This Dark Descent

Growing up, it was well known that there were horse girls and there was everyone else. Readers will be pleased to note that Kalyn Josephson, well known for her MG work, has included both types of people in her new YA fantasy This Dark Descent. Plus, the horse in question is a golem named Atara. Yes, that’s right, the horse is magical and is featured on the stunning cover.

Our horse girl, Mikira Russel, has been forced to compete in a dangerous magical horse race by the ruling nobility who take what they please, when they please, no matter the costs to anyone else. Mikira’s father has been set up by one such noble and his only chance at escape is Mikira winning the Illinor, a four part horse race in which many of the horses and riders do not survive. Win and her father walks free. Lose and not only does her father remain in captivity, Mikira will also lose the family ranch. As if that wasn’t enough, the deal comes with a catch. While the other riders will be mounted on enchanted horses, Mikira must win on a magic-free horse.

Enter Arielle, a creator of Golems. Arielle is Kinnish, which in this second world is definitely coded for Jewish, and by using forbidden Kinnish magic she can create a Golem-horse with superior strength and various enchantments that will be undetectable by regular enchanters who are unfamiliar with Kinnism and Kinnish magic. There’s another catch though. Arielle and Mikira are brought together by Lord Damien Adair, a member of the ruling class that put Mikira in this position in the first place. Damien has his own stake in this race and while Mikira is forced to work with him it is unclear if the two will ever fully trust each other.

Since it is a second world fantasy the Judasim in this book is not necssarily what you might recognize from real life. In second worlds with Jewish coded characters I’m never looking for exact replicas of real world Judaism. Instead I’m seeking that intangible flavor of Judaism that is so hard to quantify but is easily recognized. You will find many Jewish magical creatures in these pages – golems, Dybuks- but that isn’t what made the story feel so Jewish to me. Arielle is very clearly a Jew in diaspora. Her homeland has been destroyed, there is no knowledge of when it may be habitable again. Much about the ancestral practice of kinnish magic has been lost due to colonizing invaders and Arielle herself is deemed suspect and even illegal where she lives. Damien helps her transition from being afraid of her power to embracing it, and in this there is a reflection of the struggle between the warring practices of flying under the radar and aggressively seeking to protect and defend ones own. This debate, of how a proper Jew should act to avoid persecution, is about as old as the diaspora itself and so, so real.

The opening is a little slow and in true horse girls fashion it is the horse race chapters that really jump out and keep the pace going. That’s possibly why the last section of the book is addictively readable – it is the final leg of the race and oof. This is good stuff. I’m very curious to see how the sequel is paced without the race to push things along. It’s possible Josephson will com up with a similar competition or time bomb device, or the intricately laid relationships from book one will now bear fruit in book two as former friends find themselves on opposite sides of political and spiritual struggles.

Which brings me to my one issue. It’s been a while since I read a YA and I had forgotten how very often in this genre, duology or series books are not required to stand alone. In fact, they often seem actively encouraged to end on cliffhangers and sequel fodder. There is an end to the horse race but most of the issues brought up at the beginning are rather compounded instead of solved at the end of the book. There is a sequel coming, but I personally often hold on books like that until I can buy both at once to avoid being left in the state I am currently in – namely, DYING to know what happens next. This is really different behavior than when I was a teen and didn’t care if I had to wait, so perhaps I’m just showing my age. Either way, I’m clearly committed to reading the next one.

The book contains some romance, including a character that I felt was very demisexual and some excellent bisexual rep. The world is queer norm and readers seeking this kind of representation will be pleased to find it here. There are no on the page sex scenes but there is a fair amount of violence to horses. This is to be expected – it’s a dangerous magical horse race with known fatalities, but the horse girls among us may want to mentally fortify before going in.

I was not a horse girl in high school. I did not have the money or proper living situation for that. However I WAS a magic girl. I loved all things fantasy and pretty and with a touch of danger. This book has that spades. So really, there’s something for everyone.

Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

The reviewer received an arc from Netgalley. The publisher has indicated they may send a finished copy to BookishlyJewish, but the review was written before that occurred.

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