Alexandra Christo’s Into the Crooked Place is a non-stop magical thrill ride

A gritty magical thriller with intriguing characters,  Alexandra Christo’s Into the Crooked Place will delight fantasy fans everywhere – especially if you liked Six of Crows.

Gritty heist adventures are all the rage right now in the world of YA fantasy. From Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows to Amanda Foody’s Ace of Shades and Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves, we’re always willing to go in on a group of teens coming together to steal some stuff and maybe save the world along the way.

In that regard, Alexandra Christo’s latest novel Into the Crooked Place feels like familiar territory. And in some ways, it is. It also centers around a group of very different characters, each with their own motivations and agendas, who must work together for a common goal. But, that’s kind of where the similarities end. With its gangland details, creative magical caste system and surprisingly brutal characters, Into the Crooked Place is very much its own thing. And that thing will likely be a story you can’t put down.

In the world of Into the Crooked Place, light and dark magic are outlawed commodities sold on the black market and the most powerful magic users – beings known as Crafters who can literally create magic – must live in hiding. Though the novel doesn’t spend a lot of time on world-building, the conception of “the realms” is rich and complicated, with different kingdoms supporting different goals and styles of living, even as they’re ruled by both corrupt Doyens and a hidden class of Kingpins controlling the black markets.

However, readers are largely dropped in the middle of the story, and left to figure out the rules and history of this society on our own. (Personally, I’d have loved more information about the historically destructive war that wiped out most of the Crafters, but maybe that’s something for book two.)

Into the Crooked Place follows the story of four distinct but equally appealing characters the city of Creije, whose narratives all interconnect.

There’s Tavia, a busker who sells magical charms on the streets of the city, who dreams of a life of freedom outside the city’s walls, and away from the dark person she’s becoming. Wesley is the underboss of the city, a gangster with tremendous power and ambition for more.

There’s also Karam, a dedicated warrior who works as a bodyguard for Wesley by day, but spends her nights in Creije’s fighting pits, working out her complicated feelings about a life that hasn’t gone quite according to plan. And finally, there’s Saxony, a barmaid with plenty of secrets, out for revenge against those who destroyed her family.

This hodgepodge group of dark, dangerous figures must eventually band together to save their adopted city from a dangerous new form of magic, one which is capable of destroying the minds of those who use it. This quest involves them taking on the reigning Kingpin of Creije, a man who has lived in darkness so long he might well be a monster himself.

But they have few allies, fewer resources and don’t trust each other at all – a perfect recipe for a dangerous journey across the realms to the Kingpin’s hidden fortress. What could go wrong?

While much of the setting and themes of Into the Crooked Place feel a bit familiar, the characters are nevertheless extremely well done. Complicated and conflicted, each is fighting their own wars and regrets even as they attempt to do the right thing by the city they’ve come to call home.

Wesley, ostensibly the villain of the group, is oddly the most complicated character, particularly as we learn more about his past and the decisions he made along the way to becoming an underboss. The mystery surrounding Saxony’s family and her reasons for being in Creije are equally interesting – and surprising enough not to spoil for you here. (Plus, her on-again, off-again romance with Karam is surprisingly sweet and charming. I’m definitely rooting for these crazy kids.)

The story is full of action and surprises – as soon as our gang of faves (however begrudgingly) decide to work together, the story takes off and rockets from a train car battle to a tragic ambush to a magical ocean with surprising quickness. (My one personal complaint is I could have really used a quick explainer on the various levels of power in magical items and beings. Because I have no idea how anyone is fighting a character who maybe appears to be the physical embodiment of a fire god sometimes?)

Into the Crooked Place is the first installment in a planned duology, so it probably shouldn’t surprise us that the story ends on a cliffhanger. But it’s going to be a long wait to see where everyone goes from here.

Into the Crooked Place is available now. If you give it a read – let us know what you think!