Spotlight: The Keep Within

I just finished this book, written by one of my Clarion classmates, and I enjoyed the hell out of it so I thought I’d write about it a bit here!

First off: this book isn’t furry. Sorry! I keep asking my non-furry friends to put some furries in their books. It’ll happen eventually.

What this book is is an engaging, kinetic romp through a secondary fantasy world that feels like Shakespeare’s England, not least because one of the POV characters, Harry Larksdale, is the director of a theatre company who wants their work to reach a wider audience. But in this not-England are commrach, elves with more power and knowledge than humans, as well as certain people whose voice can command others, and magical artifacts of a bygone era that are not always properly understood.

One of these artifacts is the titular keep, an ancient building in the basement of the royal palace, cursed so that anyone who speaks of it outside the palace dies a horrible death. But the keep and the other unique features of this world are not so much focal points of the story as they are handholds and obstacles for the characters in the book to dance through their own personal stories. In addition to Harry, there’s Queen Carmotta, clinging to relevance as a younger queen steals her husband’s affection; there’s Fwych, a mountain witch on a quest to fulfill her life’s purpose; and there’s a mysterious bloodthirsty figure called Red Marie. Worrad ties their plot threads together with expert skill, each driven by the characters in a way that was delightful to me to discover (even when the results were violent, as they often were).

Alongside the violence is plenty of sex, and it is not all straight, let me tell you. The issue of bi erasure is even brought up in this Elizabethan world. Alongside that, Worrad touches on the issue of romance without sex, the death of physical attraction between longtime partners, and how complicated love can be.

The world is fun, the plots are terrifically crafted, but you all know I love good characters, and the characters really sit at the heart of The Keep Within. I had a fantastic time with them, and I can’t recommend this enough if you like good characters, especially if you like them raw and bleeding (literally and figuratively).