Torchfire

by Moira Buffini, Ami Okumura Jones (Read by), Antonia Beamish (Read by), Joe Gaminara (Read by), Katy Sobey (Read by)

Overview

The hugely anticipated second instalment in the hottest dystopian fantasy trilogy of the decade! Who will triumph? Those with songlight, or those without?

Welcome back to a world where songlight—or telepathy—is either your greatest power or your greatest curse.

Elsa is on the run and is urgently seeking a safe haven.

Nightingale is being held captive and forced to use her songlight against her own people.

Piper has been promoted up the ranks of the Airmen, where nothing but bloodshed is demanded of him.

Rye has stumbled across an incredible airship, the likes of which has never been seen before.

All four are united by their desire for peace.

But peace between the Aylish and Brightland feels more fragile than ever.

And there is a new threat, not just to Brightland, but to Ayland and the world beyond. The airship that Rye has discovered is owned by the Sealanders, a race of elite Torches, recently returned to Earth.

The future of civilisation is on a knife edge, with those from Brightland wanting to stamp out songlight, those from Ayland wanting harmony and those from Sealand wanting songlight to rein, whatever the costs.

A sequel to rival all others, proving this to be the most exciting trilogy to have been published for decades!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798228479944
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/28/2025
Series:	Torch Trilogy , #2
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Moira Buffini is an Olivier Award–winning UK playwright and BAFTA-nominated screenwriter, writing many plays for the National Theatre and the West End. Films include Tamara Drewe, Jane Eyre, Byzantium, and The Dig. She cocreated and was showrunner of Hulu's Harlots. Songlight is her debut novel. She lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

"Deftly explores a range of human differences against the backdrop of a lush, immersive world populated by characters who are diverse in appearance and culture. The whiplash of experiencing heartache and hope in rapid succession leads to thought-provoking questions. Heartbreaking, heartening, wondrous."  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

PRAISE FOR SONGLIGHT: "The multiple immersive perspectives and the anticipation this narrative will create in readers make this first installment in a planned trilogy unputdownable. Buffini captures the human spirit and all its messy and beautifully complex emotions. A brilliant character study that examines the effects of war, genocide, and misogyny.”  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

PRAISE FOR SONGLIGHT: “In this stunning YA debut, Buffini expertly juggles a complex plot. By playing off conflicting internal motivations to explore weighty topics of reproductive freedom, internalized homophobia, and state oppression, Buffini crafts a nuanced adventure, all the while dropping tantalizing hints of further conflict and hidden history broiling under the surface.”  — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

PRAISE FOR SONGLIGHT:  “A dynamic dystopic fantasy for fans of Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes and Morgan Rhodes’s Falling Kingdoms.”  — School Library Journal

PRAISE FOR SONGLIGHT: "Vivid and powerful" — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

PRAISE FOR SONGLIGHT: “Buffini weaves a setting plush with detail and world building. Songlight will appeal to readers who enjoyed Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale." — Booklist

PRAISE FOR SONGLIGHT: “Action-packed and simmering with fury, Songlight leads a chorus of fierce young narrators coming into their power. Like the hook in your favorite song, her melody will stay in your head long after you turn the last page.” — Michael Grant, NYT bestselling author of the Gone series

PRAISE FOR SONGLIGHT: “With thoughtful nods to Atwood and Le Guin, Moira Buffini crafts a post-apocalyptic future that confronts harsh and timely realities, yet still shimmers with an empowering undercurrent of optimism and agency. Readers will eagerly await the next installment in this high-stakes trilogy featuring an unforgettable cast of characters. Sweeping, cinematic, and luminous.” — Rebecca Caprara, award-winning author of Spin

PRAISE FOR SONGLIGHT: “A dark yet piercingly hopeful tale, Songlight imagines a dystopian world on the brink of revolution, courtesy of its teen protagonists who dare to love. Buffini’s ethereal prose and harrowing plot twists kept me reading long into the night.”  — Lyssa Mia Smith, author of Revelle

From the Publisher

★ 2025-07-03
The war between the Aylish and the Brightlings continues in this sequel toSonglight (2024).

Knowledge of the earlier volume is a must as readers are immediately plunged back into the action. Peace talks in Northaven have gone horribly wrong. Fleeing the carnage, Elsa, her mother, Heron, and Kingfisher head into the dense Brightland forest. Unbeknownst to Elsa, her love, Rye Tern, has escaped from a Chrysalid House; the metal headband blocking his ability to communicate using songlight is still attached. Meanwhile, Piper, Elsa’s estranged brother, is questioning his loyalties, but he continues to work for Lord Kite, Brightlinghelm’s new leader, whom Queen of Propaganda Sister Swan also serves. Elsa’s friend Nightingale, who’s a prisoner of Sister Swan, tries to convince Swan to use her influence over the Brightlings to further peace with the Aylish, while she secretly communicates with Elsa through songlight. Diary entries from 17-year-old Petra of Sealand, a remote island with a technologically advanced society, appear throughout; she’s traveling on the airshipCelestis as part of a surveillance mission, seeking new land where her people can expand. This volume, which sets events up for the trilogy closer, deftly explores a range of human differences against the backdrop of a lush, immersive world populated by characters who are diverse in appearance and culture. The whiplash of experiencing heartache and hope in rapid succession leads to thought-provoking questions, and a revelation that has unforeseen consequences will leave readers eager for the next volume.

Heartbreaking, heartening, wondrous.(Dystopian. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews