Do you know how starved I was for a story about fae with zero romantic plotlines? Because I didn’t until I came across this story and absolutely devoured it.

In this novel we follow Iohmar, one of the many lords of the fae. When he comes across a dying human baby he can’t help himself but to take it and care for it and nurse it back to health, whatever the cost to his own magic. Iohmar is obsessed with his foundling son and fiercely protective, but the magic he uses to heal this dying human will attract strange forces to his borders and invite chaos into the reigning peace. 

The familial relationships in Iohmar’s life are the focus of this novel: primarily his relationship with his son, but we also reflect on his parents and childhood friends. There is a great deal to consider when you have lived for thousands of years and the complexities of familial relationships only increase with time. I could not tell you the last time I read a book that focused purely on platonic love and McCosh handles these themes with care and fastidious attention.

 The plot is light but not thin and carries a thread of intrigue right up until the end. We see a whole range of fae creatures and get a taste for the lands and the cultures that look nothing like our own. The land of Látwill could be an alien city if it weren’t for the subtle, familiar elements that we love to see in fae stories: the power of the earth and its fruits, the intensity of a promise, and the delicate meaning of carefully chosen words. 

Everything about this novel is fantastical and elegant, right down to the writing. The prose is light and airy and you can practically see curlicues twirling off the end of each sentence as you finish it. Látwill is described with every ounce of the breath-taking beauty it deserves and the pure whimsy of the magic system. Creatures travel on sunbeams and coax plants from the ground or fruits from the trees. Fae can summon winds to dance in or rains to soak the earth and feed the ecosystems they thrive in. There isn’t an inch of human influence in this world, nor a hint of the tropes and plot points you might normally find in a fae story in the shops right now. This is the kind of book that you want to bundle away and protect, to keep as a secret, comforting world that no one else can touch.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who has ever admired a painting by Arthur Rackham. [Ed. um, SOLD]