A book review of “The Everlasting” by Alix E Harrow

Originally published in 2025

Genre: Fantasy

Page Count: 311 pages

Within the country of Dominion, there is one legend that is the cornerstone of their national identity. That is the tale of Una Everlasting, a girl who seemingly came out of nowhere many centuries ago beneath a yew tree and was raised a family of woodcutters. One day, she had to leave the village for a bit and when she returned, she discovered that it had been raided and only she survived. She then drew the blade from the yew tree beneath where she had been found and began to travel until she met the one who would become queen. It was there that she was named Una and later would receive her second name. She was knighted and became a national symbol; however, this story does not end without the tragedy of her death.

In the present, Owen Mallory falls in love with this story. He’s a scholar who also became a soldier for a while. It is her story that pushes him forward. It even pushes him into the past after having been sent a mysterious, previously unknown version of her story. He meets her and gets to know her better than a centuries-old story would tell him. He even falls in love with her; however, it still cannot end well. Her story always ends the same way, with tragedy. If they want to rewrite her story, they will need to do more than rewrite it in the present. This is easier said than done.

While reading this novel, I could easily see the inspiration of the Arthurian cycle. The story of Sir Una Everlasting is central to this novel, and it goes way further than how the story impacts Owen personally. This novel delves into how it affects the national identity and propaganda of Dominion.

At its heart, this is a novel about two people from very different periods of time bound by this story. The book is written with both Owen and Una telling each other the story. Because of this, in the narration, there are a lot more second-person pronouns than I’m used to. This did take a few chapters to get used to, but in the end, it made the story feel a lot more personal to me. It also gave me hope that everything would turn out fine.

This was a very nice book to read. It was romantic at times and tense at others, and it was a pleasure to get to know Owen and Una. The side characters and the antagonist were also interesting. I’m glad I read it.

Personal Rating: 5/5

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