THE STOLEN CHILD - Story intro
So, I thought I’d post an overview of the world that burst inside my mind four years ago, and has so far refused to leave :)
You can read it on AO3 here :)
The Stolen Child is the first part of a multi-book, multi-POV series titled The Kinship Chronicles. The story falls under the self-engineered time capsule urban fantasy genre, which is short for a mosaic of urban fantasy, historical fiction, adventure, a touch of horror, a tentative dark academia, and probably a couple other genres I’m forgetting right now. It's also YA! But, above all else, TKC is a story of doomed debts dealt across generations.
The synopsis is as follows:
Coraline 'Cal' Everitt has a secret. Her body, which at the age of five, she discovered would split into two forms—one mortal, the other not. Oftentimes without her consent. Why? All her attempts to learn the reason proved fruitless. But here's the one thing she's certain of: no one in her family shares her ability, thus, she must bring it to her grave.
Oliver Whitaker has a secret. His double-lived identity. He hails from The Kinship, an underground society for the otherworldly Saz. And yet, he spends his days Aboveground, spying on Cal in search of a sign that would mark her as one of his own, like her parents before her. Even though they hold no memories of it.
Diana Zubairu has a secret. The ghosts of her past haunting her present. Her family moved to London in hopes of escaping the aftermath of her brother's death. She may think herself on the path to healing, may find new companions in Cal and Oliver, yet John's clutch is strong and stubborn—and he has deemed her his sole victim.
Then a sudden attack falls upon them, causing the walls guarding their secrets to crumble to dust. Cal, Diana and Oliver will have to rediscover reality in the latter's native land—the very same land Cal and Diana are also entitled to. But in The Kinship, they'll get entangled in a quest that will challenge the very basis on which their perceptions hinder. Min Hao, the youngest daughter of a dying politician, is missing.
And only they may save her.
The Stolen Child is an amalgam of a myriad of tropes, plot points, etc. that don’t quite fit into any categories. You’ll like it if the following catches your eye:
Character-driven stories
Fleshed-out lore
Slowburn
Victorian era aesthetics
Underground, secret societies
Unconventional powers
A strong emphasis on platonic relationships
Mysteries
Queer characters and storylines
Time loops
Creepy, monstrous children
Saphic yearning
Rotten utopias
"We were fated to meet"
Diary romance
Journey to acceptance
Complicated families
I have a sick obsession with making characters. Seriously. The Stolen Child has a main cast of eight:
Cal Everitt ✧₊⁺ A newcomer lost amid her birthright
Oliver Whitaker ⚕ A healer who many help all but himself
Diana Zubairu ཐིཋྀ A foreigner hiding from her ghosts
Selvar Zandstra 𖤓 A survivor frozen in time
Atalanta Everitt-Melton ೱ A historian on the verge of collapse
Hunter Hao 𓍼 A brother with a blindfold in tatters
Morgan Hao ☠︎︎ A sister burdened by her misery
Caleb Verninac ♫ A son of secrets and pain
Aside from posting on Tumblr, you can also find me on AO3 (Crosskill11), on Wattpad (Crosskill-11) and on Instagram (humbly_a_doppelganger), though I very, very rarely post anything there, if at all.
Now, this is getting too long, so I’ll be posting my inspirations for The Stolen Child—and The Kinship Chronicles as a whole—under the cut.
