“She doesn’t go back on her word, you know, although she could teach the Devil a few things about loopholes.” Both of those options are on the table when it comes to her Heart’s Desire, although asking Baba Yaga for anything can be a pretty dangerous business. And you can see why Summer accepts Yaga’s invitation to visit without too many second thoughts, other than to wonder whether she should wish for the ability to talk to animals or to be a shapechanger. Keeping that in mind, it’s a understandable that Summer wouldn’t be fazed (much) by a run-in with the terrifying Baba Yaga and her delightfully opinionated chicken-legged house. And while Summer does honestly love her mother, she’s also kind of exhausted by her, and spends as much time as she can reading fairytales as an escape. Summer’s mother is way too protective, and kind of damaged, and achingly human in a way that ends up doing a lot of harm while trying to do the exact opposite.

If it sounds like Summer has the kind of evil mother that young girls sometimes have in fairytales, well, she doesn’t. It might have been helpful if Baba Yaga had told her what that is. It all starts when Summer has a chance meeting with Baba Yaga, who sends her on a journey to find her Heart’s Desire. Kingfisher’s latest book Summer in Orcus dives headfirst into a land of bird aristocrats, manticore cheese, snail marketplaces, and a masked warlord serving the mysterious Queen-In-Chains. She certainly never planned to step through a magic portal and wind up all on her own in a strange new world with a weasel on her shoulder, but then who does? It would be nice to do things like go to camp, or ride a Ferris Wheel, or maybe just take a bath without someone checking every five minutes to make sure she isn’t drowning.

– Instructions in a stained-glass window, written on a book carried by a saint wearing purple sneakersĮleven-year-old Summer dreams of adventure…but if she’s honest about it her idea of “adventure” involves a little freedom from her over-protective mother. You cannot change essential nature with magic. Don’t worry about things that you cannot fix.ģ.

Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher