Anna Bright’s The Beholder is a sparkling adventure worth taking

Anna Bright’s YA debut The Beholder is a compelling adventure with a great heroine that offers a fun twist on the genre’s fairytale obsession.

June is a busy month for YA fiction, with new releases in genres that run the gamut from high fantasy to contemporary romance to tie-ins with popular television series. So you might be surprised to discover that one of the best releases of the month is by an author you may have never heard of before. (But it’s true!)

Anna Bright’s debut novel The Beholder is a sparkly, fizzy adventure that feels like magic from start to finish. That may seem like overkill considering that we’re talking about yet another YA novel that combines twists on various classic fairytale elements to tell its main story. But Bright manages to spin some serious gold out of these well-worn tropes, creating a tale that will ultimately leave you both cheering for its heroine, and dying to find out what happens next.

(When is the next book in this series, again?)

The Beholder follows the story of Selah, a naive young noblewoman who also happens to be next in line to rule her country of Potomac. But thanks to the machinations of her (obviously evil) stepmother, she’s forced to sail across the Atlantic in search of a suitor to marry.

But Selah’s story is as much about her growing into herself and her own voice as it is about finding a potential husband. As her ship – the titular Beholder – carries her far from home, she’s forced to step outside her own comfort zone, both in terms of the kind of relationship she wants, and the sort of person she’d like to become.

As she struggles to figure out a way home and get back to her ailing father, Selah must confront her own feelings of inadequacy and shyness, learn to stand up for herself and those she loves ,and find her own strength. Her growth from the novel’s first page to its last – when she must choose something she’s spent most of the book openly fearing – is both remarkable and earned. It’s easy to root for Selah, and hope for her happiness in the face of some rather awful odds at times. (I legitimately love her, can you tell?)

Furthermore, the world building of this novel is just such fun. Whether you’re attempting to sort out which modern-day countries, states and/or territories the nations of The Beholder most likely map to, or simply laughing at the sly references to everything from The Odyssey to Arthurian legends to Norse gods, there are plenty of layers to enjoy for any fan of reading. (It’s also not an accident that Selah herself is something of a bookworm.)

As she moves from country to country and noble suitor to noble suitor, Selah experiences a variety of flirtations and romances – all of which are (thankfully) presented as normal and natural instead of shameful or embarrassing. Her feelings towards the men she meets along the way are portrayed as thoughtful and genuine, and you can understand why she likes each of them.

You will likely…have a rooting interest to some degree, but these relationships are never presented as being in competition with one another and there’s no “triangle” as such. (Let me tell you: that is so nice.) Some readers may struggle with how quickly Selah’s affections shift, but The Beholder does such a great job of crafting different types of male characters – a bold warrior, a secretive prince, and a dashing sea captain, just to start – that there’s a little something for everyone here.

By the time The Beholder concludes, though, Selah has come into her own in an unexpected way. To be fair, she’s never going to be a warrior princess, grabbing a sword and leading an army to take back her kingdom. And that’s 100% okay. Good, even. Because heroines can come in many forms, including softer, bookish girls who miss their families and force themselves to stand up for what’s right, even when it scares them. I can’t wait to follow her journey in the sequel.

The Beholder can be found in bookstores everywhere right now.