2023 ITW Award for Best Young Adult Novel (nominee)
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * #1 INDIE NEXT PICK * 6 STARRED REVIEWS
Secrets. Lies. Bad choices. Dangerous magic. . . . From NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Melissa Albert comes OUR CROOKED HEARTS, a contemporary fantasy "so precise and enthralling that the only explanation is that Albert herself is a witch" (Booklist, starred review)
On the way home from a party, seventeen-year-old Ivy and her soon-to-be ex nearly run over a nude young woman standing in the middle of a tree-lined road. It’s only the first in a string of increasingly eerie events and offerings: a dead rabbit in the driveway, a bizarre concoction buried by her mother in the backyard, a box of childhood keepsakes hidden in her parents’ closet safe. Most unsettling of all, corroded recollections of Ivy and her enigmatic mother’s past resurface, with the help of the boy next door.
What if there’s more to Ivy’s mother than meets the eye? And what if the supernatural forces she messed with during her own teen years have come back to haunt them both? Ivy must grapple with these questions and more if she’s going to escape the darkness closing in.
Straddling Ivy’s contemporary suburban town and her mother’s magic-drenched 1990s Chicago, this bewitching and propulsive story rockets towards a conclusion guaranteed to keep readers up all night.
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Secrets. Lies. Bad choices. Dangerous magic. . . . From NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Melissa Albert comes OUR CROOKED HEARTS, a contemporary fantasy "so precise and enthralling that the only explanation is that Albert herself is a witch" (Booklist, starred review)
On the way home from a party, seventeen-year-old Ivy and her soon-to-be ex nearly run over a nude young woman standing in the middle of a tree-lined road. It’s only the first in a string of increasingly eerie events and offerings: a dead rabbit in the driveway, a bizarre concoction buried by her mother in the backyard, a box of childhood keepsakes hidden in her parents’ closet safe. Most unsettling of all, corroded recollections of Ivy and her enigmatic mother’s past resurface, with the help of the boy next door.
What if there’s more to Ivy’s mother than meets the eye? And what if the supernatural forces she messed with during her own teen years have come back to haunt them both? Ivy must grapple with these questions and more if she’s going to escape the darkness closing in.
Straddling Ivy’s contemporary suburban town and her mother’s magic-drenched 1990s Chicago, this bewitching and propulsive story rockets towards a conclusion guaranteed to keep readers up all night.
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Praise for this book
"No one weaves fairy tale magic into the modern world like Melissa Albert. A truly masterful tale, Our Crooked Hearts comes with all the trappings of a classic: immaculate prose, a parallel generational story for the ages, and chills when you least expect them." - David Arnold
"A riveting story that grips you like a spell until you're too deep to emerge unscathed! Once again, Melissa Albert reveals the power of magic within a daughter's grasp and the love of imperfect mothers." - Angeline Boulley
"Utterly believable mothers, sisters, and daughters with their hands full of magic, making bad decisions because they have to. I love it. No one combines magic, darkness, and the realities of being a woman the way Melissa Albert does." - Kristin Cashore
"Ruthlessly enticing, Our Crooked Hearts is a story about fierce magic and even fiercer young women. It caught me in its web and held on tight. This book pulses with a bewitching darkness, and I loved it." - Kat Ellis
"A story as thrilling, alluring, and harrowing as the magic it describes . . . This is a book that draws the reader in so cleverly, you won't think to ask how deep the water is until it's too late. An instant favorite." - Sarah Gailey
"Visceral, bold, and eerie, Our Crooked Hearts took hold of me and refused to let go. With girls as fierce as the magic they wield and secrets looming heavy on every page, this book is utterly compelling the whole way through." - Rachel Griffin
"Our Crooked Hearts is a glitter-edged razor of a book, sharp and keen. The magic here is real and visceral, with powerful consequences. I fell into this book like Alice falling into Wonderland, and I didn't want to leave." - Kat Howard
"Pulses with a bold, beguiling magic that feels brand new and classic at the same time. I couldn't put it down." - Karen M McManus
"EVERY LINE READS LIKE AN INCANTATION, and the result is a book pulsing with magic, one that holds the reader firmly under its spell." - V E Schwab
"Melissa Albert's signature storytelling is once again pure sorcery. This book has everything I love: girls with tremendous power at their fingertips, mothers with unforgivable secrets, horrors left on the doorstep, and best of all, writing that sings and stuns. To those with a crookedness inside you: You are about to be enthralled." - Nova Ren Suma
"Melissa Albert's inimitable and gritty take on magic is beautifully woven in this poignant and striking story of mothers and daughters, power and balance, and love and betrayal. Our Crooked Hearts feels like a freshly spun secret; electric, dangerous-and impossible to keep to yourself." - Courtney Summers
"Nobody writes like Melissa Albert. Her words are electric, sizzling; they crash through the bloodstream with the same force as the magic she conjures in her stories. Our Crooked Hearts is Albert at her very best; a sharp explosion of a book that's taut, haunting, and potent as a witch's brew." - Krystal Sutherland
"A dark, searing force burns at the core of Our Crooked Hearts, one that circles the reader as subtly, as inevitably as a hunter closing in on a rabbit before the kill. Deftly melding intoxicating witchcraft with the equally potent spell of trauma handed down from mother to daughter, Melissa Albert examines how far love and friendship can be twisted before they corrode into something else-and, in the aftermath, what it truly means to claim one's power. An ominous and irresistibly compelling read." - Shveta Thakrar
"Our Crooked Hearts is eerie, evocative, and electrifyingly brilliant. I was immediately gripped from the very first page and completely compelled throughout. I already can't wait to reread it. Melissa Albert's writing is magic made real." - Katherine Webber
"A riveting story that grips you like a spell until you're too deep to emerge unscathed! Once again, Melissa Albert reveals the power of magic within a daughter's grasp and the love of imperfect mothers." - Angeline Boulley
"Utterly believable mothers, sisters, and daughters with their hands full of magic, making bad decisions because they have to. I love it. No one combines magic, darkness, and the realities of being a woman the way Melissa Albert does." - Kristin Cashore
"Ruthlessly enticing, Our Crooked Hearts is a story about fierce magic and even fiercer young women. It caught me in its web and held on tight. This book pulses with a bewitching darkness, and I loved it." - Kat Ellis
"A story as thrilling, alluring, and harrowing as the magic it describes . . . This is a book that draws the reader in so cleverly, you won't think to ask how deep the water is until it's too late. An instant favorite." - Sarah Gailey
"Visceral, bold, and eerie, Our Crooked Hearts took hold of me and refused to let go. With girls as fierce as the magic they wield and secrets looming heavy on every page, this book is utterly compelling the whole way through." - Rachel Griffin
"Our Crooked Hearts is a glitter-edged razor of a book, sharp and keen. The magic here is real and visceral, with powerful consequences. I fell into this book like Alice falling into Wonderland, and I didn't want to leave." - Kat Howard
"Pulses with a bold, beguiling magic that feels brand new and classic at the same time. I couldn't put it down." - Karen M McManus
"EVERY LINE READS LIKE AN INCANTATION, and the result is a book pulsing with magic, one that holds the reader firmly under its spell." - V E Schwab
"Melissa Albert's signature storytelling is once again pure sorcery. This book has everything I love: girls with tremendous power at their fingertips, mothers with unforgivable secrets, horrors left on the doorstep, and best of all, writing that sings and stuns. To those with a crookedness inside you: You are about to be enthralled." - Nova Ren Suma
"Melissa Albert's inimitable and gritty take on magic is beautifully woven in this poignant and striking story of mothers and daughters, power and balance, and love and betrayal. Our Crooked Hearts feels like a freshly spun secret; electric, dangerous-and impossible to keep to yourself." - Courtney Summers
"Nobody writes like Melissa Albert. Her words are electric, sizzling; they crash through the bloodstream with the same force as the magic she conjures in her stories. Our Crooked Hearts is Albert at her very best; a sharp explosion of a book that's taut, haunting, and potent as a witch's brew." - Krystal Sutherland
"A dark, searing force burns at the core of Our Crooked Hearts, one that circles the reader as subtly, as inevitably as a hunter closing in on a rabbit before the kill. Deftly melding intoxicating witchcraft with the equally potent spell of trauma handed down from mother to daughter, Melissa Albert examines how far love and friendship can be twisted before they corrode into something else-and, in the aftermath, what it truly means to claim one's power. An ominous and irresistibly compelling read." - Shveta Thakrar
"Our Crooked Hearts is eerie, evocative, and electrifyingly brilliant. I was immediately gripped from the very first page and completely compelled throughout. I already can't wait to reread it. Melissa Albert's writing is magic made real." - Katherine Webber
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