sinandquill 's review for:

A Ballad of Phantoms and Hope by K.M. Moronova

4.5

dark slow-paced

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A Ballad of Phantoms & Hope by K.M. Moronova was everything I hoped for and so much more. I’m writing this with tears streaming down my face and a shirt still damp from the ugly sobs it wrung out of me. This story finally gives our beloved Lanston from The Fabric of Our Souls his moment—a chance to find a love that transcends even the veil between life and death.

We’re taken deeper into Lanston’s past, seeing the shadows of his childhood and the pain that shaped his thoughts of death and self-destruction. Alongside him, we meet the luminous Ophelia, a woman who, much like Lanston, grew up in a toxic environment and was scarred by the cruel words of those who should have nurtured her. Their shared wounds draw them together, and in each other they discover something neither thought they’d find again: hope, love, and peace.

This book is melancholic yet achingly beautiful. There’s something about the sadness—paired with Moronova’s poetic, delicate prose—that felt strangely healing. It resonated with me in ways that are too personal to fully share, but I have to give the highest praise to Moronova for tackling such a heavy, often unspoken topic with such grace, empathy, and raw beauty.