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The Splendid City
Cover of The Splendid City
The Splendid City
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A genre-blending story of modern witchcraft, a police state and WTF characters, for fans of Alice Hoffman and Madeline Miller.

In the state of Liberty, water is rationed at alarming prices, free speech is hardly without a cost, and Texas has just declared itself its own country. In this society, paranoia is well-suited because eyes and ears are all around, and they are judging. Always judging. This terrifying (and yet somehow vaguely familiar) terrain is explored via Eleanor – a young woman eagerly learning about the gifts of her magic through the support of her coven. 
But being a white witch is not as easy as they portray it in the books, and she’s already been placed under ‘house arrest’ with a letch named Stan, a co-worker who wronged her in the past and now exists in the form of a cat. A talking cat who loves craft beers, picket lines, and duping and ‘shooting’ people. 
Eleanor has no time for Stan and his shenanigans, because she finds herself helping another coven locate a missing witch which she thinks is mysteriously linked to the shortage of water in Liberty.
File Under: Fantasy  [ Liberty for All | Water is Beautiful | Eyes Everywhere | Stanning for Stan ]
A genre-blending story of modern witchcraft, a police state and WTF characters, for fans of Alice Hoffman and Madeline Miller.

In the state of Liberty, water is rationed at alarming prices, free speech is hardly without a cost, and Texas has just declared itself its own country. In this society, paranoia is well-suited because eyes and ears are all around, and they are judging. Always judging. This terrifying (and yet somehow vaguely familiar) terrain is explored via Eleanor – a young woman eagerly learning about the gifts of her magic through the support of her coven. 
But being a white witch is not as easy as they portray it in the books, and she’s already been placed under ‘house arrest’ with a letch named Stan, a co-worker who wronged her in the past and now exists in the form of a cat. A talking cat who loves craft beers, picket lines, and duping and ‘shooting’ people. 
Eleanor has no time for Stan and his shenanigans, because she finds herself helping another coven locate a missing witch which she thinks is mysteriously linked to the shortage of water in Liberty.
File Under: Fantasy  [ Liberty for All | Water is Beautiful | Eyes Everywhere | Stanning for Stan ]
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About the Author-
  • KAREN HEULER is a literary sci-fi/fantasy author. Her stories have appeared in over a hundred literary and speculative magazines and anthologies such as Conjunctions to Tin House and Weird Tales. She has received an O. Henry award, been a finalist for the Iowa short fiction award, the Bellwether award, the Shirley Jackson award for short fiction, among others. She has published four novels, four story collections and a novella. She also teaches fiction writing at NYU’s School of Professional Studies.
Reviews-
  • Publisher's Weekly

    April 4, 2022
    Heuler (The Inner City) throws together a young witch, an egomaniacal cat, and thinly veiled allegories in a quirky coming-of-age story that never fully delivers. Eleanor and her arrogant, misogynistic roommate, Stan, do not get along. So, she curses him, transforming him into a bow-tie-wearing, beer-guzzling cat. As punishment for her rash spell-casting, her New York coven exiles her and Stan to the new country of Liberty (formerly Texas). The president of this humourously depicted dystopia distracts citizens from the dire water shortage through endless parades and stunts, including a treasure hunt. As Eleanor occupies herself with the search for the missing water witch, Daria, who she believes may be key to understanding the draught, shadowy figures lure Stan with the promise of hidden treasure, and both roommates attract the attention of some powerful political players. The whimsy and topical satire ought to carry this, but Heuler keeps things disappointingly shallow, with a thin plot and characters as two-dimensional as Liberty’s propaganda newsprint. While the ingredients are enticing, brought to a bubble, this witch’s brew fails to pass the taste test. Agent: Christine Cohen, Virginia Kidd Agency.

  • Booklist

    April 22, 2022
    Heuler veers her speculative fiction toward the absurdly surreal here, introducing the ostensible protagonist only to have her get shot by a talking cat on the first page. The trigger-happy cat's name is Stan, and he and a witch named Eleanor have infiltrated a walled-off section of the former U.S., where constant spectacle keeps the masses locked in to the president's cult of personality, and where citizens search state-sponsored Wiggle, since everyone knows Google is biased. Stan and Eleanor each have a mission (hers is to find a missing witch; his is a treasure hunt) that send them into a bewildering landscape of misinformation where even the maps are "open to different perspectives" and the president is always watching. Whether readers find this closer to Orwell's Animal Farm or the film Don't Look Up probably depends on their capacity for commentary on the current moment. The dialogue is clever and the satire spot-on. The social commentary hits the nail on the head even if, occasionally, it lands a little on the nose as well.

    COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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    Watkins Media
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The Splendid City
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