Женщина меняет душу на власть в историческом фэнтези «Кости из нефрита»

Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice Gracie Marsden. Viking, $30 (304p) ISBN 978-0-593-83408-4 Marsden’s impressive historical fantasy debut, set in 11th-century Taiwan, charts a woman’s costly climb to power, chronicling the wreckage that ambition leaves behind. Sold into marriage as a girl, Yu’er discovers unexpected tenderness with her young husband, Xiaozhu, before a series of tragedies strike, pulling them apart. Left alone and grieving, she makes a bargain with a shape-shifting demon, trading her safety for the agency to control her fate. That bargain sets the novel’s moral engine in motion: each step Yu’er takes toward the royal court demands another piece of her humanity. Marsden luxuriates in moral grayness, refusing to let her heroine be simply good or simply ruined. Steeped in Taiwanese folklore, the story’s fairy tale cadence persists even in its bleakest turns through a court rife with treachery. The plotting is propulsive enough to make a heavy, often brutal narrative feel urgent rather than punishing, and the sense of grounded emotionality remains throughout. Fans of Shelley Parker-Chan’s morally complex fantasies, and readers willing to stomach graphic violence and body horror, should seek out this mesmerizing, deeply human tragedy. Agent: Mary C. Moore, Aevitas Creative Management. (Nov.) Details Reviewed on: 08/28/2026 Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror