"“I was fortunate to be able to read this novel early, and I think Grayson Daly's got a real facility with language and tight storytelling. This big book explores the modern dark fantasy world of Lenorum, which evoked 19th century New England for me in many ways, and centers around the exploits of Sister Maeve, a nun with the Sisterhood of Good Death.

This monastic order is tasked with assisting the unquiet dead in finding lasting peace as part of the cosmology of this world. Maeve's otherwise by-the-numbers life is thrown a curve when she encounters and, ultimately, investigates the apparent passing of Imogen Madrigal, who encounters Maeve as a sort of revenant, a tangible apparition with a spirit so strong that even death couldn't keep her at bay for long.

I have to mention that Lenorum is a world divided between faithful adherents of the Good Death, as well as the Poets' Court (who operate with a licentious kind of worldly esteem and cultural power that I'm sure any poets today would greatly envy), as well as the Academy of Sciences (who often come off as nearly-mad scientist fussbudgets). The Poets are a decadent and cosmopolitan lot, self-assured in their place at the apex of societal significance, while the Academy of Sciences grumblingly work their own miracles of technology, and the forlorn Sisterhood seeks to offer a theologically occult balm to the suffering of the world.

Lenorum is a world in transition as those three factions grind gears and clash, colliding around the personage of Imogen Madrigal, who is at the heart of it all, eager to solve the mystery of her own death. Without wanting to put any spoilers in the mix in this review, I can say that Maeve's struggles for self-identity (the clash between a well-honed sense of duty with her own personal feelings that grow for the dashingly charismatic Imogen) deliver an intriguing journey from start to finish in Daly's capable hands.

Being a fan of robust world-building, I think Daly swam deeply in Lenorum, and the sense of place is very strong in this story, which manages a tightrope walk between dark and brooding themes and a kind of retrograde sprightliness rooted in Maeve's deep attachments to the Sisterhood and her friends (who double as her family), human companionship, and a marked love for tea. The warmth and love between Maeve and her sisters is apparent, even as it makes Maeve seem particularly innocent, especially when contrasted with the ribald worldliness of Imogen.

Daly's fondness for these characters is apparent in the storytelling, which I wouldn't necessarily classify as a love story, so much as a darkly romantic (and Romantic) fable, although love absolutely plays a key part of the narrative within the superstructure of philosophy, theology, and the occult. There's a hopefulness to the story that offsets the ever-present specter of death that hovers throughout, hand-in-hand with the macabre. I'll be curious what Daly does with future works, whether in Lenorum or in other worlds!” —D.T. Neal, author"