There is a kind of note, low and resonant, coaxed from the belly of a cello, that scratches a spot deep inside my brain. Alix E. Harrow's prose is like that.

Yes, that! Exactly that!

As any reader of second-world fantasy knows, the first few pages can be disorienting. We are dropped, naked and distrustful, into a landscape with no familiar reference points. As in any fiction, we meet characters we do not know in situations we don't yet understand, but we do it under constant bombardment from unfamiliar words and concepts, unpronounceable names, and new rules of physics. A new fantasy world is gooey. The ground is made of jello, and we've only faith in the author's skill to prop us up on the journey until our feet find purchase. While my first steps in The Everlasting found me lost as any new traveler in a second world fantasy, Harrow's masterful prose dove and swerved with such skill that I knew I would not be lured into any narrative dark allies or have my pocket picked by a poorly executed plot. Not only did her writing propel me forward with confidence, but I read on for the sheer pleasure of it. The only other author in my experience who wields a metaphor with this same clarity as Harrow is Barbara Kingsolver, whose descriptions often leave me thinking, Yes, that! Exactly that! The very thing I would have meant, if only I'd had the words!

Reader, she did not bore me.

I picked up The Everlasting in response to the shrieking chorus of rave reviews, not because I'd read the jacket flap in advance. Unaware of the plot, I drifted along on the raft of Harrow's prose, enjoying the scenery until I was brought up short by the roar of the falls downstream. The world spun. The plot plunged.

And began again.

Oh no. A time loop.

Suddenly a plot device that is made only barely tolerable by Bill Murray's comedic timing in Groundhog Day stretched out before me with all the charm of the Mojave in summer. I am not a fan of a time loop. To be clear, I am not saying they are objectively a bad thing, only that I personally, in response, turn into my worst third-grade self, start throwing my eraser at other students and carving at the desk with my protractor. But because Alix Harrow had so skillfully guided me through the first part of our journey, I grudgingly soldiered on. And immediately put down my protractor. I won't say more, for fear of spoilers, but that I was pleasantly surprised at every turn by events I did not anticipate. If you know me at all, you know I have one rule of fiction: THOU SHALT NOT BORE ME WITH THE EXPECTED!

Reader, The Everlasting did not bore me.

Come for the Hype, Stay for the Characters

Until age began to diminish me, I have always been a "big boned" woman, genetically designed to haul loads of babies and firewood up and down the German Alps, not for sipping tea in Belgravia, pinkie extended. Men do not step forward to say, "Let me get that for you, little lady." I get the grudging nod to let me know I am on my own. My few youthful attempts at dating men were farcical attempts to jam my foot into the glass slipper, the whole time biting my tongue to hide the fact that I dare more greatly, dream bigger, walk farther, and travel wilder than the person sat across from me. Men whose main character energy matched my own soon revealed themselves to be seeking supporting cast only. Good luck to them. Coming of age in the 80's and 90's, I had no words for my situation, and now, thanks to the TikTokers, I do: "sad lady knight."

I had seen this phrase mentioned in relation to The Everlasting, so I prepared myself for a version of Brienne of Tarth—a big (and therefore undesirable) warrior woman in unrequited love with a beautiful man. I was delighted to meet, instead, Sir Una Everlasting—unapologetically strong, unabashedly large, and unshrinking in her sexual appetites. A hero who, for better or worse, has shaped a nation with her exploits.

And to accompany her, Harrow gives us Owen Mallory—a fine-boned, bespectacled scholar and self-declared "coward" who does not attempt to contain her for the benefit of his ego (or, if he does, corrects himself soon enough) and celebrates her for the force of nature that she is. For the novelty of that, I am half in love with him myself.

And the Themes!

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't cheer for the deeper themes of this narrative: Who controls history, and to what end? The futility and cost of empire. The nature of love over time. Again, I won't say more for fear of spoilers, but...

Yes.

Speaking of love over time, I very much I look forward to reading books by Alix E. Harrow for many decades to come.  

Reviews

"[The Everlasting] is a feat of the ages. An utter masterpiece… It has scribbled itself over the heart line of my palm and there it will remain, as eternal as its namesake. I loved every single page."  —Rachel Gillig, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of One Dark Window

"The loveliness of an Alix E. Harrow story is matched only by the exquisiteness of her craft...It's pure magic."  —Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

"No one writes about why we read quite like Alix Harrow…A wildly inventive, truly magical tour de force.” —Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning, on The Everlasting

“A beautiful novel about the stories that shape our lives and the divine and ordinary inevitability of love… If Una Everlasting stabbed me I’d die happy." —Lex Croucher, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Gwen & Art Are Not In Love

"I was utterly trapped in its pages—and now free, already long to return."  —Caitlin Starling, Bram Stoker Award Winner and USA Today bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence on The Everlasting

“Destined to become a classic…Harrow blends a time loop, medieval legend, and plenty of yearning to create this sweeping epic.” —Harper's Bazaar on The Everlasting

"The Everlasting is razor sharp and designed to cut you deeply. You’ll be moved, you’ll probably cry, and by the end you’ll say thank you for delivering my suffering so beautifully…What exquisite agony, wonderfully delivered." –NPR, Books We Love