Leigh is one of a handful of authors in my personal library that I could identify by her writing voice alone. She could write for any age group, in any genre, and I could tell you, “This is a Leigh Bardugo book.”

The Familiar was no different. It was a very different kind of story from Leigh, with…ahem…familiar…elements that put it solidly in her magical repertoire.

The way Leigh spins a story never ceases to captivate me. Her tales always center heavily on the internal drive of a protagonist, as good stories should, but Leigh also has this captivating way of weaving the functionality and beauty of a setting into that drive, which results in a beautiful tapestry of a story that entices all the senses while also satisfying our biological imperatives for storytelling.

One thing I really loved a lot about the end of this book—which I will describe without spoiling any of the events that take place—is actually a callback to a strategy Leigh employs in the Shadow and Bone trilogy, where she pulls away from the inner narrative in the final pages, zooming out to a bird’s eye view of what’s going on.

And in this case, we get a satisfying glance at a conclusion that feels earned and, dare I say, breathtakingly beautiful. Whether or not it’s the ending you want, it’s hard to deny that it’s the ending that feels right, in my opinion.