The Mossheart’s Promise, is a beautifully written and poignant story by Rebecca Mix that touches on themes of family legacies, bravery, and unchosen heroes. Through this novel, we follow twelve-year old fairy Ary Mossheart, who works as a mold-scraper to salvage food for her village. When Ary’s mother begins to fall ill of mold poisoning, she decides to step into her unwilling and retired-hero grandmother’s shoes to go and find a cure.

As Ary ventures into the Gloom and Underground, she begins to uncover the truth of her dying world—that it exists in a giant, rotting terrarium that the fairies were meant to leave centuries ago. Even worse, her grandmother knew and hid from not just her, but their entire world. Now, Ary’s mission has evolved from finding a cure for her mother, to finding a cure for her world.

This novel is both an angry and heartbreakingly tender exploration of what it means to inherit a dying world—a conversation that is becoming increasingly relevant in our own day to day lives. What a story! This is one I wish I could re-read again for the very first time.