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The Misheard World
Elize Janview is a soldier, one of the few survivors of an unimaginably terrible weapon, which ended the long détente between the North and the South and plunged them back into all-out war. She enlisted with a dream of finding those responsible, of somehow getting revenge for the deaths of everyone she knew, but was posted to guard the prison at Crag, the fortress of the South, which has never fallen to the enemy.
Janview’s life is transformed when a rough wooden box is delivered to Crag, holding the performer and spy Marius Mondegreen, agent of the North: the Misheard Word, who can read minds, breathe fire, and make objects appear and disappear. Janview is to witness Mondegreen’s interrogation by his captor, the beautiful and cruel Allynx Syld, who promises the end of the war. As recorder – and by degrees participant – in the interrogation, Janview comes to question everything she knew about the war, and the very world she lives in…
Janview’s life is transformed when a rough wooden box is delivered to Crag, holding the performer and spy Marius Mondegreen, agent of the North: the Misheard Word, who can read minds, breathe fire, and make objects appear and disappear. Janview is to witness Mondegreen’s interrogation by his captor, the beautiful and cruel Allynx Syld, who promises the end of the war. As recorder – and by degrees participant – in the interrogation, Janview comes to question everything she knew about the war, and the very world she lives in…
- GenresFantasyScience Fiction
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 24, 2026
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87 people want to read
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January 31, 2026You can find my review of this fascinating and very clever novel in February 2026 edition of Locus.
October 13, 2025
The only problem I have with this book (other than it not being out yet) is that I can't really go into why I love it without spoiling what makes it so great. I was hooked on the first few pages. And it's one of those rare books that make you want to flip back to page 1 and start reading again immediately. I loved Skyward Inn, I had... issues with Three-Eight-One that were more about me than the book (I listened to the audio and the use of footnotes made it very difficult for me to find my footing). I think this book seals her as someone I'll definitely add to my must-buy list.
February 26, 2026
The Misheard World is an ode to the power of storytelling, how the things we hear can shape our identities, our loyalties, and our very realities. It’s a stunning work of speculative fiction that left me changed for having experienced it.
If the act of telling stories makes us teachers, then you can’t find a better professor than Aliya Whiteley. She’s written some of the most beautiful, interesting and exquisite speculative fiction, weird and wild, imaginative and illuminating. But this is by far her most accessible book, while also being one of her lengthiest offerings to date.
It all surrounds the repercussions of a conversation between two characters from either side of a long-laboured war. To say anymore than that would be to spoil the surprise and the nuance of the way this story unfolds. Sufficed to say, just as a conversation builds, so too the book grows and expands, shifting in unexpected and mind-altering ways.
Expect changes in perspective and direction, mysteries raised and solved, and an atmosphere about the world that will captivate you (rather appropriately, I might add). Holding it all together are the three participants in this huge conversation: the questioner, the answerer, and the listener.
The book is framed from the viewpoint of the listener, raised as a soldier, she has the most to learn about the reasons for the conflict that has been her life. She’s strong-willed, capable, and intuitive. But most of all, despite the thirst for revenge that burns inside her, she’s a gentle soul embroiled in the needs of a violent world. I loved how her quietness permeated the entire book, how the wildness simmering inside of her patient heart is also acting as an undercurrent that drives the narrative forwards.
Then there’s the illusionist. He’s the one with all the answers, and his intrigue is matched only by his flamboyance. What an enigmatic character! From the moment he becomes the target of interrogation, you can’t look away. His words drip with magic, and the secrets he’s hiding are every bit as fantastic as you hope them to be.
And finally, the questioner. The interrogator. A woman who commands authority and respect, whose fierceness is tempered only by the fur she wears. She’s written with the presence of a predator, and you’re never sure whether she’s about to pounce.
Each character is so strong in their own right, but when they all come together, the story comes alive. It acts as an absolute masterclass in how to create drama from dialogue, how to make a conversation epic, and how to imbue power into words. You don’t know who to trust. You don’t know what games are being played and by whom. And as the answers begin to come, you won’t believe how many layers are peeled back.
The unfolding plot will take you to new places and give you so many things to ponder. It’s a conversation starter, and you’ll find yourself wanting to talk about the themes it raises: the nature of conflict, the consequences of control, the accountability of knowledge, the yearning of discovery, the dynamics of loyalty, and the shifting balance of our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the worlds we build.
The prose is beautiful. The structure is sublime. The world-building is incredible. The craft that has gone into this story is second to none. Aliya Whiteley has always been a master of her own peculiar brand of weird fiction, but this feels like something new, something broader, something with a scope that is altogether more intimate and infinite at the same time.
And as for the ending, well, I’ll leave you to decide on that one.
Let the conversations commence. Let the stories be told. But let them all reflect the achievement that is The Misheard World. Aliya Whiteley strikes again. This is a masterpiece. Yes, I said masterpiece. And no, you have not misheard.
If the act of telling stories makes us teachers, then you can’t find a better professor than Aliya Whiteley. She’s written some of the most beautiful, interesting and exquisite speculative fiction, weird and wild, imaginative and illuminating. But this is by far her most accessible book, while also being one of her lengthiest offerings to date.
It all surrounds the repercussions of a conversation between two characters from either side of a long-laboured war. To say anymore than that would be to spoil the surprise and the nuance of the way this story unfolds. Sufficed to say, just as a conversation builds, so too the book grows and expands, shifting in unexpected and mind-altering ways.
Expect changes in perspective and direction, mysteries raised and solved, and an atmosphere about the world that will captivate you (rather appropriately, I might add). Holding it all together are the three participants in this huge conversation: the questioner, the answerer, and the listener.
The book is framed from the viewpoint of the listener, raised as a soldier, she has the most to learn about the reasons for the conflict that has been her life. She’s strong-willed, capable, and intuitive. But most of all, despite the thirst for revenge that burns inside her, she’s a gentle soul embroiled in the needs of a violent world. I loved how her quietness permeated the entire book, how the wildness simmering inside of her patient heart is also acting as an undercurrent that drives the narrative forwards.
Then there’s the illusionist. He’s the one with all the answers, and his intrigue is matched only by his flamboyance. What an enigmatic character! From the moment he becomes the target of interrogation, you can’t look away. His words drip with magic, and the secrets he’s hiding are every bit as fantastic as you hope them to be.
And finally, the questioner. The interrogator. A woman who commands authority and respect, whose fierceness is tempered only by the fur she wears. She’s written with the presence of a predator, and you’re never sure whether she’s about to pounce.
Each character is so strong in their own right, but when they all come together, the story comes alive. It acts as an absolute masterclass in how to create drama from dialogue, how to make a conversation epic, and how to imbue power into words. You don’t know who to trust. You don’t know what games are being played and by whom. And as the answers begin to come, you won’t believe how many layers are peeled back.
The unfolding plot will take you to new places and give you so many things to ponder. It’s a conversation starter, and you’ll find yourself wanting to talk about the themes it raises: the nature of conflict, the consequences of control, the accountability of knowledge, the yearning of discovery, the dynamics of loyalty, and the shifting balance of our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the worlds we build.
The prose is beautiful. The structure is sublime. The world-building is incredible. The craft that has gone into this story is second to none. Aliya Whiteley has always been a master of her own peculiar brand of weird fiction, but this feels like something new, something broader, something with a scope that is altogether more intimate and infinite at the same time.
And as for the ending, well, I’ll leave you to decide on that one.
Let the conversations commence. Let the stories be told. But let them all reflect the achievement that is The Misheard World. Aliya Whiteley strikes again. This is a masterpiece. Yes, I said masterpiece. And no, you have not misheard.
October 17, 2025
The Misheard World is an experience that left me utterly bewildered. I spent the entirety of the book's 272 pages searching for a solid plot to grasp onto, and ultimately, it remained elusive.
This is a piece of speculative fiction that attempts to channel the cerebral, reality-bending concepts of works like Dark Matter and The Three-Body Problem while giving a nod to the philosophical construction of something like The Truman Show. However, in attempting to blend these ambitious ideas, the book struggles to establish its own coherent foundation. It is an abstract literary effort, but the narrative often feels intentionally impenetrable, leaving the reader with little footing.
I went back over several sections, wondering if I had missed or misunderstood a key turn, but the fundamental problem remained: the story is driven by a deep sense of disorientation that, for me, failed to pay off. The characters, unfortunately, reflect this narrative choice; they are thinly sketched and elicited no real emotion in me beyond the continuous confusion. Furthermore, for a story centered on alternate realities, the world-building itself lacked the creative depth needed to anchor such a complex, two-world narrative.
While I can appreciate Aliyah Whitely’s ambition and willingness to write something so profoundly unconventional, this particular journey was an intellectual struggle that required two full days of committed reading. There is certainly a reader out there who will appreciate the sheer mind-bending, abstract nature of this book, but for me, it simply did not coalesce into a satisfying story.
+++I have received this eARC in an exchange for an honest review+++
I want to thank @netgalley and @rebellionpublishing for allowing me to read this eARC.
This is a piece of speculative fiction that attempts to channel the cerebral, reality-bending concepts of works like Dark Matter and The Three-Body Problem while giving a nod to the philosophical construction of something like The Truman Show. However, in attempting to blend these ambitious ideas, the book struggles to establish its own coherent foundation. It is an abstract literary effort, but the narrative often feels intentionally impenetrable, leaving the reader with little footing.
I went back over several sections, wondering if I had missed or misunderstood a key turn, but the fundamental problem remained: the story is driven by a deep sense of disorientation that, for me, failed to pay off. The characters, unfortunately, reflect this narrative choice; they are thinly sketched and elicited no real emotion in me beyond the continuous confusion. Furthermore, for a story centered on alternate realities, the world-building itself lacked the creative depth needed to anchor such a complex, two-world narrative.
While I can appreciate Aliyah Whitely’s ambition and willingness to write something so profoundly unconventional, this particular journey was an intellectual struggle that required two full days of committed reading. There is certainly a reader out there who will appreciate the sheer mind-bending, abstract nature of this book, but for me, it simply did not coalesce into a satisfying story.
+++I have received this eARC in an exchange for an honest review+++
I want to thank @netgalley and @rebellionpublishing for allowing me to read this eARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Aliya Whiteley’s new book The Misheard World, opens in an intriguing way. A man arrives at a prison called the Crag in a box. Very quickly Whiteley brings readers into what feels like a fairly standard fantasy world. Until she pulls the rug out from under the reader, not once but multiple times in ways that might well break some readers’ brains.
The man in the box is a former magician called Mondegreen and he is a hero of the North. Since the destruction of a city called Droad by a mysterious destructive weapon there has been a war between the North and the South. Mondegreen, who goes by the nickname ‘The Misheard Word’, has been captured and sent to the Crag as it is seen as unassailable. He is there to be questioned by one of the leaders of the South, a woman called the Syld. The forces of the South want, among other things, to understand the secrets behind the destruction of Droad. The story of their encounter is narrated by a guard, a woman called Elize Janview. Elize is ordered by the prison warden to observe the meetings and report back every detail. Elize has her own connection not only to Mondegreen but to Droad, which she keeps mainly to herself.
It is best not to say anything more about the plot of The Misheard World which twists and turns and reinvents itself in ways that no reader is likely to predict. As a result, it is likely that many readers will to want to go back to the beginning and read it a second time. The twists allow Whiteley to dig into themes around storytelling and the lies people tell both themselves and others to get by, loyalty, control and the yearning to lead a different life. The Misheard World is by no means a perfect book but it is a mind bending one and one that will make readers think and that is always appreciated.
The man in the box is a former magician called Mondegreen and he is a hero of the North. Since the destruction of a city called Droad by a mysterious destructive weapon there has been a war between the North and the South. Mondegreen, who goes by the nickname ‘The Misheard Word’, has been captured and sent to the Crag as it is seen as unassailable. He is there to be questioned by one of the leaders of the South, a woman called the Syld. The forces of the South want, among other things, to understand the secrets behind the destruction of Droad. The story of their encounter is narrated by a guard, a woman called Elize Janview. Elize is ordered by the prison warden to observe the meetings and report back every detail. Elize has her own connection not only to Mondegreen but to Droad, which she keeps mainly to herself.
It is best not to say anything more about the plot of The Misheard World which twists and turns and reinvents itself in ways that no reader is likely to predict. As a result, it is likely that many readers will to want to go back to the beginning and read it a second time. The twists allow Whiteley to dig into themes around storytelling and the lies people tell both themselves and others to get by, loyalty, control and the yearning to lead a different life. The Misheard World is by no means a perfect book but it is a mind bending one and one that will make readers think and that is always appreciated.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This is a novel best entered blind because half its power lies in how quietly it leads you astray.
The Misheard World begins as something deceptively straightforward - an interrogation between spies, a soldier with secrets of her own, a war that feels familiar in its machinery and moral compromises. At first reading like a taut meditation on conflict, power and truth. Then Aliya Whiteley starts to turn the lens and what seemed like traditional commentary fractures into something far more layered, inventive and unsettling.
This is wildly imaginative fiction, alive with ideas. Whiteley’s prose is phenomenal. She toys with language and dual meanings, inviting the reader to read between the lines of reality itself and uncover the truth for themselves. Meaning here is not just delivered — it’s discovered.
At its heart, The Mishear World is a celebration of stories and how truth is shaped, how memory is weaponised, how perception can both liberate and deceive. Whiteley works with extraordinary sleight of hand. Every time you think you understand where the story is going - what the characters mean, what the war is - she draws back the curtain just enough to widen your perspective, defying expectation and drawing you deeper into her mind bending spell.
The characters remain lightly sketched, sometimes even deliberately elusive, with the emotional weight carried by theme, implication and slow reveals, layer by layer until you realise how carefully you've been guided - and misled.
My thanks to Solaris for the arc
The Misheard World begins as something deceptively straightforward - an interrogation between spies, a soldier with secrets of her own, a war that feels familiar in its machinery and moral compromises. At first reading like a taut meditation on conflict, power and truth. Then Aliya Whiteley starts to turn the lens and what seemed like traditional commentary fractures into something far more layered, inventive and unsettling.
This is wildly imaginative fiction, alive with ideas. Whiteley’s prose is phenomenal. She toys with language and dual meanings, inviting the reader to read between the lines of reality itself and uncover the truth for themselves. Meaning here is not just delivered — it’s discovered.
At its heart, The Mishear World is a celebration of stories and how truth is shaped, how memory is weaponised, how perception can both liberate and deceive. Whiteley works with extraordinary sleight of hand. Every time you think you understand where the story is going - what the characters mean, what the war is - she draws back the curtain just enough to widen your perspective, defying expectation and drawing you deeper into her mind bending spell.
The characters remain lightly sketched, sometimes even deliberately elusive, with the emotional weight carried by theme, implication and slow reveals, layer by layer until you realise how carefully you've been guided - and misled.
My thanks to Solaris for the arc
February 24, 2026
Alicia Whiteley is rapidly emerging as a genre all of her own: operating on the border of sci-fi, fantasy, magical realism and literature, and always with an interest in the unreliability and trustworthiness of the narrative and the narrator. What’s the story? Who is telling it - and why?
The Misheard World starts with a foot firmly in fantasy. We’re at the end of bitter cold/warm/ now hot again war between the North and South - in which soldier Elize is one of the few survivors of a war crime that has wiped out the entire city of Droad. At the vast frontier fortress Crag - shades of Gormenghast - one of the North’s most potent and elusive spies, Mondegreen, arrives for interrogation. Elize is enlisted as recorder of questioning led by the haughty Allnyx, who promises their work will end the war.
There’s enough here in the slipperiness of the questions and answers, of who Mondegreen and Allynx are, and what Elize’s role is, to fascinate - but a third of the way in Whiteley pulls the rug out from under the reader in spectacular fashion. So spectacular it would be a crime to give it away in a review. From this point on any reserve I had about this book was shattered. If I can draw a parallel with China Mieville’s City and the City, it’s to illustrate how expertly Whiteley keeps the world of Mondegreen, Allnyx and Elize in the air while introducing another overlapping reality entirely. A giant leap forwards from one of the fastest developing writers in UK speculative fiction.
An ARC provided by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
The Misheard World starts with a foot firmly in fantasy. We’re at the end of bitter cold/warm/ now hot again war between the North and South - in which soldier Elize is one of the few survivors of a war crime that has wiped out the entire city of Droad. At the vast frontier fortress Crag - shades of Gormenghast - one of the North’s most potent and elusive spies, Mondegreen, arrives for interrogation. Elize is enlisted as recorder of questioning led by the haughty Allnyx, who promises their work will end the war.
There’s enough here in the slipperiness of the questions and answers, of who Mondegreen and Allynx are, and what Elize’s role is, to fascinate - but a third of the way in Whiteley pulls the rug out from under the reader in spectacular fashion. So spectacular it would be a crime to give it away in a review. From this point on any reserve I had about this book was shattered. If I can draw a parallel with China Mieville’s City and the City, it’s to illustrate how expertly Whiteley keeps the world of Mondegreen, Allnyx and Elize in the air while introducing another overlapping reality entirely. A giant leap forwards from one of the fastest developing writers in UK speculative fiction.
An ARC provided by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
“When everyone has a story of loss to tell, nothing is worthy of the grand title of tragedy”
It is difficult to say anything about some books without revealing certain surprises and possibly changing a reader's first magical experience of reading them. There is a lot to say about The Misheard World, and at the same time, every word feels like too much.
I started reading this book because of the description about Elize Janview and her place in the war between the North and the South and her quest for answers about a terrible weapon that wiped an entire city off the map. A search for the guilty, revenge, and secrets.
But this book quickly became more than that. It's not (only) about Eliza's story, but about so much more. It's about truth, stories, and reality. It's about what is true and what is power. It's about what lies hidden between the lies and what we want to believe. Mysteries that are revealed and yet remain questions.
This book is therefore not for all readers. You are left with questions in an attempt to understand everything, while at the same time it is all right in front of you. You want to read it immediately after it is finished, or it will not work for you. Immerse yourself if you want to experience this, because you have to read it to understand it.
“And sleep, sleep had the same quality as answers: a small amount was worse than none.”
This is an ARC read thanks to Netgally
It is difficult to say anything about some books without revealing certain surprises and possibly changing a reader's first magical experience of reading them. There is a lot to say about The Misheard World, and at the same time, every word feels like too much.
I started reading this book because of the description about Elize Janview and her place in the war between the North and the South and her quest for answers about a terrible weapon that wiped an entire city off the map. A search for the guilty, revenge, and secrets.
But this book quickly became more than that. It's not (only) about Eliza's story, but about so much more. It's about truth, stories, and reality. It's about what is true and what is power. It's about what lies hidden between the lies and what we want to believe. Mysteries that are revealed and yet remain questions.
This book is therefore not for all readers. You are left with questions in an attempt to understand everything, while at the same time it is all right in front of you. You want to read it immediately after it is finished, or it will not work for you. Immerse yourself if you want to experience this, because you have to read it to understand it.
“And sleep, sleep had the same quality as answers: a small amount was worse than none.”
This is an ARC read thanks to Netgally
October 31, 2025
I am a fan of sci-fi and fantasy. I just couldn’t get my hear around this novel and what it was trying to say. I really wanted to like it. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Wildly weird. starts out as a standard spy drama before spinning wildly out of control to something much more unique. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.
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