Fourteen-year-old Corin has always noticed what everyone else walks past.
In the village of Ashfen, that makes him an awkward hunter, an easy target for blame, and the boy left at the back of every line. But at the edge of the forbidden Twilight Timber, his unusual attention draws the notice of another world?and of Princess Lirael Dawnpetal, who has crossed into the human realm searching for him.
Beyond the fold lies the Fairy Realm, a land of living forests, singing streams, luminous creatures, ancient dragons, and a sky balanced forever between dawn and dusk. That balance is failing.
Years ago, King Obereth Dawnspear gave life to his own shadow. The creature he created, Umbral, escaped into the eastern reaches and has spent years feeding upon the darkness there. Now night is spreading beyond its proper boundaries, magical creatures are being corrupted, and Umbral intends to bind himself to Lirael so that darkness can rule the realm forever.
Because Corin is human, he stands outside the magical balance that protects Umbral. Armed with a candle lit from the Eternal Hearth, he must journey across the fading realm and carry its first light into Umbral's stronghold at Nightridge Castle.
Along the way, Corin gathers an unlikely company: a proud shapeshifter whose powers are beginning to fail, an endlessly talkative kobold scout, a princess determined not to become a weapon, and allies both strange and ancient. Together they must survive witches, goblins, illusions, shadow-twisted creatures, and a darkness that knows how to wear the faces of everything they love.
Into the Shadow of the Fairy Realm is an enchanted portal fantasy adventure about courage, friendship, attentive hearts, and the overlooked boy whose greatest weakness may be exactly what two worlds need to survive.
