An âenchantingâ (Caroline Kepnes, author of You) New York City fairy tale about two sisters that fall under the spell of an underworld cabaret troupe that might be a dangerous cultâbut one that makes the materialist world left in its wake feel like a sinister cult itself.
Rose has come a long way. Raisedâand often neglectedâby a wayward mother in New York Cityâs chaotic bohemia, Rose has finally built the life sheâs always wanted: a good job at a self-help startup, a clean apartment, an engagement to a stable if self-satisfied tech CEO who shares her faith in human potential, hard work, and the sacrifice of childish dreams.
Roseâs sister Cecilia, on the other hand, never grew up. Irresponsible and impetuous, prone to jetting off to a European monastery one month and a falcon rescue the next, Cecilia has spent her life in pursuit of fairy-tale narratives of transcendence and true loveâgrand ideas Rose knows never work out in the real world. When Cecilia declares sheâs come home to New York for good, following the ending of a whirlwind marriage, Rose hopes Cecilia might finally be ready to face adulthood: compromises and all.
But then Cecilia gets involved with the Avalon: a cultish-sounding cabaret troupeâone that appears only at night, on a mysterious red boat that travels New Yorkâs waterwaysâand soon vanishes: one of a growing number of suspicious disappearances among the cityâs lost and loneliest souls. The only way Rose can find Cecilia is by tracking down the Avalon herself.
But as Rose gets closer to solving the mystery of what happened to her sister, the Avalon works its magic on her, too. And the deeper she goes into the Avalonâs underworld, the more she begins to question everything she knows about her own life, and whether sheâs willing to leave the real world behind.