Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt

by Rhiannon Williams

Overview

In this captivating second edition of the middle-grade fantasy-adventure, a young girl must save her brother from a secret order of monster hunters.

Ottilie Colter and her brother, Gully, have always fended for themselves. So when Gully goes missing one night, Ottilie sets out to find him – and soon makes a horrible discovery. Gully has been forcibly recruited by the Narroway Hunt, a secretive male-only organization that hunts savage, blight-spreading monsters called ‘dredretches’. Disguising herself as a boy, Ottilie infiltrates the Hunt – but quickly realizes that taking her brother home won't be easy.

Trapped in the heart of the dredretch-infested Narroway, it's impossibly dangerous for them to leave. But as she trains to become a Huntsman alongside her brother, hoping for a chance to escape, how long can she keep her true identity a secret?

From Rhiannon Williams, the first ever middle-grade winner of the Ampersand Prize, comes book one in this bewitching trilogy about friendship, bravery and having the courage to do what’s right. Perfect for fans of Withering-by-Sea by Judith Rossell and A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781761212178
Publisher:	Hardie Grant Children's Publishing
Publication date:	05/30/2023
Series:	The Narroway Trilogy , #1
Edition description:	Second edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Originally from Taradale, Victoria, Rhiannon Williams now lives and writes in Sydney. She studied English and history at the University of Sydney, and completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts Honours at Flinders University. Rhiannon has a background in theatre and hopes to tell stories until the end of her days. Her debut novel, Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt – the first book in the Narroway trilogy – was the first middle-grade novel to win the Ampersand Prize.

Editorial Reviews

"Exquisite worldbuilding keeps a strong sense of discovery and balances the appeal of the huntsman’s life with the deeply unfair society and hints of conspiracies afoot. Amid thrilling action, plot threads set up the next installment. . . . A must-read for fans of the genre." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 2020-12-15
In this Australian trilogy opener, a girl infiltrates an all-male monster hunting organization to save her abducted brother.

Cautious Ottilie has always followed her brother, Gully, who—though almost two years her junior—is the more confident and daring of the two. They live with their neglectful mother in abject poverty on the fringes of civilization in the Swamp Hollows. When Gully fails to come home one night, Ottilie learns of boys going missing and sets off to save her brother. To follow him, she must disguise herself as a boy and sneak into the midst of another group of abductees. After Ottilie, masquerading as Ott, arrives at the Narroway—a place none of them have ever heard of—she’s reunited with Gully and told that the boys have been specially selected to serve in the Narroway Hunt to protect their kingdom’s border from dangerous, monstrous dredretches. Only Gully and a female sculkie friend (while boys are huntsmen, girls can only be servants) know of Ottilie’s secret as she plots an escape while also falling deeper into Narroway culture, seeing horrors and coming to embrace the mission’s importance. Exquisite worldbuilding keeps a strong sense of discovery and balances the appeal of the huntsman’s life with the deeply unfair society and hints of conspiracies afoot. Amid thrilling action, plot threads set up the next installment. Ottilie is pale; Gully has bronze skin; most other characters default to White.

A must-read for fans of the genre. (Fantasy. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews