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Where the Dark Stands Still by A. B. Poranek

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Where the Dark Stands Still

by A. B. Poranek

Narrator Ola Forman

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Length 11 hours 54 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“An atmospheric, folksy tale full of magic, bargains, secrets, witches, and demons. This cozy tale is interwoven with stories of love in all its forms and is destined to tug at your heartstrings in beautiful and brutal ways. This one slowly and subtly weaves its roots through you, making it hard to shake yourself loose and return to the real world when it ends. ”
— Briana • Wicked Words

Bookseller recommendation

“Howl’s Moving Castle but make it a spooky Polish forest. So great! ”
— Chelsea • Sidetrack Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“Super cute and slightly spooky Young Adult fantasy that will be a pleasure to read to all ages. It reminds me of the Margaret Rogerson books. Easy to read and tremendously enjoyable! ”
— Anne • The Traveling Book Bus

Summary
About the author

A New York Times bestseller

A girl with dangerous magic makes a risky bargain with a demon to be free of her monstrous power in this “dark, devastating, and gothic” (Kirkus Reviews) young adult fantasy perfect for fans of An Enchantment of Ravens and House of Salt and Sorrows.

Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than death: one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.

Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.

Fantasy YA Fiction

A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada, and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland’s folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.