Let the Brambles Eat the Castle

von Jason J Gusman

144 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

SOME FAIRY TALES WERE MEANT TO ROT.For a century, the High Bastion has stood entombed within an impenetrable labyrinth of carnivorous blackthorn. Legends whisper of a palace frozen in suspended time, a sleeping princess awaiting deliverance, and a cruel curse that condemned the surrounding valley to an endless winter of famine, ash, and ruin.In the desolate hamlet of Black-Water, nineteen-year-old Elowen knows nothing of royal romance-only the brutal arithmetic of survival. When her apothecary mentor perishes of the creeping thorn-choke, Elowen inherits an insurmountable debt to Tristan Knight, the magnetic yet savage commander of the rebel insurgence. Tristan offers an ultimatum steeped in blood: slip through a hairline fault in the weeping briar wall, infiltrate the High Bastion, and plunge a cold iron spike into the heart of Princess Ophelia to break the realm's paralysis. Armed with nothing more than her mentor's rusted pruning shears and a haunting, phantom void beneath her sternum, Elowen enters the limestone sepulcher.Inside the keep's silent corridors, the myth decomposes into cosmic horror. Dust motes hang motionless in the air, dead courtiers remain trapped in rigid postures of petrified terror, and a grotesque construct of woven vines, broken porcelain, and scullery livery hunts every living heartbeat. Soon, Elowen discovers the terrible secret buried beneath the throne: the Blackthorn was never an enemy spell, but a frantic barricade created from the flesh and marrow of the castle's common servants, who sacrificed their humanity to contain an elder parasite summoned by royal hubris. Princess Ophelia was never pricked by an enchanted spindle; she willingly drank poison to lock her waking consciousness in eternal psychic combat with the abyss.When Tristan's vanguard storms the inner sanctum, his true face emerges. The rebellion was never about liberation-it was a slaughter designed to harvest Ophelia's godlike power. To defy him, Elowen must confront the shattering truth of her own existence, the blood-debt owed to the fallen kingdom, and a devastating dilemma: dispelling the briars will send a century of deferred time crashing down instantly, turning the starving valley to dust unless someone pays the final, unfathomable toll.Steeped in atmospheric dread, visceral body horror, and incandescent class fury, Let the Brambles Eat the Castle reimagines the classic Sleeping Beauty tale as an uncompromising gothic grimdark epic. Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher's Nettle & Bone, the eerie body horror of Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, and the dark folklore of Clive Barker, this is an unforgettable tale of stolen crowns, selfless solidarity, and the monstrous courage required to let an empire burn.

• Themen: Belletristik Fantasyliteratur Dark Fantasy
• ISBN: 9798182775816
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 14.09.2026
• Größe: 229 x 152 mm
• Verlag: JASON J GUSMAN