This is an extraordinary book. A page-turner full of mystery . . . The language is dusted with magic . . . My advice: Be first in line

STEPHEN KING, author of It

I might end up using all the adjectives to describe this sharp, lyrical, nuanced riff on family dysfunction and the costs of devoting oneself to art. The Children is a joyously grim, open-eyed, adult fairy tale with the messiest of morals (and I mean that as the highest possible praise), and I had so much damned fun reading it

PAUL TREMBLAY, New York Times-bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts

Profound, beguiling and terrifying, Melissa Albert's first novel for adults is dangerous witchcraft of the highest order – an insidious and masterfully cast spell of a book about the stories we tell ourselves and each other, childhood's end and the way that the sharp edges of creative lives draw so much blood. The Children is gorgeous and dreadful, I devoured it

MONA AWAD, bestselling author of Bunny

I don't know how, but Melissa Albert has taken my most private nightmares and desires and published them as a dark fairy tale. The Children is a poison apple of a book: glossy, sweet, and absolutely terrifying. I don't think I'll ever get it out of my bloodstream

ALIX E. HARROW, New York Times-bestselling author of The Everlasting

Melissa Albert has done it again with this eerily beautiful adult debut. Twisty and strange in all the best ways, and rendered in Albert's characteristic dreamlike prose, The Children is exactly the grown-up fairytale I've been looking for. I loved Guin and her complicated relationships, as well as the deft interweaving of memories, stories, and reality – and the many places where they blur. Highly recommend

HEATHER FAWCETT, New York Times-bestselling author of the Emily Wilde Series

What is the real cost of a good story? And who is forced to pay it? With The Children, Melissa Albert places a hissing, twitching shadow in the periphery of your vision – but when you turn to look, hoping to assuage your terror, it's gone. I loved this shimmering, sinister oracle of a book

GENNAROSE NETHERCOTT, author of Thistlefoot