What Wakes the Bells: Review

About the Book:

Title: What Wakes the Bells

Author: Elle Tesch

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Release Date: March 11, 2025

Pages: 332

Genre: YA Fantasy

Synopsis:

Inspired by an ominous Prague legend, What Wakes the Bells is a lavish gothic fantasy by debut author Elle Tesch.

Built by long-gone Saints, the city of Vaiwyn lives and breathes and bleeds. As a Keeper, Mina knows better than most what her care of Vaiwyn’s bells means for the sentient city. It’s the Strauss family’s thousand-year legacy―prevent the Vespers from ringing, or they will awake a slumbering evil.

One afternoon, to Mina’s horror, her bell peals thirteen times, shattering the city’s tenuous peace. With so much of the city’s history and lore lost in a long-ago disaster, no one knows the danger that has been unleashed―until the city begins to fight back. As the sun sets, stone gargoyles and bronze statues tear away from their buildings and plinths to hunt people through the streets. Trapped in Mina’s bell, the soul of a twisted and power-hungry Saint festered. Now free of his prison, he hides behind the face of one of Vaiwyn’s citizens, corrupting the city and turning it on itself.

Time is running out, and the only chance Mina has to stop the destruction and horrific killings is finding and destroying the Saint’s host. Everyone is a suspect, including Mina’s closest loved ones. She will have to decide how far she’ll go to save her city―and who she’s willing to kill to do it.

Review:

 

*I received an e-arc via Netgalley and the publisher. Thank you for the opportunity to review. All thoughts are my own*

Beautiful and atmospheric, I thought this was a great debut by Elle Tesch! This gothic fantasy was such a unique concept. The city that the story takes place in was built by Saints long ago, and it lives, breathes and bleeds. The main character Mina and her family are in charge of the Vesper bells which protects the city from the Bane. Mina’s worst nightmare comes true when the bell rings 13 times and shatters the city’s peace. The clock is ticking, and Mina must stop and destroy the Bane’s host.

I loved how this story explored Mina’s relationship with her mother which has been tenuous since the passing of her father.

I definitely recommend and hope to read more from this author in the future!

About the Author:

Elle Tesch has lived just east of Vancouver, British Columbia her entire life. Surrounded by forests and mountains, it was inevitable that she would daydream about what might lurk in those trees. She twists places she loves and writes what she knows best: hungry monsters, casually cruel villains, and ace-spec girls in the stories they deserve.

Elle is the author of the forthcoming novel WHAT WAKES THE BELLS, publishing March 11, 2025 from Feiwel & Friends.

When not writing, Elle can be found reading whatever she can get her hands on, wrestling with her current cross-stitch project, or re-watching Pride & Prejudice (2005) for the 72nd time.

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