These Shattered Spires

By Cassidy Ellis Salter

In this YA high fantasy, four magical rivals must work together to survive a deadly competition. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Gideon the Ninth.

Entombed beneath a tooth-filled sky, the world rots. At the heart of the decaying world is Fourspires Castle, home to arcanists from the four disciplines--bone, blood, botany, and stone.

The castle is thrown into chaos when the ruler of Fourspires is assassinated. To crown a new ruler, the arcanists and their human familiars must kill or be killed in a bloody fight to the top of the Fifth Tower. For the familiars, who are the arcanists' servants and sources of power, this will mean certain death.

Amid the bloodshed, four rival familiars must work together . . . Taro, a bone witch still obsessed with her ex. Nixie, a botanical familiar determined to do anything for her freedom. Elliot, a cursed and vengeful blood familiar. And Alix, a banished stone familiar shrouded in secrets.

It's a dangerous and deeply illegal quest, but if they want to survive, the four must ally long enough to battle reanimated skeletons, possessed plants, and undead nuns . . . if they don't kill each other first.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1547618639
• ISBN13: 9781547618637
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.6" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Very dark world!

A kingdom trapped under a tooth filled sky (thanks to a curse and apocalypse that has to be suppressed with alchemy every morning) run by a creepy Thaumaturge kept alive by alchemy until he is assassinated, setting off a countdown to a Slaughter to decide the next ruler. And if that is not awful enough, beneath the alchemists, there are familiars, chosen to wrest for the alchemists and pay the price of pain until they die. Very bleak indeed! But also fascinatingly grotesque with toxic characters that I couldn't help liking, mostly cause even though they don't work well together, they all want an escape from the hell they are in at Fourspire Castle. This book and series is not for the squeamish at heart. Body parts, skeleton bits, blood sprayed rooms, fungal greenery that can find an opening and grow on tear ducts, not to mention the Unholy Mothers, or the Librarian and her claws! It is a dark world, but even with their flaws, I rooted for Taro, Nixie, Alix, and Elliot on their mad plan to stop the curse and escape before the Slaughter kills them all. An interesting first book and I am looking forward to seeing how the Wyrdos deal with what they caused (and if there are any survivors!). I am glad I got the chance to read this.