Projections

November 1, 2023

YA author Porter (Never-Contented Things) makes her adult fiction debut with this ambitious novel, a story of love and revenge that spans lifetimes. Told from three points of view, a twentysomething man named Angus and Catherine, both as a ghost and at 19 while still alive, the book explores the complexity and difficulty of relationships. After Catherine is murdered, she is attached to her killer and strives to find a way to break free and to also stop him from killing again. While this is a fantasy novel, taking place in both a magical world called Nautilus, and the existing world, it deals with deeply relatable real-life situations. At the center of this story is a tale of unrequited love and how that love can turn into obsession. Catherine and Angus both have spectacular voices, allowing readers to connect with them and get to the heart of their emotions. Sometimes deeply uncomfortable, but consistently honest, this story will haunt readers long after they close the book. VERDICT Within an intricately built fantasy world, Porter takes a character that had all agency unwillingly taken away from her and gives her an incredible voice.--Tegan Beese

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 11, 2023
Porter puts a unique spin on the vengeful ghost trope in her ambitious adult fantasy debut (after the YA novel Vassa in the Night). In 1850s New York City, 19-year-old Catherine Bildstein is murdered by her childhood friend-turned-sorcerer Angus “Gus” Farrow after she rejects his romantic advances. Rather than crossing over, Catherine’s shrieking ghost (her voice is caught in the scream of the moment before her death) attaches itself to Gus, who takes her to the supernatural world of Nautilus and uses her to fuel his power. As twisted revenge for his unrequited love, Gus utilizes his otherworldly magic to create projections of himself, which are sent to the human world to seduce young women who remind him of Catherine. Those who do not reciprocate his love are murdered. Meanwhile, Catherine learns to control her new ghostly abilities and, with the help of allies she makes in Nautilus, devises a plan to destroy Gus and his projections once and for all. The plot is fascinating and Porter’s exploration of Gus’s misogyny is incisive, but the story, which takes place over the course of a century, is occasionally bogged down by dense prose and confounding time jumps. Still, readers will cheer for Catherine to exact her revenge and reclaim her agency in the afterlife. This darkly magical historical should win Porter some new fans.

Starred review from January 1, 2024
Porter transitions from YA to adult fiction (following 2019's Never-Contented Things as Sarah Porter) with a luscious, dual-voiced story of vengeance. Nineteen-year-old Catherine Bildstein is brutally murdered in 1859, and her spirit becomes entangled with her murderer, Angus Farrow, as he escapes into a city where magic controls everything and time flows at a slower pace. Catherine had watched her childhood friend Gus slowly become obsessed with magic, although she had no use for it herself, being thoroughly happy in the natural world. She rejected every attempt he made to convince her they would be happier together in a magical realm, and she was killed for announcing her engagement to another young man. Her ghost cannot speak, but her dying scream and diaphanous specter are permanently affixed to Gus, who selfishly declares her ""spiritual"" attachment as evidence of her love for him. He spends the next century creating preternatural projections of himself who search the human world for Catherine's reincarnation to rekindle the love she spurned. Her ghost only wishes for revenge and for Gus's death, hoping to finally release her soul to oblivion. The exquisite language, well-honed characters, and various historical settings will draw in fans of unusual ghost stories.

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