The West Passage

by Jared Pechaček

A palace the size of a city, ruled by giant Ladies of unknowable, eldritch origin. A land left to slow decay, drowning in the debris of generations. All this and more awaits you within The West Passage, a delightfully mysterious and intriguingly weird medieval fantasy unlike anything you've read before.

When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded.

Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer. Rats erupt from beneath the earth, fleeing that which comes. Crops fail. Hunger looms. And none stand ready to face the Beast, stirring beneath the poisoned soil.

The fate of all who live in the palace hangs on narrow shoulders. The too-young Mother of Grey House sets out to fix the seasons. The unnamed apprentice of the deceased Grey Guardian goes to warn Black Tower. Both their paths cross the West Passage, the ancient byway of the Beast. On their journeys they will meet schoolteachers and beekeepers, miracles and monsters, and very, very big Ladies. None can say if they'll reach their destinations, but one thing is for sure: the world is about to change.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Queer, Adult, LGBT, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

366 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 16, 2024

Reviews

[sakurablossom95 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been the most uniquely different read for me in the longest time, and I had the best time with it. It beautifully blends dark whimsical fantasy elements with a dash of sweet moments, creating a captivating and strange narrative.
The story itself is wonderfully odd and thought-provoking. I loved how it made me think, often presenting elements that are not clearly explained, encouraging readers to figure things out on their own. This approach added to the book's charm, making it a more engaging and immersive read.
The plot of The West Passage is difficult to explain, and I believe it's one of those books best approached with little to no prior knowledge. Its uniqueness and departure from my usual reads made it a refreshing and thoroughly enjoyable experience from start to finish.
If you're looking for a different and enchanting yet odd read, The West Passage is definitely worth your time.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy weird and whimsical writing, medieval inspired fantasy, standalone fantasy, and memorably characters, this one is for you! This reminded me of a mix of Piranesi and the film Labyrinth with some hints of Over the Garden Wall and Alice in Wonderland.

It's all set in a world that entirely exists inside of a big palace where each section or 'tower' of the palace is a different community, connected by passageways. The towers are ruled by these god-like figures referred to as 'Ladies' who are austere and menacing but also awe-inspiring.

The book begins when the Guardian of the West Passage dies and can no longer serve to protect the palace from the potential return of the Beast from below. Her apprentice must go on a quest to get appointed as the new Guardian, while another character seeks to find out why their tower is being hit with winter storms out of season. We journey with them all around the palace as they go on their separate missions in a wacky and fantastical tale of taking up the mantle of authority and fighting against the powers at be.

I loved how this world-building was slowly parceled out to the reader. It can seem confusing at first but just trust that you are in good hands and that chapter by chapter and piece by piece you will come to understand more about the world and how it's structured. The book has a solid and well-paced plot overall, but each chapter definitely lends itself more towards 'vibe' fantasy, meaning you just have to sort of go along with it and enjoy the unique atmosphere the author has created. If you can let go of hard magic rules and appreciate the use of but also upending of typical fantasy tropes, I think you'll find a story that surprises and delights!

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially reviewed on Storygraph.

"Holiness is a strange and terrible thing." If any line were to sum up this book, it would be this (and I hope it stays in the published copy).

This is a book for those who love word-building, mysticism, and biblically accurate angels. I've seen it marketed as medieval fantasy, and I would agree in that it evokes medieval mysticism, epic power struggles, and the long s in one or two interludes--not any kind of King Arthur business or traditional stereotypes in that sense. Neither is it Lovecraftian-eldritch. I would compare it to The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin in that the world itself is a character, or rather the main character. We see the world through the eyes of Kew & Pell as they take on their respective journeys, along with a few outside narrations.

I loved it. It is not particularly plot-driven in my opinion. Things happen, yes, but the bulk of the work and my enjoyment of it was in building up the mythos of the Palace. I love that we explore the world through its people and the whimsy/horror of their daily lives. There's a Alice in Wonderland kind of quality to the different scenes along the way. However, these people are in service (both literally within the narrative and to the larger plot/drive of the book) to building up the machinations of this world; sustained character development (with few exceptions) is sacrificed for the good of the weird. And it is a very good weird. This is a book about the journey, not necessarily the narrative climax. It's a lush, rich setting that I will continue to think about. I would say it's a great palate cleanser if you've read a few too many tropey fantasy novels and want something different (but with enough slightly familiar beats to feel comfortable).

This is a review of the advanced copy as provided through Edelweiss.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is prime cult classic material, and worthy of notice because it is so different from other fantasy novels. It’s a dark through-the-looking-glass tale for adults, descriptive and inventive and strange, and it’s great at atmosphere and creating a truly weird and detailed and sometimes brutal setting, full of its own history and symbolism and mythology.

However, that’s basically the whole schtick. Technically, from a structural perspective, there is a plot, but it’s a very slow-paced affair that really just serves as scaffolding and excuse for the characters to explore the bizarre city-state-sized decaying palace in which they live. And the book is a bit long for all-vibes-no-plot, at least to my tastes; technically it’s 370 pages, but given its somewhat cramped font size and spacing I suspect it’s rightfully more like 450, and would have enjoyed it better at half to two-thirds of that length. The middle sags, and despite the author’s facility with vivid and strange descriptions, I reached a point of saturation and did not want any more!

The other issue, of course, is that there isn’t much to the characters. While the early chapters impressed me with the ways they and their lives felt based on real life rather than other fiction and tropes, and while they do grow in the sense of gaining confidence and knowledge and coming into their roles, they never attain greater complexity and the book never deepened my investment. And there are some strangely distancing moments, as when a main character’s experience of being forced to change genders for their job does not get even a single sentence about what this means for them, physically or psychologically. When characters started dying at the end, I realized I genuinely did not care what happened to any of them. The only moment inspiring emotion for me in the entire book was the bit where an entire feast got thrown out—admittedly, the lingering deaths of old people early on were miserable too, and in their absolute lack of romanticism felt based in real-life experience.

All that said, I absolutely think that for the right reader, this will be a new favorite. It fully commits to what it is, and it’s not a carbon copy of anything else. And it’s certainly an immersive, imaginative, memorable setting. The prose itself is not memorable but is perfectly fine at providing descriptions, and there’s plenty of intriguing little moments and details. Impressively, the author is also a visual artist, and has adorned the book with his own sketches, which are fun and helpful in understanding the strange descriptions. (He didn’t draw the cover, but must have worked closely with the cover artist because all its symbolism is correct.) Overall, a strong recommendation for those who love dark whimsy and the weirdest of settings; plot- and character-oriented readers are likely to be less enthralled.

[Books_the_Magical_Fruit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am quite ill at the moment, but I shall try to do this book justice. I have to give it five stars for sheer inventiveness alone. There were so many times that I reeled back and took a few minutes to ponder after a new piece of information was dispensed. This is not a Disney fairytale. It's definitely for older readers. There's a lot of gore and violence, as well as some what-the-freak-did-I-just-read and that-is-so-unsettling-I-can't-put-it-into-words. I'm just trying to be transparent here: you won't come out of this read with a clear head. There's also a weird, vague sex scene that left me scratching my head for a few seconds before I moved on. There's some jarring uses of profanity, mostly the F word, that did, quite honestly, take me out of the story every time I came across one. (At the beginning of the book, a character uses a direction to curse, as in "North!!"--in my opinion, the author should have just stuck with that). I will say, about the profanity, there is one utterly hysterical scene where inadvertent physical comedy has a brief minor character picking themselves off the floor while saying, "THE F***!! THE F***!!!", and I could *not* stop laughing, because, in my mind, it was as if it had happened to George Carlin and not Dick Van Dyke.

What a ride, though, folks!!!!! There are so many things in this book that I have never, ever come across, and I'm reasonably well-read, especially in the fantasy genre. I'd love to have lunch with Jared Pechaček and just pick his extraordinary brain. I don't know how he came up with half of the things he did, but I am HERE for it, people, and I anxiously await more stories set in this weird and wondrous world. It's a must-read.

You may be thinking to yourself...huh, she didn't really say much about the plot. That's on purpose. Go in blind with this one. It's a twisty, turny, mind-altering, eerily beautiful tale. Just be prepared to take a little more time digesting the fantastically horrible happenings.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for letting me read this ahead of its publication. All opinions are mine alone. (I adore you, Tordotcom. Never change.)

[Matthew Galloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like there's a new subgenre of fantasy on the rise these days. I don't quite have it defined in my head yet, but it's sort of ethereal and whimsical, but never safe. Something cute can be followed by something deadly or even gory. There's something about chasing your dreams or growing up and how triumphant it can be, but also so very bittersweet. There's kaleidoscopic imagery that is never quite explained enough to understand, but that also doesn't matter because it just feels right when you're submerged in the story. It's all definitely having a dialogue with tropes of classic fantasy, but it doesn't want to argue or snark too much, rather, it sort of says I loved you, but you weren't as good to me as you could have been. It's also a set of stories whose authors just love language.

The West Passage fits snugly inside all this.

It's a story that, on a different path, could have been a modernized Alice in Wonderland style romp. Or maybe less Alice and more The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. It has all that whimsy and childhood wonder, but also some teeth. The West Passage has a LOT of teeth.

To me, The West Passage seems to have a lot to say about the power of stories -- for good or ill -- and isolation. It also dwells on decay and stagnation. There are so many versions of stories traded around by the characters, but as groups focus on their favorite, they pull away from those who are near them. Eventually, all that should be known is buried beneath everyone's beliefs. This is a world where nearly everyone knows their place in society. And it doesn't do many of them a whole lot of good. Many stay safer when they inhabit only those roles, but it doesn't guarantee safety and it certainly doesn't guarantee any sort of happiness.

I don't know, it's a hard book to talk about. It also has a plot that feels like it should be fast paced -- must stop a magical winter and the Beast before it arrives! -- but it takes a stance of "things will happen as they need." This isn't bad. The book trusts the reader -- sometimes tells the reader -- to be savvy that we're in story time. So the pace is slower than you'd think, but no less fascinating if you're remotely interested in world building. There are so many tangents that explain the world -- and leave you with so many more questions. In the end, you're left wanting to know so much more, but also know that this novel is complete on its own.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 Stars
I really appreciated the unique worldbuilding in this novel. It had a different narrative tone which immediately caught me off guard. I am always looking for something special.

Despite that, I never completely fell in love with this story. I think the challenge is that this one didn't have a strong narrative direction or direction to the plot. At times, this can work if I'm attached to the characters but I found these ones to be a bit distant.

This novel has some great potential and things I liked about it, but it did not completely work for me.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[King Crusoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am thoroughly whelmed.

Mind you, this is not an insult, it is merely the result of trying to balance the great ideas and the messy execution of them; it is the result of my REALLY LOVING the foundation that Pechaček has built his world and story on but being very mixed on the end-product as is. To be fair, several of my personal "issues" with "The West Passage" come down to personal taste - maybe even a portion of how I might have personally structured the story. But many of said "issues" are actually what in my mind feel like a thoroughly impressive proof of concept.

I liked "The West Passage". I liked it quite a bit. I liked the world, I liked the tone, I liked the vibe of many of what feels like folklore and fairytale influences coming together. I liked the development of the plot: the introduction and conclusion especially. Almost all of the little components of the book were effective...but underbaked, in my opinion.


In fairness, I must praise the things that I liked! "The West Passage" is far from a *bad* book, and there is tons of great potential here. I personally think of it like one of the best proofs of concept I've read:
1.) The worldbuilding and setting feels so unique, and the tone of it is just right for the general vibes of the story. Trying to put together the setting is difficult and obtuse in the wrong ways some times, but I think that Pechaček did a great job building it out, even if not always at explaining it.
2.) The folklore-ish tone and fairytale vibes just HIT. Even if a lot of the characters and the creatures they are very rarely come through clearly*, I think the foundation for what is a visually and conceptually striking setting with interesting dynamics between the various "houses" and Towers of the world is solid.
* In fact, many characters you don't even know what they are until like several chapters later when you are given a random, specific physical characteristic such as quills or some such. One of the two main POV characters I didn't even know had a particular trait to her hair until legit the last 10 pages of the book.
3.) There are, indeed, MANY interesting plot devices and characters that do a lot for fleshing out the intrigue of the world and bits of its history.
4.) The set-up of the two main characters' separate-but-connected storylines was very well done, and concluded quite well.
5.) The brevity of the novel was appreciated, though I think it might have been better served in a trilogy (or, alternatively, in a much longer volume; the tone of the story, however, would be more conducive to (hypothetically) 2 or 3 of these small-dimension, sub-400 or even sub-300 page books rather than one much larger tome that would likely catch the attention of a slightly different audience and scare away what seems like might be closer to the actually-intended audience).
In general, the potential oozing from "The West Passage" is palpable and commendable, especially from a debut effort. I greatly respect the author what the shots he took here: I've not anything quite like this novel, and I don't think I will again, except if he writes another story in this world.

But, as you may have been able to tell from even those brief praises, even the great stuff is held back by some things that struck me as off, for one reason or another:
1.) The physical descriptions of the world are obtuse and sometimes don't make sense. Directions and journeys are pretty hard to follow on a macro-level, so I had to just make do with enjoying the activities of the moment.
2.) I already spoke on the creature aspect: descriptions and explanations of the various peoples and how people and things and parts of the world actually *look* is very underdone; it is to the point that I'd argue "The West Passage" should have been a film rather than a novel. There are SO MANY THINGS in here that SO VISUALLY INTERESTING that you just don't *realize* are interesting because they're either glossed over or not mentioned at all outside of one random reference way later than they should be. In a film, the under-explained visual motifs and beautiful eccentricities of the world and peoples would just be inherent to the medium, and thus an entire category of flaw in this format is nullified.
3.) Characters and their interactions and relationships are slightly underserved the way the world and setting is, in my opinion. Just a few chapters apart, a pair of characters can have an entirely different dynamic that is sort of implied based on what is TOLD to you that happens, rather than any of those changes actually being shown (more on this in point 5.).
4.) I confess I struggled a tiny bit during the middle 25% or so of the book, but generally I did enjoy following both storylines.
5.) The brevity is good. The (I think) fact that this is (I'm pretty sure anyway) a standalone is a GREAT selling point! Unfortunately, as I said in Point 5.) in the previous list, I'm not sure it did this book a ton of favors. The plot itself moved with pretty decent pacing overall, but with character dynamics being a bit more told rather than shown and the world and general descriptions and similar being undercooked on top of that, I felt like I was just wandering in a "I sort of get it" kind of way, rather than being all-in, if that makes sense. Expanding this story from 370 pages to...say 750-ish (so about twice as long), and splitting that into volumes of 250 or so pages (or just 2 volumes of about this length), Pechaček could have kept the same plot, but expanded upon the things that feel like they're missing, deepened the reader's connection to the characters and world, and also added a little more detail and smaller steps to the plotting to make it more eventful instead of halfway skipping from scene to scene (in some cases) or from short sub-section to sub-section.

I don't know if any of that made any sense...but I'm gonna role with it.


Beyond my quasi-nitpicks and feedback regarding how the good things could've been better, I only had 1 true negative reaction: the cursing. The tone and vibes of "The West Passage" are, how shall we say, not exactly conducive to the modern "This book SWEARS, see?" mentality that much modern media has taken to. Yet Pechaček uses a handful of curse words a handful of times, and all but like 1 of those instances just do not jive with the book. They come off as forced, immersion-breaking, and eye-rolly, rather than deepening the atmosphere of the story. It would have been better to just not have any at all, especially since the vibe seems like it could be targeted at a somewhat younger audience - to a degree, anyway.

Oh, and I actually remembered a second thing - this one fairly minor and more related to personal taste than anything: the interlude at the various Towers. A couple of the interludes contain content that kinda skirts the lines of being adult content, and I don't think it fit (again) the tone of the rest of the book. Each interlude has SOMEthing happen that felt antithetical to what else was being built - whether that be the more action-oriented Black Tower interlude or the Blue Tower one that all but had a sex scene for...some reason. I don't know. It seemed off.

And lest anyone think I'm being a prude, one of my favorite books this year - if not my Book of the Year straight-up - is "The Failures" by Benjamin Liar. The amount of cursing and adult references in that book trump those found in "The West Passage" many, many, MANY times over. I simply don't think it fits here.


But again I come down to how I'm going to remember "The West Passage" in the future. I think that despite my nitpicks, despite the things I think could be improved, despite even the fact that I referred to the book as simple "fantastic proof of concept" - thereby potentially implying I didn't particular like it - I will remember this novel quite fondly. It has enough going for it that I yet remain a fan. Hell, maybe I'm not the direct target demographic! I don't know...

What I do know is that there are going to people who adore this book. In fact, a friend - hey, Orion! Hi! - is turning into one of those people right now last I heard. There is definitely an audience for whom everything about this is going to click perfectly in place, regardless of what I claim are problems. There are going to be people for whom "The West Passage" steals their heart. I actually think that in another world, or perhaps in another time a few years in my past, I could have also been one of those people.

So even though I did not love "The West Passage" now, I will likely always remember it in a positive light. And I am 100% interested in checking out whatever Pechaček does next, whether in this setting or not. He's definitely on to something. He's got an eye for the unique, and I want to see what it captures next.

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lush world building and an almost whimsical, psychedelic fairy-tale sentimentality aren’t enough to prevent this novel from being a bit underwhelming. The world building is deep and immersive, and does not hold your hand at all, leaving much vague and hidden in dust and shadows, which I enjoyed. The tone and style have a very detached affect, making the whole story dreamlike and portentous, in ways, with the omniscient narrator occasionally making asides to the reader. Those things worked well, but there didn’t really seem like any narrative momentum of any sort. Our two main characters more or less fall into their respective quests and stumble there and back again, without a whole lot of what feels like agency or directionality. This dreamlike style might work if the characters were stronger, but they felt somewhat unformed. There are hints of internal lives for both of them, but they are held at constant remove, and so I didn’t feel any particular interest in them or their quest. They felt as flat as story book characters, which is kind of the opposite of how I would have liked them to be, especially if there isn’t a propulsive narrative to carry the story along.

The description uses the description of “eldritch” to describe certain characters, but that does not set anything like appropriate expectations. The characters are eldritch in the same way as the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk is eldritch, which is to say not at all, just fantastical and enormous and operating past the periphery of human experience, but still more or less understandable. They are just exaggerations of whimsy, and that whimsy is shot through this whole book, but it feels more like an aesthetic than a useful story-telling device. For instance, discounting the “eldritch” characters, the “human” characters often have non-human bodies, with he heads of birds or fish, or skin of various colors covered in feathers or spikes, and so on. However, there is nothing to this difference. It is set dressing, it doesn’t affect the characters’ understanding of each other or the world, it isn’t a source of any sort of conflict or in-group/out-group politics, it is literally just there to locate this world in the uncanny. In that way I suppose it adds to the overall world building endeavor, but it feels hollow and uninteresting. It could have been an area of character exploration and development, and instead it is just a colorful, too-whimsical-by-a-bit distraction.

The novel does bring up interesting ideas. There are ideas of duty, responsibility, tribalism and gender that all come in on the margins, but the big questions are about names and identity but also about the power of story telling itself. We live and die, for generations on end, by the stories others tell about us but also, more importantly, by those we tell about ourselves. The value of knowledge and myth and the relationship between story and reality and an understanding of yourself and your place in the world, these are all ideas this story is grappling with in its sometimes slow, sometimes circuitous ways. I appreciate that aspect of it, and I enjoy that it has an air of ambiguity and unsettledness about it. I just wish the characters felt like they were more than placeholders and had consistent internal journeys and that there was a bit more narrative thrust to give the story at least the feeling of some direction.

(Rounded from 2.5)

[Spencer Orey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird and interesting! I had fun drifting through the bizarre ornate world of towers and troubles.

[Maria reads SFF · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The West Passage" is a wonderfully weird Dark Farytale for adults.
This is for the patient reader who can go with the flow, trust the process even when things don't make sense.
It is one of the most creative, camp, absurd in a good way and astonishing book I ever read.
Reading it reminded me of all the over the top, fun ellements from our childhood tales.
But the cherry on top were the illustrations drawn by the author for each chapter and part of the book. They enhanced my reading experience and are a great representation of the narrative tone.
As one character put it "what use was a book that only had words?".
I am convinced that I'll love "The West Passage" even more on re-read.

You can now support my passion for books with a small donation here https://ko-fi.com/mariareadssff

[Ellie]

How on earth is there a one star rating on this when it hasn't even been released, and as far as I know no ARCs yet?? Seems like someone is being malicious.

[atria]

god, i'm such a slut for a beautiful book cover.

[Emily M · Rating 4 out of 5]

You don’t run across a tale that is both whimsical and dark all that often – but boy do I tend to enjoy that combination! When I first started reading, I thought that this felt a bit like a mixture of The Tombs of Atuan (young people living in a place that has been in decay for centuries and yet where the rituals are held to be very important) and ‘Labyrinth’ (a journey through twisting, turning passages governed by dream logic and inhabited by weird little guys). And, in the end, I suppose that was right, because – like those two tales – this is a coming-of-age story where learning to make one’s own choices is crucial and accepting change is scary but necessary.

Our two main POV characters (although there are a couple of others) grew up in The Palace, a magical realm separated from the rest of the world by a wall, where different towers – grey, red, blue, yellow, and black – are each ruled by a Lady. “Ladies” in this world are eldritch beings, strange in form and of varying power. Only some of the inhabitants of The Palace are “simple flesh” – that is, humans as we know them. The rest have walked right out of the marginalia of medieval paintings: Fish-faced girls, rabbit-eared boys, beehive-headed elk, cattle with gills, and so on. While the blurb suggests our main characters (who I’m not naming because they both change names and one changes gender during the story, and so that’s kind of a spoiler), who both grew up in Grey, go on a quest together, that is actually not the case. One leaves first, seeking to be confirmed by the Lady in Black as Guardian in their recently-deceased mentor’s place, because they are concerned that the Beast the Guardians are meant to fight is rising. Then the other leaves because a strange winter has fallen on Grey and threatens to kill off its remaining inhabitants.

Some reviews complain about lack of character development, but this is not a book that intends to be a deep exploration of character! Which isn’t to say there isn’t character development. I’m serious about this being a coming-of-age story: Pell/Yarrow is someone who tends to get very hung up on the rules, and who never wanted to be anywhere but Grey. But she makes a journey out of her concern for her fellows, and along the way she learns to question received wisdom…which is crucial to the resolution! Kew/Hawthorne was very focused on getting their title so they could fight the Beast, but on the way learns how to make friends – indeed, perhaps begins to fall in love – before becoming someone who will likely be pivotal in the story of The Palace going forward But the overall vibe is like a fairytale or a legend. In those older tales, how characters feel is spelled out even less often than happens here. If you want to get into their head, you have to use your imagination a little. For instance, you might indeed wonder why no one has any comment or feelings about Kew (he/him) becoming Hawthorn (she/her) in the blink of an eye, including Hawthorn. But this led me to hypothesize that Hawthorns are always women, so Kew was expecting this would happen when taking the title . And it turned out that was correct! In this world job titles often go with a particular gender. We encounter one person who didn’t go down a particular career path because he wanted to stay a “he”, and another who pledged to their current role because, if nothing was done, they’d grow up to be a boy instead of a girl.

So, yeah, this is a book that requires a little patience, because it doesn’t really explain much – lore, character, or themes – to the reader. You just have to relax, go on the journey, and take what you will from it, just as the main characters do. It isn’t perfect; With the themes in particular being very “figure it out yourself”, I can certainly see some readers going “what was the point of that?” But it was truly fantastical in a way you don’t always see in a time when orcs start coffee shops and vampires do yoga. And it left me with a hopeful feeling that outdated, oppressive, and/or just plain stupid patterns and structures can be broken or remade, however strange or painful that process might be. And, if that’s too slow…sometimes one may choose to walk away (also uncertain, but not the devil you know).

[Silvana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished! Definitely the weirdest fantasy I read this year. I really enjoyed it so I hope I have the time to write a longer review. But in the meantime, go read this book!

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book highlighted for me the fact that absurdity and near incomprehensibility are not equivalent to whimsy and good writing. While certain aspects of the world building were quite interesting, they were quickly overpowered by the sheer lack of cohesive story or character development. I likely should have given up on this book when I considered doing so about a hundred pages in, but sheer stubbornness led me to push through and see if an interesting conclusion could save the story. Instead I found myself treated to a scant few pages of wrapping up most of the innumerable threads of scattered plot. If you want to read a book that leaves you with a fuzzy brain and a few less hours in your day than this may be the book for you. I personally however found it trying too hard to be mysterious and absurd without any consideration for making it actually at all enjoyable to read.

[takeeveryshot]

this is for the people that loved and understood THE GREEN KNIGHT (2021 dir. david lowery)

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

what a refreshing experience to read a recent fantasy book that 1) is compelling enough to make me read the whole thing in a rush with only one brief break to catch up on my many missed texts, something that I think last happened with Piranesi? 2) is actually original! I don't think it's very "weird", except in the sense that, as said, it is fully and legitimately original; and in the second sense of "weird" as used in contemporary SFF marketing at the moment, where it means "the narrator informs you at some point that there's a monster you cannot possibly comprehend the shape of without going mad!!!!!, there's a slimy tunnel, and/or a character is mind-controlled [CHOOSE AT LEAST TWO]". this sort of marketing is silly but that's not The West Passage's fault. very much the Wizard of Oz as written by Garth Nix (Seventh Tower, Keys to the Kingdom, and very especially and particularly Shade's Children have really very much not been awarded their retrospective laurels among my millennial peers (yes, yes, I know the focus on Sabriel is for good reason, but come on...))

if there's a weakness it's that I think the characters are not particularly rich with personality, though they very much don't have to be in this sort of fairy-tale build where their role in the narrative is their personality (I mean, who needs to know anything about Dorothy Gale's internal life other than that she's a sweet little girl?) but still, I wouldn't have minded getting a little more to emotionally attach to about for example Hawthorn's squire. I forgive this more or less completely because I think the trick that the book pulls off very well—building this sense of bewilderment and rage in the reader essentially from page one, and directing its focus very steadily and carefully as the book goes on, until the revelation that the narrative really does know about it and shares it feels like a relief—is a very cool trick! also, Yarrow is a total exception to the above; she is filled with excellent and vivid personality drawn from life, and it's not the book's fault that the personality is one that I personally dislike.

& if there's a second weakness it's that pretty much all the character deaths left me with a sense of "—but that was completely pointless!", which, as with books like e.g. Some Desperate Glory, is very much the point of them, lol; but regrettably books do not have the same freedom of content that essays do, by which I mean that if something works on the level of a book's thesis but not on the level of a book's narrative, it's just as much a failure as the reverse, and deliberately inflicting frustration on the reader should be done sparingly and in my opinion only in postmodern kinds of situations. on the subject of the book's thesis, I do think when it comes time for Pechaček to state what he feels in plain words, it's a little bit bathetic. I am deeply inclined to blame this sort of problem on his editor. (the gender stuff is wonderful except in exactly one paragraph where it becomes ham-handed, and this too I am so unbelievably completely fucking sure is a Tordotcom* problem.) (*I'm not calling them that.)

very wonderful, full of wonder!, also the prose was good, generally everything I hoped it would be, and how STARVED we the people have been of a book with ACCOMPANYING CHAPTER HEAD ILLUSTRATIONS. I hardly ever read paper books any more and I’m very glad I happened to pick this up in hard copy!. the love for manuscripts, and for marginalia in particular, is such a glowing ember at the heart of this whole thing that one is almost surprised not to find killer rabbits in it

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was extraordinarily bizarre, and very, very good.

When I started this, it was with an ebook ARC I got from the publisher. It was, I was sad to see, not illustrated, and it was painfully clear to me that I was missing a lot. So a big THANK YOU to the people at Reactor/Tordotcom for answering my plea and getting me a physical ARC with the illustrations.

Speaking of illustrations: here are some examples of the artwork, along with commentary by Pechaček on where he drew his inspiration from, and the text of the first chapter of the book. There is an illustration at the beginning of each chapter, almost a visual epigraph, depicting (very stylistically) a scene that takes place within that chapter. There is also a full-page illustration at the beginning of each book within *The West Passage*. Having tried to read it without those, the book is definitely missing something (sorry, audiobook readers).

The protagonists of this are Pell and Kew, two young inhabitants of Grey Tower thrust into positions of power and responsibility before they are ready. Grey Tower is part of “the palace,” which has no other name that is ever mentioned. It is a sprawling city, more than half decayed into ruin, dominated by the Grey, Yellow, Blue, Red, and Black Towers. The city is ruled by the Ladies, strange unknowable beings of wildly varying appearance and unclear but potent powers. As happens every few centuries, the Beast is rising to threaten the palace. Pell and Kew both, and separately, leave the familiar cloisters of the Grey, looking to reach the palace’s rulers in the Black Tower and get help.

Of course it is not so straightforward as that, and as Pell and Kew go off on their respective quests they travel far and wide over the breadth of the palace. They meet many very bizarre things; not only Ladies, but the many and varied inhabitants of the palace, before making their way back to Grey to confront the rising of the Beast.

The illustrations set the tone: Fantastical and mysterious, with a definite feeling of the medieval. It’s never entirely clear what is going on, or why. The strangeness of the palace is normal to Pell and Kew, and they don’t really feel the need to comment on it - it can take some time to figure out just how bizarre it all really is. Not a great book for those who like clear answers and explanations, because you’re basically going to get none. And, fair warning, this book has a lot of sadness in it.

I would call this “New Weird” if I had to pick a genre, but that doesn’t feel quite right. Possibly just because I associate with Jeff VanderMeer, and his stuff all has much more sinister/dangerous overtones than this book does. It also reminds me quite a lot of Walter Moers’ Zamonia books, though with more sinister/dangerous overtones than those books have. But slotting this into a genre just feels wrong, regardless. It’s too unique.

I think this is a love-it-or-hate-it book. I am giving it an easy 5 stars. But if someone were to say to me, “I read it, and WTF was that?” I would understand. Looking forward to hearing others’ opinions when it comes out this summer.

My blog

[Sarah SG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for the arc! This book was fantastic! Some of my favorite things about it are as follows:

This is for the fans of absurdist and weird fiction, and is a part of the growing niche of absurdist fantasy. I eat absurdist fantasy up and lick the plate like goddamn dog each time, and The West Passage is no different.

This is also for the people who choose side quests over a main quest line. Again, I am one of these people, and again, that’s one thing I loved about this book.

This book has a sure-fire aim. It hits every beat it needs to, and is intentional about every thing it does. It has beautiful and powerful moments, funny and cheeky moments, and balances all of these perfectly with purpose.

This book has teeth. It doesn’t pull punches, doesn’t hold back, and doesn’t hold your hand. It’s often dark, often bleak, and for a book about decay and inevitable destruction, it more than hits the mark. That being said, there is an underlying aura of hope at the end while still remaining realistic about its outlook.

This book has depth. It has clear themes and messages, it shows and doesn’t tell, the world is immersive (I will be talking about the world-building more), the main characters are well-rounded, the side characters are also deeply satisfying, the story itself is rewarding, and the world itself is a character.

Lastly, I would again like to talk about the world building; it’s supreme and masterful. Yes, Brandon Sanderson this and Brandon Sanderson that, but good god this is one of the most vibrant worlds I’ve read about. It feels so alive, even if it’s technically dying in the book. Hell, it feels like an actual character itself. This entire damn book is a masterclass in world-building, and It’s not just the main chapters that have beef. The interlude chapters are pillars in themselves. You may get texts from books, extra characters going about their days, songs and lyrics, other miscellaneous passages. There is so much here and it is so delightful and purposeful. I love it.

So yeah, read this book.

Also, before I forget, this book is definitely for those who love Over the Garden Wall as well. You’ll know if you read it. It even has its own beast.

[X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short version: Spirited Away + Piranesi + medieval Europe. There was something about the writing that both worked and didn’t work for me - I could never quite visualize where everyone was, but there were constant fun strange objects and places and people that the characters were stumbling over that mostly compensated for that. And I had the same kind of experience with the plot and characters as well - they didn’t quite work 100%, but it was all so refreshing that I mostly didn’t care. And the illustrations were perfect, this is the kind of book where you absolutely need to read the physical copy or you’re going to be missing out on a key artistic element of the story.

Yeah I think overall I appreciated this, and I look forward to more from Pechaček.

[Siavahda · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you one-star a book before there are even arcs I'm gonna five-star it, sorry-not-sorry.

9th July: I just finished my arc and I cannot even COMPREHEND how I'm supposed to write a review that will do this masterpiece justice!!!

*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*

HIGHLIGHTS
~beware speech without speech-marks
~names are everything and nothing
~in the midst of surreality, a train
~eldritch is putting it midly
~a most unusual set of bee-hives

:A note: my advanced reader copy did not have the illustrations of the final version! The illustrations make the whole Medieval marginalia thing very obvious, but that’s not how I made the connection.:

There is a castle, of sorts. It is populated with people, of sorts. It is ruled by ladies…of a sort.

A quest, of sorts, is undertaken. Two quests. Because a monster (of sorts) approaches, and the seasons are broken, and much lore has been lost. Even a quest – two quests – may not be enough to save things. Especially when neither adventurer has any idea what they’re getting into.

We’re used to stories of castles and people and quests and monsters. They’re practically commonplace! And yet I beg you to believe me when I tell you that The West Passage is like nothing you have ever seen before. It is the dream a Medieval manuscript might dream, if you gave it enough poppy and absinthe and just a little ecstasy (whether the drug or the emotion is at the potion brewer’s discretion): boldly baroque, casually surreal, full of curlicuing story and powerful honey and illumination(s). It has all the weight of an ancient myth, grand and mostly-forgotten, every detail weighted with meaning that is tantalising, transfixing, unpredictably portentous. It rests upon an extensive, solid framework that we cannot see, but can be sure is there: there is a logic to it all, a way it all fits together, but it is the logic of dreams, a way we can’t quite follow.

We are not meant to understand. Not really. The Ladies do not deign to share their secrets with mere mortals, and why should they?

Wandering here and there were cattle, nibbling at the grass. Their horns were tied with blue and yellow ribbons. Their gills flared and contracted as they breathed.

The actual prose and structure of Pechaček’s debut aren’t experimental; the tale is told linearly, more or less straightforwardly, and readers are not required (or even requested) to perform cerebral gymnastics in order to follow along. You can pick the book up and begin reading immediately without any trouble whatsoever.

But the world Pechaček has created! That is marvellously bizarre, a quietly intense strangeness infused into every element. Cows having gills is the least of it! There are ‘spoon-faced’ people, and the most, um, unconventional bee-hives you will ever encounter, and frogs laying the most incredible eggs. Much of the strangeness is beautiful; some of it is gross or ugly; most of it is neither, only is, and nearly all of it is treated with a matter-of-factness that only adds to the sense of disorientation. It would be so easy for this to have been mishandled, for it to become Too Much, but in Pechaček’s hands disorientation is delicious, addictive, freeing in a way I don’t know how to articulate or explain. Instead of being confusing or annoying or pretentious, the dissonance between how our reality works and how it works in West Passage is intoxicating. I wanted more and more and more of it, and Pechaček didn’t disappoint, showing me wonders and mysteries and miracles everywhere I looked.

A mason bee burrowed into some mortar.

It is not possible to be bored in The West Passage. Especially if you take your time with it, go carefully enough to notice every detail – because the details are, often, mindblowing. Take the quote above: a mason bee?! What is a mason bee?! What do you mean it burrows into mortar?! WHAT?!

It’s very easy to read right past delights like this, because the characters don’t bat an eye at things like mason bees, and so if you’re not paying close attention, you are likely to miss all sorts of treasures; the kinds of things and creatures and people that could only exist in a dream, that make perfect sense until you open your eyes in the morning. One has to approach The West Passage with your sense of wonder bright and fresh and ready to be wowed, but also with one’s magnifying glass ready, slowly examining each and every thing before moving to the next. Because while there is great deal that is front and centre and spotlit, there are even more mirabilia to be found tucked away into corners and between lines – like Medieval illustrations peeking out from behind a capital letter or hiding in the margins.

Making this book both a near-infinite treasury, and a book to be savoured, lingered over as hedonistically and luxuriously as possible.

Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!

[Nel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"To become mellified, a man must, of his own free will, live upon nothing but honey for years, until he pissed and shat and sweated it. When he was saturated with it, he would be drowned in honey, then entombed in a casket full of it. After a suitable time had passed, his flesh would be carved up. Its powers of healing are miraculous."

Yeah. Suffice to say, the mellified man will stay with me for much longer than this book will.

I think this will be a great book for a specific kind of reader. It has very unique worldbuilding dense with some very bizarre and inventive imagery which I personally appreciated. I think that's primarily what kept me going with this book - the curiosity of what else does the author had in store for me.

Yet, as a reader, I need more than just vibes to fully immerse myself in a book and here, the character work and the plot I found rather lacking and kind of just there to support this psychodelic roadtrip of a book.

I'll definitely pick up Pechaček's next book, though.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I finished it" is not quite a ringing endorsement, but this really didn't turn out to be quite my thing. If you're going to come for Gormenghast, you'd best come hard. This was a weird and inventive world, but I never really cared about any of it. I finished it because of an intellectual curiosity to see what would happen. I never really understood the geography (or politics) of the towers. I didn't like how so many minor characters died right after I got invested in them, just to show how unjust everything was. Like a medieval story, which inspired the illustrations, the characterization was too flat for me. Too much depended on the next cool and weird thing happening.

I can see why people enjoyed it; I think I might have enjoyed a novella or series of novellas more with tighter plot and characterization and more room for the world to be weird.

[Cecilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf at 60% shoutout anna for telling me to simply not torture myself

[Zara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid. RTC on my channel.

[Samantha Matherne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for a chance to read an early digital copy of this book. Unfortunately, the writing style and story development employed for this book do not work for me. I read a chunk of the first bit in one day (about 10%) and then felt no desire to pick it back up for almost a month. I skimmed through another chapter and still was not pulled into it. The pacing is very slow compared to what I normally read, and I usually appreciate more of a balance between dialogue, action, and setting/world description. Someone who likes historical, otherworldly Asian vibes that focus heavily on setting creation and societal places of the characters could really enjoy this, though. Many other readers compare it to Alice in Wonderland, which I do see a comparative nature to this book with the whimsical vibes and strange creatures that are encountered even early on. I am not the right audience for this book, and that is perfectly fine. Even epic fantasies I like to unravel the world's secrets in a more enticing way than is delivered here such as with a sense of urgency or brisk actions and intriguing dialogue. The original premise I read portrayed it as a strong feminist quest story, so I know the readers are out there. One issue I do have that killed a little enjoyment for me was the chapter titles that essentially summarize each chapter's events. I love chapter titles, when they are done well with a peek into the forthcoming events or feelings, but a phrased summary felt too spoilery for me.

[Kali · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐ 4,5

A Guardian must protect, but a Guardian must also know how to read a fucking situation. Hawthorn herself had said that one day, when Kew had tried to protect another child from bullies and had been soundly beaten for his trouble. It was not her most inspiring maxim, but it had stuck with him.

If you’re in search of a story that is engaging with its visuals and concepts, do give this one a try. Half of it reads like a fairy tale while the other half rivals your weirdest, freakiest, most random dream that should rightfully be considered a nightmare. Take heed: there are quite a few explicit, gory-ish scenes, the first of which comes at you unexpectedly (MILD SPOILER) in a chapter very rudely titled “Kew sees his first banquet”… so rude.

Featuring lovely art that accompanies each chapter, a girl just doing her best, a chicken with comedic timing, traumatizing honey harvesting (for ME), an absolutely adorable relationship, lots of weird people, curses, questionable academics, terrifying Ladies, art, and so much more.

[Talenyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The palace is the entire world: five towers dedicated to politics (Black), war (Red), making (Blue), taking (Yellow), and duty (Grey). Each is ruled by eldritch embodiments called Ladies, whose periodic wars over the throne are as awesome as they are catastrophic. And one Beast, waiting to rise again to devour everything. To stop the cycle of destruction, two teens from Grey, Pell (later Yarrow) and Kew (later Hawthorn), are abruptly thrust into adulthood and forced to make sense of the literal and figurative ruins of their society. They are only marginally successful.

The West Passage pairs medieval European imagery with an Alice in Wonderland gone overtly violent. The oddness of dream logic dominates this book. It's never quite clear (to the reader or the characters) how spaces within the palace relate to one another. And causes need not match effects as expected. The narratorial focus is similarly unbalanced, with copious descriptions of the palace structure and the history of its decorations but no more than an off-hand comment when a character has a spoon instead of a face or changes gender (physically?) in their sleep. In the same vein, this book is entirely about the journey (and the vibes); the end leaves quite a few plot points unresolved.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book for its innovative world-building and quirky tone, but it needs a reader willing to go with the flow. It will probably resonate best with people who liked The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez, The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall, and/or The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon.

TLDR: A surreal medieval fantasy with dystopian and coming of age themes. Queer normative but no romance. All the dark Alice in Wonderland vibes. Highly recommend!

Thanks to Tordotcom and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

[sassafrass · Rating 4 out of 5]

what an incredibly refreshing thing to read, particularly in a genre that feels like it is stuck in the most insufferable pinterest rut at the moment. i loved this dearly, from the gorgeous illustrations, to the medieval madness. i appreciate any author in this day and age who is also brave enough to say NO, i will NOT hold you hand (except for a handful of moments where the author grabbed you by the throat to say IMPORTANT THINGS about GENDER and KINDNESS which was like, cmon man. we were doing really well not getting by with trite affirmations of Being Valid. who did this to you. WHO DID THIS TO YOU)

that being said there were a few weaknesses. sometimes the poetry of it all felt like it was getting in its own way, not so much driving everything forward as pulling as all to a hard stop to admire, which can be fine but not if it keeps happening every other chapter which is definitely what it felt like in the last 3/4s.

i also 100% understand what people are saying about the characterisation. whilst it can be argued they are all meant to be the sort of fairy tale characters who largely function as cogs in a machine rather than fully fleshed beings, it does make a lot of the deaths feel...needlessly cruel and meaningless. not to say that is a moral failing or whatever, but it does make it hard to know what to feel other than frustrated.

however all that aside, this book was a marveoulous read. i kept picking it up and read it in basically one sitting, and even the parts that i did think were mostly there because the author thought they sounded cool and nothing else had me like 'well...i can't lie, they ARE cool.' i applaud the ambition, and how its all very nearly realised. if i have anything to say to this author, its to crush the voice of twitter in the back of their head and just fully wild out in future