Ewing's unusual dystopian fantasy, first in a duology, follows Sera Cerulean living in the sapphic City Above the Sky, magically tethered to the planet below d siblings Agnes and Leo, humans living on the tethered planet. Curious and restless, Sera is bursting with unanswerable questions about the Tether and the planet below. Then the High Priestess announces that it's time for the City to find a new planet to sustain them. Sera is chosen as the sacrifice required to break the Tether, but she unexpectedly survives the long fall through space, landing in the country of Kaolin. Agnes and Leo find her, which brings her into the clutches of their politically powerful father, who recognizes Sera's worth immediately: Kaolin is suffering ecological collapse, unlike its resource-rich neighbor Pelago, and the key seems to be magic. Ewing's confident and unique world building, appealing characters, and innumerable mysteries (all left at crucial points) will entice readers through otherwise familiar dystopian elements. As book one is frustratingly heavy on setup, book two will be essential reading for answers.

An exploration of feminine power, autonomy, and sexuality.Nearly 18, Sera has led a protected life in the City Above the Sky, an all-female society connected to a planet via a magic tether. Her race of Ceruleans possess blue hair, blood, and eyes and silvery skin. Sera is chosen to sacrifice herself by jumping off the edge of the City to break the tether so that her people can locate another planet with resources to draw upon. On the planet below, 18-year-old biracial human twins navigate another culture's social restrictions. Leo, who appreciates women and fashion, takes after their Pelagan mother with his blue eyes and light skin, while Agnes, who is attracted to women (in a homophobic culture) and loves science, resembles their Kaolin father with her brown skin and eyes. The two go on an expedition to collect another specimen for their ruthless father's popular theatrical freak shows and come across Sera, who never could muster the romantic feelings for girls her society expected, following her crash. Most citizens of Kaolin are brown-skinned, while the Pelagans are predominantly fair-skinned. In places, the text appears to unquestioningly privilege lighter complexions. In alternating narration, Ewing (The Black Key, 2016, etc.) provides intricate, well-explained worldbuilding, slowly unveiling a deeply buried mystery and leaving characters poised for new discoveries.Readers will consider the invisible tethers that bind us to societal expectations and the connections we'd rather forge in their stead. (Fantasy. 14-18)