Young Adult | 2024 | 2024 Short List

Be swept up in this brilliant witchy tale about forbidden magic and missing girls who don't need handsome princes to rescue them. Perfect for fans of the Serpent; Dove series. Maude is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend, Odette, weaving stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. But Maude grew up and lost her magic. Then two weeks ago Odette went missing, and everyone believes she is dead. Everyone except Maude. Maude is sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest - a place nobody else seems to remember is there. Soon she discovers that wild magic is both deeply enchanting and terrifying. Can she find her friend - and stop the horrors of corrupted magic from overtaking everyone and everything she loves? 'A lush, spellbinding tale with dangerously enchanting characters, A Hunger of Thorns is filled with gorgeous emotion and sapphic yearning that will leave you breathless.' - CS Pacat 'Maude's quest will take you to deep, dark, festering places and bring you soaring back out into the light.' - Margo Lanagan 'Unlike anything else. Wilkinson creates a whole new kind of magic - enchantments woven from family, from living things, and from the marrow of Story itself.' - Scott Westerfeld 'Wilkinson crafts a lovely fairy tale of childhood fierceness, curiosity, loss and finding.' - Catherynne M. Valente, author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making'Completely entrancing. I have never read anything like this book. It's full of magic - the real thing. And it's full of feminine power, dark mysteries and unforgettable characters. The luscious depth of the world-building and the effortless skill with which it is conveyed make me utterly jealous.' - Amie Kaufman