Grief has a new name in Eldhollow, and it sounds like relief.
Evan Eldholm's father dies on the ridge above town and leaves him two things: a blade he doesn't understand, and one word. Remember.
Evan keeps it. Nobody else does.
A missing man goes unsearched for. A sick boy is moved to the edge of town and goes unnamed. And a traveling preacher named Sevrin speaks to the grieving, giving them permission to let go. He never threatens. He never lies. He only offers, and the valley says yes.
Evan refuses. The town doesn't punish him. It stops meeting him where he stands.
Anya Halewyn stands with him. She is losing her own father to the same silence, and she has no more intention of letting go than he has.
But something is wrong at the edges of the valley, in the places the hollow has quietly stopped looking. Whatever it is, it was here long before Sevrin.
And the blade Evan carries has a name he has never heard, a purpose nobody will explain, and a weight that has nothing to do with the steel.
He was told to remember.
It wasn't advice. It was a warning.
Book one of The Hollowblade Saga.
J. A. Bailey is the author of The Hollowblade Saga, a four-book fantasy series about memory, erasure, and the cost of carrying what was never meant to be borne alone.Silhouettes, the first book in the series, was written for the Chicken House competition and establishes the intimate, character-driven voice that carries the series from its YA beginnings into adult literary fantasy. Bailey writes fantasy that is grounded in the human scale of grief and community - a world that feels lived-in because the people inside it are paying attention, and threats that feel real because they work the way real loss works: quietly, gradually, and in the spaces no one thought to watch.Ok, that's the spiel, here's a little about me.I was born and raised in the Houston area, where I still live and work today. I've been married to the love of my life since 2020 and have an amazing little boy, named John, after my late father, who instilled in me from a young age the love of fantasy adventures with early book introductions to the likes of Drizzt, Redwall, Narnia, and of course Middle Earth. I've always seem to have a knack for writing and even wrote some short stories in grade school that will never see the light of day again. My love of writing only recently reemerged with a passion to tell stories that have been cooped up in my thick skull for years and be able to pass them on to my son. When I'm not writing, I'm working full time and spending the rest with my wonderful family, and a little bass fishing when I get a minute to myself.If you enjoy my work, please consider leaving a brutally honest review on Goodreads & where you purchased the book.Thank you, truly.
