By Mattie Lugar
Something I will always stand on is the fact that Rachel Gillis is one of my all-time favorite authors. You may recognize her name as I wrote a review for the first book in her other duology, One Dark Window, earlier this semester. There is just something so captivating about her writing that pulls you in from the very first page and makes her books impossible to put down.
This book follows Sybil Delling, who for the past nine years has spent her life as a Diviner at Aisling Cathedral dreaming and drowning to interpret signs from the Omens. Getting readings from Sybil and her five other Diviner sisters is something that commoners and nobles alike seek out, as these readings can predict bad fortune before it can occur.
When the six Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral at the side of the new king of Traum. This knight is rude, brash, and has no respect for the dreams Sybil has.
When the other Diviners start disappearing one by one, Sybil works up the courage to ask this knight, Rodrick, for help. Set out on a journey across the kingdom on a great quest, Sybil has to come to terms with her own divine abilities and the hidden truths behind the Omens themselves.
This was one of my highly anticipated reads last year, and for me, it didn’t disappoint. While the beginning was just a tad slow, once you got into the thick of the book the plot seemed to fly by. Like I said earlier, I will absolutely read anything Rachel Gillig puts out, even though I will admit that I liked One Dark Window just a little bit more than this book.
While this book is very gothic and full of dark imagery, the aspect that I loved the most was that this almost reads like a fairytale, not the Disney version, but the classic darker fairytales. I’m a huge fan of fairytales in any form so this was right up my alley.
If you think this book sounds interesting, the second and final book in the duology, The Knave and the Moon, releases September 1, 2026!