Generations of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon. But seventeen years ago, one sister’s betrayal defied an ancient prophecy and split their world in two. The planet ceased to spin, and a Great Abyss now divides two realms: one cloaked in perpetual night, the other scorched by an unrelenting sun. 

While one sister rules Aranth—a frozen city surrounded by a storm-wracked sea —her twin inhabits the sand-locked Golden City. Each goddess has raised a daughter, and each keeps her own secrets about her sister’s betrayal. 

But when shadowy forces begin to call their daughters, Odessa and Haidee, back to the site of the Breaking, the two young goddesses —along with a powerful healer from Aranth, and a mouthy desert scavenger —set out on separate journeys across treacherous wastelands, desperate to heal their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands.

Brand new fantasy novel by the author of The Bone Witch.

Odessa and Haidee are separate sides of the same coin. When the world broke and stopped turning Odessa was trapped in a world of eternal night and Haidee eternal sun. Haidee was raised unaware that she had a twin sister and Odessa was raised to believe Haidee died in the breaking. When separate creatures visit the twin Godesses they are put on parallel journeys, told they have to travel to Brighthenge, the Godesses temple, and the place where the breaking occured. Neither is prepared for what they will uncover about themselves and each other on these journeys, and it might just take them working together to save the world.

I’m going to start off by saying I haven’t read any of the authors previous work, but if this is anything to go by I will definitely be picking up some of her other books. Chupeco creates a lush fantasy world that I never tired of reading about. Her descriptions are truly beautiful and I flipped from Odessas to Haidees sides of the globe with such ease.

Odessa was raised in a world of permanent night. Born with an ilness that not even the best Catseye can cure, her mother, Asteria, has kept her locked up for the majority of her life. Only letting her out of the tower when reinforcements are needed to the cities defences. She sees herself as weak and almost irrelevant, so when a Galla (a creature from the below) appears and offers her near unlimited power for the cost of a few human emotions she willingly accepts, especially when she believes that doing so will fix the breaking.

Haidee is strong headed and unwavering. Trained to be a mechanika she spends as little time at the palace as possible. She is completely unaware she is a twin until she finds a letter off her father hidden in a book in her mothers, Latona, study. When a mirage appears and speaks to her, and a desert nomad reveals a prophecy that they are destined to journey across the sand together, she packs up her bags and starts her own trek to find Brighthenge and hopefully fix the breaking.

One of the main things I loved about this book is that because the sisters are unaware of the others existence, they weren’t pitted against one another like a lot of other books/series nowadays. One sister was shown to be light, helping innocents and unwilling to cause harm and the other is shown to give in to the chance to have power, even if that means giving up some of herself along the way. It takes the two working together to even have a chance at fixing the world that their mothers broke.

The story contained a fresh magic system, using Gates such as water, air, fire etc to control magic. And while most people only have access to one gate the Goddesses have access to them all, making them the obvious choice for rulers and the most powerful. There were some parts of the book where I felt the author went almost too deep in the magic, and background and at times I felt slightly lost, however, the majority was easy enough to follow, and I found myself understanding it more and more as the book went on.

Described as Frozen meets Mad Max, I couldn’t think of a better example myself! This was an easy 4.5 out of 5 for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and found myself truly invested in Odessa and Haidee’s outcome.