fantasy novel of the great-nieces of their Great-Aunt Adela, almost as celebrated and mysterious as the book itself, and the charming superfan Kate Burden—a sort of wicked Mary Poppins on the dogged hunt for hidden magic But magic has always its own desires, far beyond any fan's dream."

—Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn and Summerlong.

"Neil Gaiman hasn't written anything half as good as Ivory Apples . . . If you enjoyed books such as The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente, or War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, you'll love Ivory Apples."

—Little Red Reviewer

"It's great, I loved it, you will also love it."

—Tor.com

"Ivory Apples is a haunting story of what a classic fantasy work can do for and to its readers and its creator; on the other, it's a pretty wonderful, clear-eyed, and unsentimental fantasy novel entirely on its own terms, muse or no muse."

—Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

"Ivory Apples is like a set of Russian Matryoshka dolls: stories within stories within stories within stories that keep you reading all the way to the bottom. I finished in eight hours and now want to read it again. What a charming book in all senses of the word."

—Jane Yolen, author of The Emerald Circus

"A contemporary fant...