Could you brave the depths of the underworld to rescue your lost love? That is Teagan’s goal in Holly J. Underhill’s debut novella The Bone Way. Released just last week from one of my favorite indies Nyx Publishing, The Bone Way is loosely a sapphic, witchy retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth with a fairy-tale twist.
When Teagan wakes up one morning after a fight with her wife, she realizes that Cressidae has done the unthinkable—she’s ventured into the Shadow Realm alone. Cressidae believes that if she can reach the legendary Shadow Princess, she can strike a deal to save Teagan from the poison that has been slowly killing her. But Teagan doesn’t want Cress risking her own life on such a far-fetched scheme. Now all Teagan can do is follow her wife’s path through the Bone Way, under the Sky of Lost Dreams, down the River of Sorrow, up the Desolate Mountain, and into the Deathly Palace in the hopes of bringing Cress back safe to the world of the living. As the reader follows Teagan’s treacherous journey, her great love story with Cress unfurls through a series of flashbacks. Along the way, we also learn the anti-love story of the Shadow Princess, once a beloved young woman blessed with starlight, who abandons her fairy-tale happily ever after to pursue dark magic.
Though barely more than sketched in, in this short novella, the unique setting of The Bone Way gives this old story a fresh face. Teagan and Cress live in a land ruled by witches called Wystira, where young women are encouraged to pursue various magical paths at a prestigious academy. But all this magic has a dark side. In Wystira, the scary stories told to young children are based in truth, and monsters lurk in the shadowed woods. In fact, there seems to be a certain permeability between the Shadow Realm and the land of the living that allows venomous creatures of darkness into Wysteria … and allows two young witches to hop easily onto the Bone Way. Rather than the Hades of Greek myth, the underworld here is a realm artificially created by the Shadow Princess that functions almost like an obstacle course. Legend has it that the Shadow Princess will strike a deal with anyone brave and strong enough to best her challenges and make it to her palace, though she rarely bargains fair. As Teagan travels along the Road of Silence, she is faced with animate skeletons and flying monsters—but far more frightening is the prospect of facing the emotions she’s been repressing. The Shadow Realm is all about grief, yearning, and lost dreams. Teagan will have to come to terms with her mother’s recent death, her fears for Cress, and her own mortality before she can make it to the Deathly Palace.
Another important way in which The Bone Way differs from the original myth is its uplifting ending. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I know it can be important for readers to see queer love stories with happy endings, especially since historically, that wasn’t often allowed to be the case. Teagan and Cress face a similar trial to Orpheus and Eurydice, yet they ultimately triumph through their love and their wit. Juxtaposed with this tragic-myth-turned-happily-ever-after is a twist on the traditional fairy tale: the story-within-a-story of how the Shadow Princess became who she is now starts off as a stereotypical tale of a virtuous heroine finding love with a prince, but quickly devolves into a sad ending where evil triumphs. The swapped conclusions to these two genres keeps readers on their toes.
If you’re interested in picking up The Bone Way, you can buy it directly from Nyx Publishing’s website or order it from Bookshop.org and support The Gothic Library in the process using this affiliate link. Be sure to come back and let me know what you think of the book in the comments!