#ac wise

[wuekka]

I love this book so much! James makes me cry~

[wearethekat]

December Book Reviews: Ballad of the Bone Road by AC Wise

I received a free copy from Titan Books via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Release date January 27th, 2026.

The striking cover and intriguing paranormal investigator premise of this novel caught my eye. In Ballad of the Bone Road, paranormal investigators Brix and Belle run an agency for solving supernatural problems in a city where the fae have been banished. Just as they begin to investigate a haunted hotel, Belle is called away to help her estranged sister, who has been entangled in a new cult—and the two cases may be more closely linked than they think.

I've read a novella by Wise (Out of the Drowning Deep), and I was willing to give her work another shot. Unfortunately, Ballad of the Bone Road, despite the excellent premise, did not click for me. There's a lot of good concepts floating around here. Belle is deeply traumatized by her abusive religious upbringing and has sheltered a demon in her own body since she was a child. Brix clings to the ghost of his dead wife against all his professional ethics as a paranormal investigator. Much of the action is set in a glamorous, haunted Belle Epoque hotel. But somehow none of this worked for me. Part of this is due to setting up a really good non-romantic buddy investigator duo and then separating them for ninety percent of the plot. But beyond that, the worldbuilding felt very thin. What appears on page is great, but I felt it didn't have real depth. Great worldbuilding is grounded by details that are referred to casually but left mostly in shadow. Here, setpieces like the hotel, the faded ghost of a rock star, the vengeful fae queen are illuminated, but everything else is left completely undefined.

Alas, this is not very useful as a review, since I can't quite put my finger on the reason for the slippery ungrabbiness of characters and plot. But since I had the same experience with Wise's previous novella, I'm not inclined to chalk it up to an off day. Ah well. I do appreciate not jamming in the obligatory m/f romance between the protagonists. But I wouldn't be inclined to pick up another book by Wise unless it had a very good premise.

[not-wholly-unheroic]

Found your blog talking about Twisted tales and feel like if you don't know about A.C.Wise's "Wendy, Darling" and "Hooked" books already, you need to, feel you would like them (or curious what you think) because look at this!!

This eldrich horror Peter Pan literally turning James into Hook, his bones twisting and not pictured but Peter is "making a horrible sound, speaking language spoken by demons and angels before the beginning of the world.", literal goose bumps reading this. :D

Then Hooked made me cry, multiple times and I'm a person who didn't care about Peter Pan before these books! These books deserve more love.

Hey, thanks for thinking of me and sorry for only just now responding. I was offline for a few weeks over the holidays so I’m not sure how long this may have been sitting in my inbox.

I have read both and have been meaning to write some reviews for them. I really liked how the first book explored the psychology of Wendy and how the world perceived her after her return home from the island. It’s one of the few non-Hook-centric retellings I really found myself enjoying. It’s not exactly the adventure story some might prefer in a Peter Pan story but it (and the sequel) focuses largely on the emotional aspect of the characters.

Hooked was admittedly a mixed bag for me. On the one hand (pun intended), I LOVE how seriously the author took Hook’s pain and struggle, how they consider the torture he endures by basically being killed and revived over and over again and all the psychological damage that would do to a man. Also (minor spoilers ahead for the rest of the post) Michael’s PTSD from the war and how the crocodile spirit sort of latches onto the hurt and pain there and “consumes” him in a different sort of way than it does Hook. On the other… I felt like the ending was a little too rushed or something? Something was missing, though I’m not sure how to put my finger on it. And the fact that “Samuel” is pretty clearly meant to be a Smee stand-in but they never call him Smee is weird. Like…why? And what’s with keeping his skull on a shelf in his room? That was…odd… I don’t ship Hook/Smee so I wasn’t a huge fan of the relationship but I did like the author showing that SOMEONE in his life recognized the potential for goodness in Hook and kept that little spark of decency alive in him in his own quiet way.

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: Hooked

Author: A.C. Wise

Series or standalone: standalone

Publication year: 2022

Genres: fiction, fantasy, retelling, historical fiction, LGBT+

Blurb: Captain James Hook, the immortal pirate of Neverland, has died a thousand times - drowned, stabbed by Peter Pan’s sword, eaten by the beast swimming below the depths - yet James was resurrected every time by one boy’s dark imagination...until he found a door in the sky, an escape, and he took the chance, no matter the cost. Now in London twenty-two years later, Peter Pan’s monster has found Captain Hook again, intent on revenge...but a chance encounter leads James to another survivor of Neverland. Wendy Darling, now a grown woman, is the only one who knows how dark a shadow Neverland casts, no matter how far you run. To vanquish Pan’s monster once and for all, Hook must play the villain one last time.

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Queer Gothic Horror

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen Catfish Lullaby by AC Wise Grey Dog by Elliott Gish What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

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[wuekka]

Eldrich horror Peter Pan~! 👏👏

Not pictured is him "making a horrible sound, speaking language spoken by demons and angels before the beginning of the world."

[wuekka]

Eldrich horror Peter Pan, but not once upon a time evil peter is the best peter. :D

[mrdcoolblue]

The Ghost Sequences by A. C. Wise

💀🖤

[text ID: Gorgeous writing. Each short story deals with hauntings, including being haunted by grief, regret, and guilt, but several take completely different approaches to what a haunting is, weaving in fantasy, surrealist, scifi, and contemporary elements.

Quote: “A haunting is a moment of trauma, infinitely repeated. It extends forward and backward in time. It is the hole grief makes. It is a house built by memory in-between your skin and bones.” /end]

I read this back in August, and holy crap, this short story collection is my favorite read of 2023. Maybe one of my favorite books of all time. The stories are beautiful and sad and haunting and filled with love, which are frankly my favorite kinds of ghost stories. I had to draw an illustration in my reading journal for my favorite story from the collection: “The Nag Bride”