A giant thanks to Electrical Monkey Books for gifting me an ARC of The Depraved Lies of Habren Faire by NetGalley in trade for my sincere assessment. It felt much less like receiving a e book and extra like being handed the keys to a secret, rain-soaked gate that opens right into a world of shadowy forests, silvery skies, and tales that stick with you lengthy after you’ve got learn the final web page.
Cannot await Ah Y. Toro (As soon as Upon a Time)
Some tales do extra than simply lure you in; They name to you just like the distant echo of a harp over a misty hill, just like the wind whispering by the gorse and heather. “The Depraved Lies of Haven Truthful” is one such story. It is a darkish, glittering, deep Welsh romance that slips below your pores and skin just like the shadow of a half-forgotten lullaby, mixing the damaging great thing about Pan’s Labyrinth, the whimsical world of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and the Darkish Crystal, the craving of Bridge to Terabithia, and the marvel of The Spiderwick Chronicles with the decadence of Peter Pan, however it’s heart-stopping. The parable of Hylaes and Cymru.
From the primary web page, I used to be utterly captivated by “The Depraved Lies of Herbren Truthful,” with Anna Fiteni’s phrases weaving an eerie, otherworldly ambiance that appeared to curve round my shoulders like mist. Each line glowed with magic, however it was not at all protected magic. It was prefer it was shining dangerously beneath the floor, making an attempt to take a step nearer to you. As I learn it, I felt a way of nostalgia, a eager for Hiraes, for family members who died way back, and for the world hidden within the hills and rivers. This e book is steeped in the identical soul’s deep Welsh folklore, that includes quirky, wild and typically scary beings born of our individuals’s historical beliefs, akin to Mari Lwydd, Cyhireth, Kefir Durr and Puuka. However amid hazard there may be magnificence, heat, and a powerful heartbeat, reminding us that even the darkest tales can maintain mild.
Set in a small mining village within the 1800s, Fiteni’s debut novel is steeped in Welsh spirit and poetry. It’s a story of coal mud clinging to pores and skin, chapel bells, and the brave survival of a individuals whose land and language (iaith y nefoedd, “the language of heaven”) are stolen and oppressed. Sabrina Parry, a difficult and imperfect heroine, has realized to outlive with sharp phrases and an excellent sharper wit. Her sister Ceridwen, a form and romantic lady with an unearthly variety coronary heart, vanished into the twilight of the close by forest, forsaking an iron ring. To avoid wasting her, Sabrina should cross into U Gwald, the damaging realm of Tilwyth Teg. And right here Fiteni offers us the fairy story it needs to be: stunning and rotten, intoxicating and harmful. This isn’t a softened fashionable fey. These are the tricksters of folklore, the sort my Tadkoo used to whisper to me at bedtime. Individuals who go away the milk flowing…I hope I by no means meet them once more. In Harbrenfair, moonlight hides enamel and offers are sure in a means that mortals are utterly unable to flee.
I burst into tears. They had been actual, shameless tears. As a result of the world and the characters contact my coronary heart and remind me of them lengthy after I shut the e book. Sabrina Parry got here speeding into my coronary heart with grace like a storm on the shore. She’s every little thing you’d assume a fantasy heroine may very well be, however someway extra. They’re imply, they lie with unflinching honesty, they cheat to go well with their very own wants, they annoy you, and so they’re troublemakers who gleefully flip lives the wrong way up. She appears like a neat little path that destiny has drawn in her sq., and can most likely punch the primary one who dares to encourage her to comply with that path. Nonetheless, she’s fiercely loving, loyal, and the sort of one who would knock you out or minimize off your fingers to guard the individuals she cares about. Fiteni writes her with the identical wild, beating coronary heart because the March sisters in Little Ladies. And her household, Dar, her sister Ceridwen, and Gran really feel like they stepped straight out of classical literature into this wild fairy world. There is a contact of Alice in Wonderland insanity right here, too, with swirling Tim Burton-esque shadows that make it each unsettling and interesting.
Naylin, oh Naylin, the annoyingly magnetic fairy prince who intrudes into Sabrina’s quest and my ideas greater than I might prefer to admit. He is minimize from the identical material of stardust and sin as David Bowie’s Jareth, with all of the self-importance and silver appeal, and on the identical time dazzling cleverness and downright stupidity. His title appears too noble for somebody so self-absorbed, preening, obsessive about humanity, and but dangerously unpredictable. There’s one thing fluid about the way in which his brown eyes catch the sunshine and the way in which his eyelashes forged shadows like spider legs on his cheeks. His wavy black hair has silver streaks that shine as if somebody dipped a brush within the moonlight, and he wears black velvet embroidered with constellations, stars, moons, and planets in silver thread, as if he had been carrying the night time sky itself. Fiteni imbues him with an edgy vibe that jogs my memory of Puck from A Midsummer Night time’s Dream. In reality, your entire court docket of Elyron is a Shakespearean mix of mischief, magnificence, and lurking hazard. Naylin is each a lovable rogue and a playful trickster, and the slow-burning rigidity between him and Sabrina is a quiet thread woven into a bigger tapestry, made all of the extra intoxicating by its restraint. Betrayals twist within the darkness, their banter turns from annoyance to one thing much more harmful, and I may really feel my coronary heart pounding each time they shared a web page.
The LGBTQ+ illustration in The Depraved Lies of Haven Truthful is woven into the material of the story as seamlessly because the silver threads of Naylin’s velvet coat, pure and unforced, and due to this fact all of the extra stunning. Fiteni doesn’t deal with queerness as a spectacle or an apart. It is simply right here, alive and unashamed, like every world price escaping. Amongst Tilwyth Teg and all its tough varieties, the selkie glides between sea and shore, and the mermaid, Morgaine, sings as she meanders by the waves in quest of love and hearts of multiple variety. In a narrative deeply rooted in Welsh folklore and historical past, it felt like a quiet, rebellious act of pioneering, a reminder that our tales, like our individuals, will all the time be extra various, extra complicated and extra magical than the slim paths that historical past has tried to restrict them to.
Thematically, Fiteni captures one thing hardly ever seen expressed so deftly in fantasy. It is the bittersweet ache of rising up, of leaving residence, of returning to seek out that it has modified, and of understanding that you’ve modified too. She weaves a thread by her grief with quiet grace. It isn’t solely a grief for the lifeless, the selves we’ve left behind, but additionally a grief for the tales and traditions misplaced below the burden of colonization. As a Welsh reader, I discovered her celebration of mining communities, their sacrifices, stolen labor and resilience, and her refusal to sand down Welsh id, heartbreaking.
To me, “The Depraved Lies of Haven Truthful” appears like a love letter to Wales, a celebration of every little thing that makes my homeland the nation it’s. Romantic novels too typically borrow from Welsh myths and landscapes, with out revealing and even interrogating the roots of their inspiration. However Fiteni is greater than only a nod to Wales. She values it, respects it, and breathes life into it. It offers us, as readers, the relentless rain that caresses the slate roofs, the forest that appears to go on endlessly till it spills into the mist, and the traditional stone citadel that rises dreamily into the hills. It is a Wales that’s each actual and legendary, the place the grains of coal seam lie alongside the twinkle of fairy lights, and each web page feels imbued with a eager for residence.
These pages comprise a deep, untranslatable eager for a spot, time, and emotion that may by no means be totally recaptured. Nonetheless, there may be hope. Trying ahead to the extraordinary and muddy love between sisters. Hope in the concept that even when you do not win, you would possibly be capable to survive even when you commerce with the fey. I stay up for the continuation of the story itself. Fiteni’s prose is wealthy with out being verbose, laced with the rhythms of fireplace folklore. She balances eccentricity and hazard, kindness and sharp enamel. The ending is bound to be bittersweet, leaving you breathless, barely bruised, and in agony strolling by the shadowy groves of U Gwald once more.
Some books go away you with a plot that you just bear in mind after studying, whereas others go away you with phrases which might be ingrained deep in your bones. “The Depraved Lies of Haven Truthful” gave me a number of traces like this that I carry round like a talisman. “Even when you’re my age, when you’re not joyful, you’re not executed” is a quiet, defiant reminder that life just isn’t a straight path to some mounted level, and that pleasure is price pursuing till your final breath, regardless of your age. These phrases resonated with me: “Folks love our efforts.” We’re judged not solely on our successes, but additionally on our challenges, efforts, and reaching past our limits. Fiteni’s commentary that “our lives are small…just like the mud on an previous coat, or the mayfly at first of the primary and solely day, however from which a thousand tales are born” is each humbling and transferring, a reminder that even the smallest being could be a universe to somebody. The concept that we’re all being utilized by some massive home is a bitter fact disguised as a novelty, hinting at invisible forces, whether or not political, financial, or destiny, that form our lives with out our consent. And at its core is the warning that “all the very best lies sprout from seeds of fact.” It is a lesson in discernment, understanding that what feels actual could be bait, and that when we’ve much less, what we maintain on to, what we love, what we belief, and what we belong to turns into infinitely extra necessary. These quotes not solely formed my studying expertise; They formed me.
For me, The Depraved Lies of Herbren Truthful was like discovering my means into the world I dreamed of as a baby, and once I grew up and thought I had surpassed the bounds, I used to be listening to my grandfather discuss in regards to the world of Tylwyth Teg, which was solely dormant. I’m grateful that this e book woke them up and gave me again my sight.
“The Depraved Lies of Haven Truthful” enters the mortal world on August 28, 2025. I wholeheartedly suggest you to let that second overwhelm you. It is a story of rain and starlight, of hilae and heartbreak, of merciless fairy commerce, and of the fierce, messy, and unyielding sort of love that may outwit even essentially the most historical of magics. It is a story that you will love to hold round with you, like a secret talisman in your pocket, lengthy after you’ve got left the forest.
A charming debut — darkish as a slate, brilliant as starlight, and filled with hilarity.
