Nettle King

by Katherine Harbour

Overview

The mesmerizing conclusion to the Night and Nothing series—a blending of Scottish fairy tale and modern magic that is part Buffy the Vampire Slayer and part Alice in Wonderland—finds Finn fighting against the land of the dead.

When her beloved Jack disappears, Finn vows to find him—even if it means a daring odyssey into the land of the dead. But saving Jack comes at a terrible price: a dangerous fissure has opened, giving the dead access to the true world.

The lines between worlds are more blurred than ever. Finn’s sister, Lily, recently returned from the Ghostlands, seems to bear no scars from her time there. But then their friend Moth returns from Sombrus, the magical house once owned by Seth Lot, bearing shocking news. Something evil—a fearsome creature bearing a striking resemblance to Jack—has escaped Sombrus and is now stalking Fair Hollow, killing everyone it encounters, transforming them into terrifying Jacks and Jills and recruiting the Unseelie.

It will not stop until it gets what it wants . . .

Finn.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062286789
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/19/2016
Series:	Night and Nothing Novels
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,051,106
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Katherine Harbour was born in Albany, New York, and has been writing since she was seventeen. She is the author of Thorn Jack and Briar Queen, the first two books in the Night and Nothing series, and is a bookseller in Sarasota, Florida.

Editorial Reviews

12/21/2015
This contemporary fantasy, which concludes Harbour’s Night and Nothing trilogy (after Thorn Jack and Briar Queen), feels overly familiar. College student Serafina “Finn” Sullivan brought her sister, Lily, out of the underworld, but at a terrible price. Finn’s lover, Jack, took Lily’s place there, and in short, kaleidoscopic chapters, Finn fails at several successive distasteful rituals that might let her rescue him. With the help of eerie Caliban, Finn learns that Jack has become a Fata (fairy) creature, living off mortal energy and wreaking havoc on Fair Hollow, where Finn and her many adolescent friends, her family, and her professors live. “Normal” adults can’t see the Fatas, so the youngsters have to save the human world. Before a predictably violent and spooky conclusion, mythic elements from disparate folkloric traditions swarm through this inflated narrative. The story is full of exciting moments and has a hectic pace, but it suffers from a too-large cast. Shape-shifting buildings, Fatas that influence humans through scathing nightmares, and an interminable procession of weird, crimson-eyed, needle-toothed entities can’t atone for jarring dialogue (“Stand still or I’ll bash your girl’s brains in”) and the confusing similarities of some characters’ names in this inflated foray into the uncanny. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Harbour makes love, suffering, and sacrifice the most poignant parts of her worlds, and readers with even the barest knowledge of fairy lore and legends will be pulled deep into this tale of sharp magic and its ruthless children. ” — Publishers Weekly

“Combining the sorcery of The Night Circus with the malefic suspense of The Secret History...a beguiling fusion of love, fantasy, and myth that echoes the imaginative artistry of the works of Neil Gaiman, Cassandra Clare, and Melissa Marr.” — Good Books and Good Wine

“You might...think of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight a time or two, as a few of the story’s bones are similar, but I never once felt like I was reading Twilight...which goes to show you tropes need not be poison if woven into a good tale.” — Fantasy Literature

From the Publisher

Combining the sorcery of The Night Circus with the malefic suspense of The Secret History...a beguiling fusion of love, fantasy, and myth that echoes the imaginative artistry of the works of Neil Gaiman, Cassandra Clare, and Melissa Marr.

Good Books and Good Wine

You might...think of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight a time or two, as a few of the story’s bones are similar, but I never once felt like I was reading Twilight...which goes to show you tropes need not be poison if woven into a good tale.

Fantasy Literature

2016-01-31
Teenagers face down supernatural dangers in this moody faerie-tale drama. Finn Sullivan is determined to get her boyfriend back. She brought her sister, Lily, out of the faerie Ghostlands, but Jack sacrificed himself to balance the scales. Now she'll do anything in order to bring him back from the land of the dead. Meanwhile, her best friends, Sylvie and Christie, are walking their own dangerous paths: Sylvie is learning to fight from the Black Scissors, a mysterious man who doesn't quite belong in the mortal world or the Fata world, and Christie is secretly meeting with the faerie queen, Phouka Banrion, trying to learn how to control his own magical powers. Not to mention that Finn's rescued sister, Lily, may not be out of trouble yet—there's something wrong with her shadow, and things in their house suddenly seem to be prone to decay. Finn is a brave heroine who cares passionately about her friends and loved ones, and the worlds she walks in are rich with gorgeous, gloomy detail. But this series is overstuffed with characters, and the plot gets bogged down in their various machinations. There's a strong story in here about a girl determined to defy the odds, but it gets a bit lost amid all the vague threats and glamorous ball gowns. Readers invested in the series will want to follow Finn on her latest adventure, but this book will likely appeal to fans only.

Kirkus Reviews