‘4.5 stars rounded up

I ran to request this title very quickly as I read Idolfire last spring and thoroughly enjoyed it, having so much fun following Aleya and Kirby’s journey. As this title is essentially an independent sequel to Idolfire, my experience reading it quite shaped my expectations for this one. While Heaven’s Graveyard delivered adventures, sapphics, political tension, mythology and even fun, it was even more than I knew to expect. Where I simply enjoyed Idolfire, I felt deeply touched by Heaven’s Graveyard. Maybe I accidentally read it more closely, but in any case, I feel as though Curtis really went above and beyond this time.

Heaven’s Graveyard takes the reader back into the world of Idolfire, except centuries have passed and Aleya has ceased to be simply a myth, Kirby merely a footnote in her story. However, to Cod, Ashan myths and Aleya’s story are close to a lifeline, having guided her to work at a museum while searching for proof of Aleya’s life. When she gets summoned home, suddenly an adventure dealing with her obsession kickstarts…

The way Curtis writes her characters is so immersive, they all felt real to me throughout the story. Cod’s a lovely narrator, yet real and flawed. She doesn’t always make the right judgement about people and can be caught up in her own world, yet she always, always means well. Sparrow, Thal, Marr, Hani and every other side character also get their voice heard, coming onto their own vividly, even if mostly monitored through Cod’s eyes. Additionally, the narrative is so interestingly written with chapters varying in length and style, all while centering Cod and her story. The world is as richly built as in Idolfire, in its similarities and differences, and I could clearly see the streets of Palgaro in my mind.

Overall, this is a great novel—and so unapologetically sapphic, might I add. I cannot wait for it to be officially out and have a copy of it grace my bookshelves.

Thank you, Hodder & Stoughton | Hodderscape and NetGalley, for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are mine.

An Archaeologist in search of a mythological figure, finds herself in a murder mystery, and runs into her ex who is a former thief turned saleswoman.

That sales pitch had me hooked but as I read on the story behind the pithy sales pitch had me hooked much deeper. Grace Curtis has a knack for fun sounding adventure stories that end up much more reflective than expected whilst still being funny and action packed.

I read it on Netgalley but fear I'll end up buying the book anyway so I have it to reread.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of Heaven's Graveyard! I'm rating it 4.5 stars.

I was sold on Heaven's Graveyard as soon as I saw it described as a "sinister lesbian history mystery" in a science fantasy world. It was somehow exactly as described and not at all what I expected, and I had so much fun reading it!

Heaven's Graveyard is part sapphic thriller novel, part archaeological mystery, and part a story about humanity's tendency towards war. And, it's a story about child-parent relationships, being neurodivergent, and whether we run away from or stay to confront difficult situations.

I haven't read Idolfire, which is set 2,000 years earlier (although I now plan on doing so!). As such, my review will be entirely focused on Heaven's Graveyard.

This book makes a lot of chilling points about warfare and religion, and I loved that about it. At the same time, I found it sometimes frustratingly lacking in details — but that was because the protagonist didn't pay any attention to current affairs. She was constantly surprised by what was going on and never asked people questions about themselves or their backgrounds, so I also understand why us readers didn't get more information. All the same, I kind of wish someone had given the protagonist a talking-to and filled her in a bit on things so that we could have learned about it. For me, I think that would have been enough to make this a five-star read.

I also adored our queer, autistic-coded protagonist who is so passionate about the myth at the heart of this mystery, and who also cares so deeply despite others not seeing it. Cod's relationship with her mother and how that affects her sense of self made me cry.

Maybe it's because I'm also an archaeology geek, but I also loved the mythological aspects of this novel and the magic system.

Thanks to the publisher Hodder & Stoughton for this eARC of Heaven's Graveyard received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!

I was over the moon that I got the eARC for this! I absolutely love Grace Curtis and not just because she's from my home town of Newcastle! (Do I fantasise about bumping into her in Waterstones whenever I visit back home? Maaaaaaaybe)(Remember when there used to be TWO Waterstones really close to each other?!)

Anyway! This book is set some 2000 years after Idolfire, and all the events and characters from Idolfire are loooooong forgotten / lost to time and/or become a myth. Aleya is mostly believed to just be a kid's story now and not a real person from history.

Except Cod absolutely and truly believes in her bones that Aleya was a real person. She read about Aleya as a child and she grows up to be an archeologist who wants to prove that Aleya and the city of Nivela were real. The only other person who believes the same as her is this old professor called Marr whom she befriended as a (lonely, neglected) child.

Shortly after making a big discovery, Marr is killed. It's down to Cod to a) prove that her friend was in fact murdered and find out by whom; b) find out WHY; c) find out what this big discovery of Marr's was and what does it have to do with Aleya.

This book starts out relatively slow, right until the murder and things begin to escalate bit by bit.
It starts out as a murder-mystery, and then....around half way through becomes something a little darker.

I found it a little frustrating how Cod REFUSED to read any news and so she had absolutely no fucking clue about the war that was brewing, like I just wanted to shake her!

But hey, I missed ALL the clues leading up to the twist in the book and looking back they were actually kinda...obvious in retrospect. Like....fuck, when you tallied them all up it all made so much sense, I can't believe I missed it. I strongly empathised with Cod's inability to read people, because I realised that if I were in her place, I would have missed the clues in real life too.

Really enjoyed this so much! I loved Cod, I loved Sparrow who's like the opposite to Cod, I loved Thal and her blunt honesty and no-nonsense attitude.

This isn't a sequel to Idolfire. It might actually be fun to read this first and then read Idolfire to build on the historical aspect of it.
I do wish I'd read this straight after Idolfire though because I had to go back to it to remind myself of the characters and what happened - there are some call backs to it in Heaven's Graveyard. I love that we get a small, little finale to Aleya and Kirby's story.

I should say too, that this book is also partly about obsession, and we get to see that from two different POVs, which I really enjoyed.

I've seen some people say it's interesting that Curtis has set the book 2000ish years after Idolfire. But this is why I love Grace Curtis's books. She's such an engaging writer who isn't afraid to try different things, and the way her books build up the story / tension bit by bit - I mean, I love slow-burn romance and Curtis to me does slow-burn story tension. Does that makes sense?

Anyway, I definitely recommend for when it comes out in June 2026!

I have been a huge fan of Grace Curtis’s work ever since I first picked up *Frontier*. With every new release, she keeps finding fresh ways to blend queerness, wonder, and deeply human vulnerability into her stories. *Floating Hotel* only solidified her place as one of my favourite speculative fiction authors, and when she ventured into fantasy with *Idolfire*, I was immediately intrigued. Although that book didn’t fully land for me at the time — largely because I was in the middle of a severe burn-out when I read it — the world itself stayed with me. So when *Heaven’s Graveyard* was announced as an academic fantasy set centuries later in the same universe, I knew I needed to read it as quickly as possible.

And honestly? This book felt like it had been written directly for the parts of my brain that love obsessive research, ancient mystery and characters who cannot let go of a question once it has rooted itself inside them.

One of my favourite things about *Heaven’s Graveyard* is the way it connects back to *Idolfire*. The references are woven in with such care: rewarding for readers who know that history, while never alienating or confusing for newcomers. The world feels layered and lived-in rather than dependent on nostalgia, which made the connections feel genuinely meaningful instead of simply referential.

The protagonist completely captured my heart. She reads as very autistic coded to me, particularly in the intensity of her focus and the relentless drive to understand that which others discard as a child's fancy. Her need for answers feels less like curiosity and more like gravity — something unavoidable pulling her deeper and deeper into the mystery at the centre of the novel. I loved the way Curtis portrayed that kind of obsession not as coldness, but as care, longing, and determination.

And the mystery itself is wonderful. What begins as a murder mystery quickly unfurls into something much larger and more mythical. The pacing of those revelations is incredibly satisfying: every answer only opens another locked door. The book constantly balances intellectual intrigue with emotional stakes, which kept me fully invested throughout.

The academic setting was also exactly the kind of dark academia atmosphere I adore. Not in the overly aestheticised sense, but in the quieter, more dangerous sense of people becoming consumed by research, history, and the desperate pursuit of truth. There’s something deeply compelling about watching characters chase knowledge so intensely that it begins reshaping their relationships and sense of self.

Speaking of relationships: the emotional dynamics in this book are excellent. The connections between the characters evolve naturally over the course of the story, and those evolving relationships genuinely matter to the plot. Trust, affection, grief, loyalty, suspicion — all of it subtly shifts the direction of the narrative in ways that feel organic and emotionally earned.

Overall, *Heaven’s Graveyard* is easily a five-star read for me. It’s intelligent, atmospheric, emotionally rich, and beautifully strange in that distinctly Grace Curtis way. If you love academic fantasy, layered mysteries, obsessive research, queer speculative fiction, and stories that feel both intimate and enormous at once, I cannot recommend this book enough.

Full disclaimer: Heaven's Graveyard was sent to me as an ARC via Netgalley by the publisher. All opinions are my own.

"Knowledge is a dagger with a blade for a handle."

Most people fall out of love with their first crush over time. Coda is different: her first love is a mythical queen from a children's book of stories, and Coda grows up determined to prove that Aleya was real. She becomes an archeologist, moves to Aleya's home country of Asha, enjoys a prominent job at a prestigious museum... yet is no closer to finding proof than she was as a child. Until her former university professor, also obsessed with the myth, sends her a summons. He's found something that could change everything. Unfortunately Coda arrives home to find him murdered. What did he find, and who had him killed for it? Coda won't rest until she knows.

Heaven's Graveyard is a murder mystery starring a lesbian-disaster version of Indiana Jones. Well, a slightly more academic, slightly less whip-wielding Indy. It's also a fascinating look at relationships with the people around us. Who supports us and why or why not? Why do we close ourselves off from others, and how do we fix that if we indeed even want to? How do you go about untangling very complicated relationships you thought were ancient history? But it's also literally about ancient history, too. How we treat knowledge and relics and discoveries. How history can lie to us, and why it might do so.

Is all information good or worth learning? Is it ever right to destroy it or hide it away?

Heaven's Graveyard isn't going to give you all the answers, but it will tease you with the questions and some scenarios while dragging you along on a high-tension rollercoaster ride.

The characters are amazing. Complex, deep, and often far too realistic in their flaws. Coda is such a disaster, but a sympathetic one and I loved being in her head. Abandoned and down-trodden, often ridiculed for her theories and goals, with exactly one person in her corner and a possibly-fantasy figure she clings to for security and stability. Marr was entirely believable as an academic, but also a likeable character who half-adopted Coda and shared the same academic dream. So much we learn of Marr is from the people he's left behind: Coda, his ex-wife, his current top student / replacement for Coda. Said semi-replacement, Thal, is a foreign exchange student from a religious neighbour who war keeps threatening to break out with. She's an outsider like Coda though for different reasons, but I'm so happy that the author never slipped into religious cliches with Thal. She's not a zealot or a preacher or any of those easy-to-reach-for tropes that a religious semi-antagonist semi-suspect might fall into in another type of novel. Sparrow, Coda's ex-girlfriend, is a hot mess who still somehow manages to keep things together better than Coda. She's the spunky sidekick with gadgets, the support, maybe even the crutch that Coda falls back on as the world goes insane around her. The author walks this wonderfully thin line where it's hard to tell if Coda is perhaps slightly using Sparrow on account of Sparrow still having feelings for Coda, or if Sparrow is the one who keeps inserting herself in hopes it'll cause a relapse of feelings. Their relationship and how it develops had me on tenterhooks the entire time.

I love the world of this novel. It's a bit grimy and a lot steampunky. We travel through barren near-desert areas, harsh coastlines and seas, and pleasant green woodlands that have been sectioned off into a protected wildlife area. We travel by clunky trams, large boats, and mechanical 'runners', which are the lovechild of Gauntlet Runners (from 2024's hit rpg Metaphor Refantazio) and Star Wars' AT-ST Scout Walker -- imagine a steampunk cabin raised and moved by mechanical 'legs', so your car "runs" you to the next town. It felt very fresh, especially as a world that supposedly built itself over a history of magic and gods.

The plot itself is well crafted. The tension is always high from one subplot or another, the relationships are always growing or straining in interesting ways, and throughout it all Coda's own personal history, not just ancient history, also weaves in and out of her story and development. Things she thought were behind her, either from outrunning or abandoning, are actually not that far gone. It was captivating to see how the past threads built up the fuller picture of Coda while also making her fray at the edges. Just as knowledge cuts both ways, the past both hurts and heals, builds and destroys.

The only issue I can remember having with this novel is the nicknames. Coda (with a long OH sound) constantly refers to herself as Cod. Should I be pronouncing that like the fish? And if so, why? Or is it meant to be pronounced 'Code' despite looking like a completely different word? Sparrow also has her name shortened a few times, though not nearly as regularly as Coda, and I have the same problem. Saying half of the word 'sparrow' just doesn't roll off the tongue, and one again looks more like a completely different word with different pronunciation, spar (long AH). The one time I wanted a pronunciation guide just so I could be sure how I was meant to be reading/hearing the main character's name.

I don't recall how this novel came to my attention in the first place, but I came in with no or low expectations and was blown away. Biggest surprise read of 2026 so far. Apparently there is a prequel novel to this one set in the same world at a different point in time? Onto the TBR it goes!

"Love makes us unwise. Nevertheless, it will be the last thing left. Love will be there at the end of everything."


Rating: 5 stars -- Honestly can't think of anything it could have improved on (apart from the nickname guide).