Our Infinite Fates

November 25, 2024
Two doomed souls keep reincarnating as star-crossed lovers in this sweeping romantic fantasy from Steven (Every Exquisite Thing). Branwen Blythe of Wales is eight when she remembers a terrible truth: “Branwen” is merely the latest incarnation of immortal being Evelyn, and before Branwen turns 18, the latest incarnation of Evelyn’s eternal love and mortal enemy, Arden, will find and murder her, thereby also killing himself. This cycle has been repeating for centuries, and while Arden is drawn to Evelyn in every life, Evelyn rarely recognizes Arden until it’s too late. For years, Evelyn perseverates on Arden’s
current identity and her incarnation’s impending demise; then doctors diagnose Branwen’s younger sister, Gracie, with
leukemia. Branwen’s bone marrow could save Gracie, but Gracie is not yet healthy enough to undergo a transplant, and
Branwen’s 18th birthday is days away. Unwilling to let Branwen’s widowed mother lose both daughters, a determined Evelyn starts scheming to survive. Steven’s tale unfolds from Evelyn’s perspective in raw, increasingly desperate first-person narration that ping-pongs through time to develop mystery and character. Though a pat denouement underwhelms, the tale nevertheless gratifies, vividly illustrating love’s boundless nature. The cast is intersectionally diverse. Ages 13–up. Agent: Chloe Seager, Madeleine Milburn.

January 1, 2025
Teens are doomed to repeatedly fall in love--and kill each other. Welsh teen Branwen is the latest reincarnation of Evelyn, a being who's over 1,000 years old and is fated to die, again and again, shortly before their 18th birthday. Intertwined in their fate is Arden, with whom they have fallen in love over the course of 100 lifetimes, and who is their perpetual murderer/victim: When Arden kills Evelyn, Arden immediately dies as well, and vice versa. This time, Branwen needs to stay alive long enough to donate stem cells to her sister, a leukemia patient. To do so, she'll need to figure out who Arden is in their current form and convince them to help. The story is interspersed with chapters from their previous incarnations, offering glimpses of a variety of times and places and helping to create a sense of urgency as the mystery unfolds. Notably, they are French soldiers who die in the Great War and, in the 1930s, Algerians raised to hate the French colonizers. Steven delves into the inherently queer concept of swapping bodies and switching genders; Evelyn doesn't have a strong attachment to living as a particular gender, but Arden expresses a preference for "being a boy." Some of the incarnations enable the author to explore same-sex longing and romance in various contexts, although the brevity of these interludes leads at times to insufficiently nuanced representations of the cultures at hand. An intriguing romantic fantasy with characters readers will root for.(Fantasy. 14-18)

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Starred review from January 1, 2025
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Evelyn and Arden have killed each other time and time again, racing against the clock until their shared eighteenth birthday. Over the centuries, they've lived across the planet, but when Evelyn finds herself growing up in Wales and desperate to save her sister in this life, she must survive long enough to provide bone marrow. Where--or who--is Arden this lifetime? And why are they trapped in these infinite fates? This time around, Evelyn is determined to find out. With delectably sensory prose and a love story for the ages, this propulsive story offers a unique and unforgettable journey full of global adventure and the many flavors of love life has to offer. Steven (Every Exquisite Thing, 2023) navigates a high-stakes setup that demands a satisfying payoff, adeptly delivering a gratifying end to a story that seems like it could be endless. The skillful rendering of this ambrosial feast of a tale is well-supported by equally accomplished prose and character development. A truly masterful blend of genres that is equally heartful and cerebral, this work will appeal especially to fans of Kari Maniscalco's Kingdom of the Wicked (2020) and Rebecca Ross' Divine Rivals (2023), but it will just as likely be a hit of its own for a vast swath of readers. An excellent, anticipation-worthy achievement.

COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 28, 2025

Gr 8 Up-Branwen has known for the last 10 years that she is the latest reincarnation of Evelyn, an immortal eternally hunted by her enemy and true love Arden through every life and incarnation. When she or Arden kill the other, the murderer dies immediately after, always by Evelyn's 18th birthday. Now in present-day Wales, Evelyn must find Arden and convince them to help her save her little sister before they resume their eternal murder-suicide cycle. Her sister is currently too ill for Evelyn's bone marrow transplant, and Evelyn doesn't want her mother to lose both daughters-but Evelyn's birthday is days away. Can she convince Arden to work with her, break the curse haunting them, and save her sister, herself, and her love? The romantic adventure is broken up by glimpses of their past lives, which throws the pacing off even as it adds color to the characters' backstories. Captivating at times and underwhelming at others, the novel makes it hard to root for a romance when the best scenes involve one character murdering the other. Steven paints a sensorial backdrop to Evelyn's many lives, where she and Arden experience different genders and ethnicities across world history. VERDICT A fun if uneven romantasy. Consider for an additional purchase and hand to fans of Rebecca Ross's Divine Rivals and V.E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.-Emmy Neal

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