Thirteen Midnights - by Isabel Strychacz (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

To save her best friend, a young woman must follow the mysterious figure that has plagued her village for generations into his sprawling, otherworldly realm in this dark fairy tale that's "impossible to put down" (School Library Journal, starred review) and perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and The Rose Bargain.

Love will unite them. Fate will break them.

In the superstitious town of Hollow there once lived a long and powerful line of witches. Determined to secure their power, they cast a curse on the only one who threatened their reign: the Lord of the Woods--the enigmatic Piper.

But the curse had a price.

Every thirteen years, someone from Hollow is stolen away into the Piper's realm by his eerie melodies. No one is ever seen again.

Violet, the last witch left, is destined to break the curse. But when her best friend is taken instead, Violet ventures into the strange and enchanted land called Otherhollow to put things right and confront the Piper. But the Piper is wild, and charming, and different from the monstrous villain in her family's stories.

Her fate is to kill the Piper and break the curse. But now fate must reckon with something wholly unexpected...Violet's own traitorous heart.

Review Quotes

A novel teeming with magic, oral storytelling, intricate character webs, and the power of fate and love. Violet ­Holloway, a white female, has been told stories for as long as she can remember about the monstrous Piper, the Lord of the Woods, and how to protect herself from his otherworld magic. When Violet's grandmother passes away, Violent knows that as the last in line--the thirteenth ­Holloway--she is destined to kill the Piper and break the curse that has been haunting her family for years. But somehow, both Violet and her best friend, Blair, find themselves stuck in the Piper's complex labyrinth. As the story unfolds, truths and lies of past and present surface, and Violet is forced to decide where home truly lies. The plot line is intense, mysterious, and highly ­suspenseful as each chapter builds upon the previous one, with flashbacks from the ­Holloway past sprinkled throughout. ­Dialogue ­between characters moves the plot along quickly and reveals layers of secret character traits, feelings, and thoughts. Readers will find Violet resourceful and inquisitive and the Piper to be much different than traditionally portrayed. Though magic is the primary theme, it is the human elements that make the book impossible to put down: readers will become invested in the lives of the characters, and through them understand that there is more to a person than what is seen on the outside. VERDICT A powerful "Beauty and the Beast"-like novel with a "Pied Piper" thread that ­unpacks the challenges of the past while celebrating what could be. --School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW "9/1/26"

Strychacz (House of Thorns) offers an alluring tale about the Pied Piper of Hamelin that examines fate, family expectations, and legacy. In Hollow, residents are warned never to follow the Pied Piper's sinister music, which flows into town from Otherhollow, an alternate magical realm. But every 13 years, someone succumbs to the mesmerizing song and vanishes without a trace. Violet Holloway, 18, has been raised on stories about how the Piper stole his magic from her ancestor, Elora. As the last Holloway witch, Violet believes it's her destiny to kill the Piper and reclaim the powers. When her best friend, Blair, disappears, Violet ventures into Otherhollow to rescue her, only to discover that the history she'd been told about her family, her town, and the Piper is far more complex than she's known. While Violet and the Piper's dynamic rapidly shifts between hostility and flirtation, making their developing romance feel somewhat implausible, the dark, decaying world of Otherhollow serves as a moody backdrop, and Violet's gradual reassessment of the stories that have shaped her gives the novel emotional weight. It's a fresh spin on a familiar folktale with an emphasis on choosing one's own path outside of inherited narratives. Ages 14 and up. Agent: Taylor Martindale Kean, Full Circle Literary. (Nov.)--Publishers Weekly "9/11/26"

About the Author

Isabel Strychacz is from a small town in the San Francisco Bay Area. An alumna of Mills College with degrees in English and history, she is getting her MFA degree in creative writing from Manchester Metropolitan University. She currently lives in England with her husband and daughter where she works as a copywriter for a PR and communications agency. She's the author of the novel Starling, House of Thorns, and Thirteen Midnights. You can find her online @IsabelStrychaczAuthor (Instagram, TikTok, and Threads), @IsabelStrychacz (X), and at IsabelStrychacz.com.