A Far Better Thing By H.G. Parry

“I felt it before I saw it. My nerves twitched, and my flesh tingled as if at an enroaching storm. I was looking at myself. A far better version of me, of course: all changelings are more beautiful than the human beings they substitute, and in my case that wasn’t hard. The prisoner was well-grown and well-looking, and his dark hair caught back neatly from a sun-browned face. My lifestyle was conducive to neither growth nor health, and under my lopsided wig my own hair hung limp and unkempt. My face was pale, and for that matter would be charitably called “bony” rather than the “sculptured” that the prisoner’s jawline and cheekbones invited. And my eyes are green-blue flecked with brown, as like the dark, bottomless blue of a fairy replacement as a marsh is to a clear pool. But he was me. Myself as I could have been.”

A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry

H.G. Parry wrote one of my favorite books a few years ago, The Magician’s Daughter, which was a gorgeous fantasy novel brimming with magic, love and coziness. I was so excited to see she had another novel coming out, A Far Better Thing, and I am so grateful to Tor for sending me an ARC! Thank you so much, this is one of my favorite novels this year, and I am still reeling from the emotional intensity packed within this book.

A Far Better Thing is inspired by A Tale of Two Cities, but since I have not read that novel, I can’t speak to it. Sydney Carlton is a law clerk who has lived his whole life knowing he was stolen at birth from the human world and switched out with a changeling. He grew up in the Realm but eventually got out and lives as a mortal servant, bound to do the bidding of faeries. One day, when he is working on a trial, he comes face to face with his changeling, Charles Darnay. He and Darnay are not supposed to cross paths. It’s something that just doesn’t happen, and Sydney knows this is more than a coincidence.

Suddenly thrust into a world of chaos, Sydney is thrown into the plans of multiple faeries and the fae court all while trying to navigate the human world and the revolution occuring there. This novel is beyond brilliant. It’s intriguing from page one, I didn’t want to put it down. I loved watching Sydney grow as a character. He started out as a kind of bitter person, so irritated with the fate he was dealt despite having no choice in the matter. As the book goes on, Sydney’s love and caring heart for other people really pulls the threads of the story together. I really loved Sydney and Thorne, Lucie and Rosemary. This book has a fantastic cast of characters and such intriguing world building. I really enjoyed this one, and I can’t reccomend it enough!

A Far Better Thing releases June 2025!