Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) from the publisher, in exchange for my honest opinion. Many thanks to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan, and the author.
I went into this book knowing very little about it except that it was written by the author who wrote my favorite short story ever, The Six Deaths of a Saint. And I don’t know what I expected, but before chapter one ended, I knew I found a new favorite (not of the year, but of all time), and by mid-chapter two, I already had the beautiful hardback pre ordered.
That all happened before I knew the full scope of this story, the sheer size of it, how epic and wonderful and absolutely heartbreaking it is. Words cannot describe what this book did to me, how thoroughly it devastated me and then mended my heart over and over. If I could give it 6 stars, 7, 8, a thousand, I would, but at this point this book is beyond the star rating system — it’s that good.
At its heart, it’s a love story (and what a love story it is!), but it’s also about stories we tell about ourselves, and of others, about history and legend, about imperialism, and war, and family and devotion. It’s sad, that’s true, but also hilarious (especially in Owen’s POV; he’s now one of my favorite characters, fullstop), and moving, and incisive, and even sexy.
Una and Owen are both unique (as individuals and as a couple), in the current fantasy landscape (and especially romantasy, if you count this book as one, which I wish I could without it being kind of offensive, honestly).
Not that romantasy isn’t great when done well but the majority of it is formulaic, overlong, and relies on same-old tropes. But this is what romantasy was always meant to be, in my opinion — epic, sweeping, extraordinary tales that center love, but also explore other themes. Romantasy can be more than shallow, contrived banter, shadow daddies and vaguely sassy but ultimately foolish heroines.
But to get back to this book, The Everlasting — it brought me to tears on several occasions, it made me feel so many feelings, and if you read no other book this year, please read this one; it’s well worth the time and it will stay with you forever.
I wish I could tell you a bit more about the story without actually spoiling it, but here goes.
We begin this tale with Owen Mallory, a war veteran and a historian in this world (the empire of Dominion), receiving a book. He’s immediately frightened, exhilarated, all the feelings at once about it because this book appears to be an original historical text about his favorite hero — Una the Everlasting.
She’s the reason he went into war, that he survived, that he went into history in the first place. And he feels his work so far has been subpar because everything he published was derivative of some other author or a word of mouth legend. But now he gets to read something written by a person who travelled with Una the Everlasting.
And then the book disappears from his flat, and all that’s left behind is a card with an address.
What happens next is something I’d rather you discover on your own, though it might be spoiled a little by the blurb (and the fact I already told you who the other main character is).
Everything about this book is brilliant. There’s dual point of view, it’s written in second person POV for the majority of it, which is so hard to pull off well, but Alix E. Harrow manages it so well, it’s genuinely heartbreaking.
The whole story is told in this fairytale-like way, it just pulls you deeper and deeper into it, like listening to someone tell it over a campfire — that’s the feeling I got. And each character has such a unique voice.
Honestly, I could write so much about this book, but I won’t because you should just read it — The Everlasting will steal your heart, break it, mend it, and leave you thinking about it for a long time after you finish. It’s definitely one of my favorite books of the year, if not the favorite, and as luck would have it — it comes out exactly on my birthday, which I take as a kind of “it was meant to be”.
Highly recommended read — I envy anyone who gets to read it for the first time!
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow comes out on Oct 28, 2025, and you can get it wherever you get books, or by clicking on the button below.
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