The Listeners

by Maggie Stiefvater
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: June 3, 2025
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some fade-to-black sex and talk of Nazis. It will be in the Adult Fiction section of the bookstore.

The story goes like this: Maggie announces that she’s got a book out in June, that it’s published by Viking. She then posts, saying (much more Maggie-like) that she announced too early. But, by this time, I figured out that Viking is published under Penguin, and I emailed our Penguin rep asking if there are ARCs and if can I have one. He emailed back saying that it was super early, and maybe… though later, when I saw him in person, he admitted I caught him off-guard because he had no idea about the book. At any rate, her editors were looking for people to read early manuscript copies, and he gave them my name. Eventually (a month after he told me all this!), the book came in the mail to the owner, who then asked if I wanted it. I had a fangirl moment “Ohmygod, ohmyGod, OHMYGOD, YES!” (she laughed at me) and then took it home and read it practically in one night.

This won’t be a real review; I will want to read it again when it comes out, to get more out of it, to enjoy the cover (that’s just a placeholder there), and to write a real review. But know this: if you like Maggie’s work, you will like this one. The magic is subtler than in her other books, but it’s all very much Maggie. And the characters are so fascinating, so complex. And there are so many little turns of phrase that just melted my heart and caught my fancy. It’s going to be a good one.

I can’t wait for others to get to read it!

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