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WORK TITLE: Lovely Dark and Deep
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WEBSITE: https://eabonnin.com/
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PERSONAL
Born in the Philippines.
EDUCATION:University of South Carolina, BS; University of Washington, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Scientific writer. Works in a neurology department.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2022, review Stolen City; February 1, 2025, review of Lovely Dark and Deep.
School Library Journal, September, 2022, Kaitlin Frick, review of Stolen City, p. 114; February, 2025, Tammy Ivins, review of Lovely Dark and Deep, p. 67.
ONLINE
Alibrarymama, https://alibrarymama.com/ (May 22, 2023), review of Dauntless and Stolen City.
Elisa A. Bonnin website, https://eabonnin.com/ (August 5, 2025).
Enthralled Bookworm, https://enthralledbookworm.wordpress.com/ (August 5, 2022), author interview.
Fantasy Cafe, https://www.fantasybookcafe.com/ (April 5, 2023), author blog.
KidLit 411, https://www.kidlit411.com/ (July 8, 2022), author interview.
About
I’m an author, freelance writer, scientist, and science communicator.
I grew up in the Philippines, and am very proud to be Filipino. As an author, I specialize in speculative fiction, particularly fantasy. Currently, I write for teens, but I would love to write for adults too someday. I’ve been writing since the age of eight, and publishing my books has always been my dream, so I’m incredibly excited to have two novels out and a third, Lovely Dark and Deep, coming in 2025! I am represented by Natalie Lakosil and Antoinette Van Sluytman at Looking Glass Literary & Media Management.
As a scientist, I have a PhD in Oceanography from the University of Washington, and I’m a chemist by training (BS Chemistry, University of South Carolina). Right now, I work in a neurology department running a super cool instrument called a NanoSIMS, that can take images of the chemical composition of surfaces. I also do some freelance work making scientific discoveries accessible to a general audience, through Massive Science and Complexly, and I’m always looking for more writing opportunities.
Author Bio
Elisa A. Bonnin was born and raised in the Philippines, after which she moved to the United States to study chemistry and later oceanography. After completing her doctorate, she moved to Germany, where she now works as a scientific writer. A lifelong learner, Elisa is always convinced that she should “maybe take a class in something” and as a result, has amassed an eclectic collection of hobbies. But writing will always be her true love. Publishing a book has been her dream since she was eight years old, and she is thrilled to finally be able to share her stories. She is the author of Dauntless, Stolen City, and Lovely Dark and Deep.
Interview: Elisa A. Bonnin, Author of Dauntless
By
Alexx @ Enthralled Bookworm
|
8/5/2022
Interview: Elisa A. Bonnin, Author of Dauntless
Hello book nerds! It has been a while since I joined a blog tour, I know. But today, I’m sharing something I am pretty excited about! Today, I’m sharing my interview with Elisa A. Bonnin, as part of the Dauntless Blog Tour by Xpresso Tours!
Dauntless is one of my most anticipated releases for this year. I found out about this YA fantasy novel with Filipino sapphics and I was immediately sold. Now I’m happy to be spreading more information about Dauntless!
I had the chance to chat with the author, Elisa A. Bonnin for my tour stop! So read on to know more about the inspiration of Dauntless, the world-building, the characters, and what the story can mean for Filipino readers of today.
For our readers, can you quickly describe Dauntless or give them a rundown of what they can expect from it?
Sure! Dauntless is a sapphic YA fantasy set in a Filipino-inspired world, meaning that it’s set in a fantasy world with Filipino rather than European influences. It tells the story of Seri, a young girl who has to stop a war from breaking out so that she can be with the world she loves. It’s got a lot of action and adventure in it, and it has three POV characters: Seri, her love interest Tsana, and her mentor Eshai.
Did you have a specific goal or inspiration for writing Dauntless?
Oddly enough, I was inspired by my studies. I was finishing up an oceanography PhD while writing Dauntless, and while the world of Dauntless doesn’t have an ocean, I was reflecting on the reasons that I had for studying oceanography in the first place. The ocean is surprisingly unexplored for something that takes up three-quarters of our planet, and it was that curiosity about the unknown that drove me to start studying oceanography in the first place.
When I wrote Dauntless, I wanted to write a society whose world was still unexplored, and who were driven by the desire to go beyond the boundaries of what they knew to find what was out there. But I also recognized that the more they did this, the more likely it was that they would run into other people. I wanted to write that moment of first contact, with another society, so that I could explore the conflict that would arise and have the characters come to a solution that was not (as is so prevalent in our history) colonization or war.
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Dauntless features Filipino sapphics in a Filipino-inspired world (and I love it!). What do you think this can mean for Filipino readers of today?
When I was writing Dauntless, I really wanted to write a book where Filipino teenagers, especially queer Filipino teens, could see themselves in a heroic role. I grew up reading a lot of epic fantasy, and while I loved those stories, I was always disappointed that I could never find main characters that looked like me.
Female protagonists were rare, and Filipino protagonists were virtually nonexistent outside of Filipino media. Nowadays, while we still have a long way to go, there’s much more representation than there was, and I’m happy that Dauntless can be a part of that.
How did you go about creating and building the world in Dauntless?
I knew that I wanted to set Dauntless in a world that had the same climate as the Philippines, so I started there, with climate and setting. Food, building materials and resources came from that, because I already had some experience of what materials and resources would be available in an environment like the Philippines.
But from there, I started to build in the fantastical elements. I knew that I wanted the characters to fight magical beasts, which means I needed to make those beasts a threat. And because they were such a threat, I needed to make their presence affect the characters’ daily lives. So they started living in spreading trees, the giant trees that house their cities, to keep them safe from the beasts. That meant that spreading trees would be valuable resources, ones that Seri’s People would try to claim, so one of the important duties of valiants became searching for more spreading trees, and so on and so forth.
Did Seri and Tsana’s characters go through a lot of changes from when you first had the idea for the book and when you finally finished it?
Seri didn’t go through too many changes. I had an idea for her character from the start, and things with her went more or less according to plan. Tsana, on the other hand, was a little trickier to write. For a lot of reasons, Tsana is very guarded and closed off, so it took me a while to figure out how to write her as a
sympathetic love interest and how to develop her character, even when she and Seri start off on opposite sides. I had to balance Tsana’s inner conflict with the needs of the story, and I was basically tweaking Tsana’s character up until the very last draft.
And there you have it! I was so so happy to do this interview for an up and coming YA Filipino author like Elisa! Dauntless is out now and I know I’m not the only one excited to read it!
Make sure to follow the Dauntless blog tour to see more reviews and content from other bloggers.
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Buy Dauntless
Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin cover
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play
Author: Elisa A. Bonnin
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: August 2nd 2022
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, LGBTQ+
A teen girl must bring together two broken worlds in order to save her nation in this lush, Filipino-inspired young adult fantasy novel from debut author Elisa A. Bonnin.
“Be dauntless, for the hopes of the People rest in you.”
Seri’s world is defined by very clear rules: The beasts prowl the forest paths and hunt the People. The valiant explore the unknown world, kill the beasts, and gain strength from the armor they make from them. As an assistant to Eshai Unbroken, a young valor commander with a near-mythical reputation, Seri has seen first-hand the struggle to keep the beasts at bay and ensure the safety of the spreading trees where the People make their homes. That was how it always had been, and how it always would be. Until the day Seri encounters Tsana.
Tsana is, impossibly, a stranger from the unknown world who can communicate with the beasts – a fact that makes Seri begin to doubt everything she’s ever been taught. As Seri and Tsana grow closer, their worlds begin to collide, with deadly consequences. Somehow, with the world on the brink of war, Seri will have to find a way to make peace.
“Dauntless captures the best parts of every action-packed fantasy—breathtaking scenes of power and victory that push the limits of human tenacity. This is a triumphant tale of courage and self discovery that will make you believe in your own strength.” —Kyllie Lee Baker, author of The Keeper of Night
Join the Giveaway
One (1) US participant will receive a paperback copy of Dauntless! Click here to join! This ends August 11th!
About the Author
Elisa A. Bonnin was born and raised in the Philippines, after which she moved to the United States to study chemistry and later oceanography. After completing her doctorate, she moved to Germany to work as a postdoctoral scientist. A lifelong learner, Elisa is always convinced that she should “maybe take a class in something” and as a result, has amassed an eclectic collection of hobbies. But writing will always be her true love. Publishing a book has been her dream since she was eight years old, and she is thrilled to finally be able to share her stories. Dauntless is her first novel.
July 8, 2022
We are excited to feature author Elisa A. Bonnin and her debut young adult novel, DAUNTLESS (Swoon Reads), out on Aug. 7, as well as her next YA novel, STOLEN CITY (Swoon Reads, Sept. 20, 2022). Enter to win a copy of DAUNTLESS!
art © Sarah Gonzales
Tell us about yourself and how you came to write for teens.
Hi everyone, I’m Elisa, the author of the young adult novels Dauntless and Stolen City. I’ve wanted to be an author for most of my life. I started writing when I was eight years old, and I haven’t stopped since. Although I read a lot of all kinds of fantasy, including both YA and adult fantasy, I started writing for teenagers because I love writing coming of age stories. Teenage characters are fun to write because they’re often still learning about the world they live in and their place in it, and in a lot of ways they’re growing into their roles. I write the books that I would have loved to read when I was a teen.
Congrats on your debut young adult novel, Dauntless! Tell us about the story and what inspired you.
Dauntless is a sapphic YA fantasy, set in a Filipino-inspired world. It tells the story of Seri, a young girl who’s just trying to get away from everything, when she falls in love with Tsana. Tsana comes from a completely different culture from Seri, and for the two of them to be together, they have to stop their peoples from going to war.
Although the world of Dauntless doesn’t have an ocean, the book was inspired by my studies in oceanography. I started writing Dauntless while finishing up my oceanography PhD, when I was thinking about the reasons why I started studying oceanography in the first place. I’ve always been fascinated by the unknown, by stories of explorers, and I wanted to write a fantasy novel set in a world that hadn’t fully been explored yet, whose people were still learning about the world and each other. I loved the idea of going into the “unknown world” and exploring, but as I was developing the concept, I realized that eventually this culture of explorers would run into another group of people. Once they realized they weren’t alone in the world, there would be a lot of conflict there. I wanted to explore that conflict and have it come to a resolution that wouldn’t be (as it so often was in our history) colonization or war.
Because I was also really homesick at the time, I wanted to write a story set in the climate and backdrop that I was most familiar with, the climate of the Philippines. Dauntless isn’t set in the real-world Philippines and it isn’t based in Philippine mythology, but in the same way that a lot of fantasy novels are set in a world inspired by medieval Europe, I wanted to write a fantasy novel where the baseline for everything–climate, food, appearances and others–came from the Philippines.
Was your road to publication long and winding, short and sweet, or something in between?
I would definitely call my path to publication long and winding. I’ve wanted to be a published author since I was eight years old, and have basically been writing as much as I can since then, but it took me twenty years to get my first book deal. In that time, I’ve written many manuscripts that have been rejected by agents and publishers, including the manuscript that is now Stolen City.
art © Sarah Gonzales
I got my book deal through Swoon Reads, which at the time was a crowd-sourcing website that allowed their audience to read through novels and select the ones that they thought were most worthy of publication. I uploaded both Dauntless and Stolen City to the site, and both were selected for publication. Since this was right at the beginning of the pandemic, they were actually the last books selected before Swoon Reads closed down. I didn’t yet have an agent, and it took another two years before I was able to find representation,. So yes, definitely a winding road, but I’ve mostly enjoyed the journey.
What projects are you working on now?
I have one more book coming out this year. Stolen City releases on September 20, 2022, and like Dauntless, it’s a YA fantasy. It’s a heist novel that tells the story of twin thieves who steal magical artifacts from their city’s colonizers. When a stranger comes to town searching for an artifact that belongs to the twins’ mother, the twins plan their biggest heist yet and end up stealing the entire city back in the process. It’s a really special book for me because the characters in it are characters that my best friend and I developed together in high school, and I’m glad that they get to shine in their own original story.
I’m also constantly writing things, and while I can’t talk too much about my works in progress yet, I can say that I plan on continuing to write stories set in fantastical worlds, with main characters that strive to find their place in the worlds they live in. I do plan on writing more stories with Filipino (or Filipino-like, in the case of fantasy worlds) main characters in the future, and I definitely plan on writing more stories with queer characters.
What are some of your favorite classic YAs? Recent ones?
As a teenager, I didn’t have the opportunity to read much YA, because the books that I had access to were the ones that were already on my mom’s shelf. This means that I basically went from children’s books straight into adult fantasy. But I did pick up Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series, and that became one of my favorites. I loved Keladry and really loved the story of a young girl becoming a knight. I still have those books on my shelf, and the first one is really battered from all the times I would take it to school as a kid.
Nowadays, I think the YA space has really exploded. There are so many fantastic books out there, and the sheer variety of books on offer would have blown teen me’s mind. I’ve read so many good books this year that it’s hard to think of which ones to recommend, but my favorites were: Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor, This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede, A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin, the Hollow Star series by Ashley Shuttleworth, Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao and so many more. In my monthly newsletter, I always spotlight a new release that I enjoyed, so if you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll get those recommendations too.
What advice would you give your younger self? Is this the same you'd give to aspiring authors?
I would tell my younger self to be patient and to keep at it. I’ve been wanting to be an author for a long time, and as a teenager, I thought that if I didn’t get a book deal after a certain number of years, it was never going to happen for me. But what I’ve learned since then is that authors don’t have an expiry date. It’s never too late to start writing, and it’s never too late to get published. And although the road to getting published can be full of rejection, no writing is ever a waste of time. I’ve written so many manuscripts that I’ve had to shelve, and looking back, those books helped me grow into the writer I am now.
I think I would tell aspiring authors the same thing. Write what you enjoy, be patient, and even when things get difficult, remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel. If you enjoy writing, even if the project you’re working on never gets published, it was not a waste of time. And it’s never too late to start.
What is one thing most people don't know about you?
I was a really early reader. I’m not sure exactly when I learned to read, but my parents found out that I could read when I was two years old. They caught me reading along to my storybooks, and because they thought I had just memorized the words, they made me read the newspaper headlines out loud to prove it. I actually don’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. I’ve always loved books and reading, so I don’t think it came as a surprise to a lot of my family that I ended up writing books.
Where can people find you online?
You can find me on my website (www.eabonnin.com), on Twitter (https://twitter.com/eabwrites), or on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/elisa.a.bonnin/). I’m not incredibly active on social media in general, but I tend to be a bit more active on Twitter than on Instagram, and following either will get you all the latest updates on my books. If you prefer updates compiled and sent to your inbox once a month, I also have a newsletter, which you can sign up for here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/eabonnin. My newsletter goes out every month on the 15th.
Elisa A. Bonnin was born and raised in the Philippines, after which she moved to the United States to study chemistry and later oceanography. After completing her doctorate, she moved to Germany to work as a postdoctoral scientist. A lifelong learner, Elisa is always convinced that she should “maybe take a class in something” and as a result, has amassed an eclectic collection of hobbies. But writing will always be her true love. Publishing a book has been her dream since she was eight years old, and she is thrilled to finally be able to share her stories. She is the author of Dauntless and Stolen City.
Women in SF&F Month: Elisa A. Bonnin
Apr
05
2023
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Today’s guest is YA fantasy author Elisa A. Bonnin! Her first two novels were both released late last year: Dauntless, described as a Filipino-inspired book in which “a teen girl must bring together two broken worlds in order to save her nation,” and Stolen City, in which “twin thieves attempt to pull off a daring heist.” I recently read Dauntless and adored the setting with its dangerous beasts and settlements amongst the branches of large sprawling trees, as well as the main character’s journey as she discovers there’s more to her world than she thought. I’m thrilled the author is here today to discuss writing characters and defaults in “Breaking the Mold, or ‘What even is neurotypical anyway?’”
Cover of Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin Cover of Stolen City by Elisa A. Bonnin
Breaking the Mold, or “What even is neurotypical anyway?”
I’m autistic.
Depending on how we know each other or whether or not you pay attention to my social media, this might be the first thing you know about me, might not come as a surprise, or might be completely unexpected. I’ve often been told “no, you’re not” by people who only see me when I’m masking or by well-meaning family members who share similar traits (I have bad news for them…). My autism was discovered when I was a child, when a difficult family situation triggered a cavalcade of meltdowns that sent even my normally skeptical mother running for medical advice (the doctor had some bad news for her too).
What’s interesting, though, is that even though I had the privilege of knowing I was autistic from a young age, because I was told I was “high-functioning” and that I “didn’t need to worry about it”, I never really bothered to learn much about what being autistic meant, and the ways that autism changed the way I perceived the world. (A shame. If I had, it might have saved me from major burnout in my late 20s. This will be my last aside for now, take a look here for a case against the continued use of functioning labels.) In particular, I had no idea how being autistic was affecting my writing, and the way that I described my characters’ reactions to other people and the world around them.
While I’ve been writing since childhood, I can only think of two times that I’ve deliberately tried to write an autistic character into my work. The first, from a draft in the early 2010s, was a character near and dear to my heart, a magical empath who channels all her frustrations into her art. The second character will be in my Winter 2025 novel. In between, I wrote a lot of characters, including protagonists, who I assumed were neurotypical. Time has given me some evidence that that assumption might be incorrect, and has also led me to question if I’ve ever written a neurotypical POV character, and more importantly—why on earth I thought neurotypical characters were the default anyway.
Let’s start with Seri. She’s the protagonist of my debut novel Dauntless. Seri is the kind of character who starts out soft-spoken and unassuming but grows into a warrior who fights for what she believes in. She was never written to be autistic. In fact, I started writing her just after finishing up a book with the autistic artist I mentioned above, so when I was writing Seri, I thought of her as neurotypical. The trap I’d caught myself in was one of thinking that being autistic meant having certain traits, and because Seri wasn’t a character with those traits, I couldn’t write her as an autistic character.
And…I mean…for the most part, I still don’t think Seri is autistic. She certainly wouldn’t score very high on any online tests that look for evidence of autism. But because I was writing her, there were some things about the way she saw the world that made sense to me and didn’t make much sense to my editor or my neurotypical readers.
It was the way she processed information. There were moments when Seri would be in stressful situations and, drawing on my own experience of being in stressful situations, I would describe how sound faded, becoming replaced by a high-pitched whine that I could hear in my head. I would know people were talking to me, sure, but their voices would be muffled and difficult to make out, a bit like adult Peanuts characters. I thought that this was something that happened to everyone.
Turns out it wasn’t.
Because Seri was never intended to be autistic, I removed the odd sensory elements from her narrative and moved on to Stolen City, a book with four POV characters. Stolen City eventually became my second novel, published the same year as Dauntless. As my first draft of Stolen City came back from edits, I read through it and realized that I had done the same thing again, with a character called Liam.
Liam was always meant to be a quiet bookworm, obsessed with the possibilities of magic and forever exasperated by his more extroverted twin sister Arian, with her blatant disregard for the rules and her love of danger. I’d known both of these characters for a very long time—all the characters in Stolen City are derived from characters my best friend and I developed in high school—so I thought I knew Liam in every way possible. I decided it would be fun to explore the dark side of him that we often hinted at while playing, and to do that, I built a situation where he would be incredibly stressed out. I made his ex-girlfriend betray him in favor of the same colonizing force that took his home and his family away, and he reacted rather violently to that betrayal.
Writing his reaction was cathartic for me, but when I got comments that parts of his reaction were unsympathetic, I had to do some soul searching to figure out why. I realized that though I never intended to, I had written Liam as autistic, and the explosion he had in that “unsympathetic” scene was a meltdown. Armed with that knowledge, I was able to dive into revisions and fix the scene so that it was focused more on his feelings, on the mental processes that were causing him to break down. The result was much more effective. In the end, Liam became my first (and only) published autistic character.
Or so I thought. Because when Stolen City came out, I was able to get an advance copy to my sister (also autistic), and when she read it, she praised me for my portrayal of Liam and my portrayal of his sister, Arian.
Arian, who I really thought wasn’t autistic apparently has some traits that have resonated in autistic people. And that happened completely unintentionally.
Now, while I’m writing, I’m much more sensitive to this tendency. I can see it happening often, especially when I write books that carry more emotion in them, books where the focus is strongly on a protagonist’s inner world. I see it happening now, in my upcoming Winter 2025 novel Lovely Dark and Deep, which is a magic school story wrapped around my protagonist’s struggles with friendship and identity. And I wonder if it might happen in my current WIP, which features my first extroverted protagonist. In fact, the more it happens, the more I realize that autistic might actually be my default for characters, and that I have to work to make characters neurotypical.
The answer to my existential crisis might be a bit obvious to you, because of course I keep making my characters autistic. I’ve never known what it’s like to be neurotypical. But because the neurotypical experience is always shown as the default, I never questioned why my characters were neurotypical until proven otherwise.
It makes me wonder just how many other “defaults” I’ve internalized without thinking about it. Straight characters are also perceived as a default, but could my characters all be bisexual until proven otherwise? (Actually yes, probably.) Also, considering it took me until Dauntless to figure out that I could write non-white characters in fantasy and set my stories somewhere non-European, it really does make me wonder why on earth a bisexual autistic mixed-race Filipino girl came to the conclusion that all of her characters needed to be straight, white, and neurotypical.
The operative question here is “why”, because I know “how”. All the stories I had ever read prior to creating my own had those defaults. I grew up with those defaults, even growing up in a non-Western country. And as a writer, I’m still working each day to break myself of these habits, to question my assumptions about what the audience does and does not need to be told about my characters.
I’m getting better at that, but I’m not there yet. I still make assumptions about my own characters, and I know that I’m much worse off when it comes to other people’s characters. I’m still surprised when a character from a piece of media deviates from this incredibly narrow thing I was raised to think was the standard, and I still need to sit down with myself and ask myself hard questions.
But as far as my characters go, I put a lot of myself into each POV character I write. And so it’s probably fair to say that as far as defaults go, my characters are going to end up quite a lot like me.
Photo of Elisa A. Bonnin Elisa A. Bonnin was born and raised in the Philippines, after which she moved to the United States to study chemistry and later oceanography. After completing her doctorate, she moved to Germany to work as a postdoctoral scientist. A lifelong learner, Elisa is always convinced that she should “maybe take a class in something” and as a result, has amassed an eclectic collection of hobbies. But writing will always be her true love. Publishing a book has been her dream since she was eight years old, and she is thrilled to finally be able to share her stories. She is the author of Dauntless and Stolen City.
Two by Elisa A. Bonnin: Dauntless and Stolen City
Posted on May 22, 2023 by Katy K.
As long-time readers will know, my love is of Filipino descent, and as we’re all fantasy lovers, we’re always on the lookout for Filipino and Filipino-inspired fantasy. I first heard about this Filipina author, who debuted with two books last year, from Your Tita Kate but couldn’t initially find Dauntless at the library. Fortunately, by the time Fantasy Book Cafe had a post by her, I was able to find both her books. Though I picked them up because of the cultural angle, they are both stories that stand up very well on their own.
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Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin, Swoon Reads, 2022. ISBN 9781250795618. Read from a library copy. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.
In this Filipino-inspired fantasy, Seri is a young woman barely into adulthood who’s reluctantly pushed towards joining the Valor, the guards who keep their expanding society safe from the Beasts who roam and kill humans. She doesn’t relish the killing part, and especially not wearing armor made from the skins of Beasts she’s killed herself, but as she’s put into the service of a very young commander, Eshai Unbroken, she keeps finding herself in situations where her skills are needed. She doesn’t even question it – until during her first visit to the capital city, she meets another young woman, Tsana. As Seri and Tsana grow closer, she discovers that Tsana is from another culture – when Seri and her people had only ever known about the existence of one culture – and Tsana’s views call into question everything that Seri has ever believed about her culture and herself.
Besides the fascinating characters, the epic plot, and the sapphic romance here, I really loved the worldbuilding. Seri’s people build their cities in giant trees near lakes, with bridges and ladders between the branches. I also loved their tradition of tattooing, reflective of pre-Hispanic Filipino culture. Though the levels of government and bureaucracy were high level, the People don’t have metalworking – unlike Tsana’s people. Magic is evident from the beginning, as the Beast-skin armor grants superhuman abilities, but grows in scope as the two cultures meet. Though I read it in print, we’ve since purchased the audiobook, so that the rest of the family can enjoy it.
Stolen City by Elisa A. Bonnin, Swoon Reads, 2022. ISBN 9781250795632. Read from a library copy. Ebook and audiobook available through Libby.
In this more modern-feeling fantasy, the crowded island city of Leithon was captured by the Empire four years before our story begins. Teen twins Arian and Liam have survived since their mother, the head of the Arcanum was brutally murdered by thieving. They’ve never been caught – thanks to Liam’s forbidden magic – until the representative of the Weavers, Cavar, tracks them down to recruit them for a job. The Weavers weave the fates of kingdoms, not cloth, and what Cavar wants them to steal is a magical artifact that belonged to the twins’ own mother. It’s of course hidden in the treasury of the Bastion – the impenetrable fortress once held by the Leithon royal family, now held by the Empire. Not only is getting in impossible, but once there, they’ll have to avoid Liam’s traitorous ex-girlfriend Zephyr, who now runs the Leithonian unit of the Empire’s army – and the powerful mage hunter who killed their mother. And if they can pull off a heist of this level, what’s to keep them from stealing their whole city back from the Empire?
There is a lot of fun romp here, with a separate romance and quest for personal fulfillment and destiny for each of the twins. At the same time, the thoughts on imperialism and personal responsibility in the face of dangerous injustice, unlike a typical ethics-free heist narrative. I did wonder a little at the technology level – it sounded like they had modern clothing and skyscraper-tall buildings, but no telephones, telegraphs, or motor vehicles – but it worked well in the book itself and was only a minor distraction for me. Bonnin mentioned in the notes that she and a high school friend had been making up stories about these four characters for years, and they did feel like fun characters that she’d spent a lot of time getting comfortable with, while the world and its culture clearly extends far beyond what we see in the story. This was also highly entertaining, and I look forward to reading more from Elisa A. Bonnin in the future.
Bonnin, Elisa A. STOLEN CITY Swoon Reads/Macmillan (Teen None) $18.99 9, 20 ISBN: 978-1-250-79563-2
Rebels struggle to free their occupied city from the Aelrian Empire.
Four years ago, Leithon fell to Aelrian rule through betrayal. Now Liam, once a gifted student in the Arcanum, the center of all magic, hides his power from Imperial magebreakers and struggles with survivor's guilt. Arian, his twin sister, is a master thief, braving the city's heights as she steals from the Empire and helps the Leithonian Resistance. When the mysterious Cavar hires them to steal Kuthil's Star, a powerful object last guarded by their late mother, the former Speaker of the Arcanum, the twins see it as a chance for redemption. As Cavar and Arian infiltrate the Bastion--and predictably grow close--Liam wields his magic for the Resistance and forges his own path of revenge. Depictions of the twins' grief and trauma and their impact on the actions they take add complexity and realism to the story. The way the story explores the impact of emotion on those doing magic is intriguing. The rotating points of view add an extra dimension to the plot and themes but slow down the action despite some exhilarating magical fights. The discussion of the past, occupation, and societal roles bind the characters together and lead to a satisfying climax. The twins read White; Cavar has black hair and light brown skin.
Cinematic action and an entertaining caper balance the occasionally dense text. (Fantasy. 13-18)
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"Bonnin, Elisa A.: STOLEN CITY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2022. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A711906631/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=96d1f5da. Accessed 16 June 2025.
BONNIN, Elisa A. Stolen City. 384p. Feiwel & Friends/Swoon Reads. Sept. 2022. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781250795632.
Gr 9 Up--Ever since the city of Leithon fell under Imperial occupation, the Athensor twins have each been flying under the radar--Arian as a skilled and daring thief stealing magical artifacts for the Resistance, and Liam hiding his incredible magical gifts from the Aelrian Empire's magebreakers. When a mysterious outsider named Cavar hires Arian to steal an artifact capable of ripping the souls from the living--an artifact their late mother was once tasked with safekeeping--the twins quickly become embroiled in court intrigue, family secrets, and their own long-suppressed grief. Bonnin's sophomore novel is an action-packed fantasy told from the perspectives of multiple well-rounded, realistic characters, each with their own struggles. The author tackles topics of generational trauma and military occupation unflinchingly yet sensitively. The twins present white, while Cavar is described as having black hair and light brown skin. The author has stated one of the characters is autistic. VERDICT A sure winner for fans of Neal Shusterman, Victoria Aveyard, and Tomi Adeyemi. Recommended purchase.--Kaitlin Frick
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Frick, Kaitlin. "BONNIN, Elisa A.: Stolen City." School Library Journal, vol. 68, no. 9, Sept. 2022, p. 114. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A715572416/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0bc902cd. Accessed 16 June 2025.
Bonnin, Elisa A. LOVELY DARK AND DEEP Feiwel & Friends (Teen None) $20.99 3, 25 ISBN: 9781250888570
A senior must discover the truth behind dark magic afflicting her magic academy.
Born with magic into a non-magical family, Faith Castillo found comfort in attending the Ellery Academy of Magic, West Campus, in Washington's San Juan Islands. That is, until she and best friend Sydney entered the forbidden forest during junior year, and only Faith made it out alive. As punishment, Faith is placed on probation and given a curfew, becoming a social pariah. Close to being expelled and losing her magic, Faith is desperate to lie low until graduation. She's plagued by nightmares about Sydney and the forest--and when the nightmares become a reality and other students get hurt, she realizes the forest isn't done with her yet. Along with her fellow Red Stripes--so called for the red edging on their school blazers that marks them as the probationary class--Faith investigates the dangerous forces at work while trying not to get expelled. While dark academia at its core, this thrilling contemporary fantasy balances the darkness with a charming group of misfits who form a found family. Flashbacks from Faith and Sydney's friendship provide further context about their relationship, the fatal incident, and Faith's emotions. While the pacing is sometimes uneven, the characters' growth and development are exceptional. Filipino immigrant Faith struggles with her sexual orientation; the other Red Stripes are diverse in race, sexuality, gender identity, and neurodiversity.
Dark and thrilling, yet lovely and endearing.(Fantasy. 14-18)
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"Bonnin, Elisa A.: LOVELY DARK AND DEEP." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A825128350/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8108b0e9. Accessed 16 June 2025.]
* BONNIN, Elisa A. Lovely Dark and Deep. 400p. Feiwel & Friends. Mar. 2025. Tr $20.99. ISBN 9781250888570.
Or 6 Up--Faith is a rising senior at Ellery West, a school for magic. She is from a non-magical family and is an immigrant to the U.S., challenges compounded by being "Red Striped" (labeled as dangerous and isolated from most other students and forced to wear a uniform marked with a red stripe) after she witnessed a fellow student disappear into the forbidden forest. With the newly found family of fellow Red Stripe students, Faith must navigate the school year to graduate without being kicked out and having her magic repressed. Along the way, she and her new friends uncover a cruel colonialist crime at the school's origin. This book is infused with the real-world immigrant experience of the author, who was born and raised in the Philippines, educated in the U.S., and is currently living and working in Germany. The Red Stripe students include characters of various ethnicities, neurodiversities, sexual orientations, and gender identities; these characteristics are relevant to the plot of the book, as at times it is questioned whether a student's background and characteristics influence their treatment by the school. VERDICT A strong entry point into dark academia fantasy, recommended for all libraries serving YA readers.--Tammy Ivins
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Ivins, Tammy. "BONNIN, Elisa A.: Lovely Dark and Deep." School Library Journal, vol. 71, no. 2, Feb. 2025, p. 67. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A836878867/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=41be5228. Accessed 16 June 2025.