This story begins strangely.  It begins with a little backstory: a mysterious book was written in 1970 and when Nancy Reagan got a copy in 1983 she gave it to her husband to read.  Ronald Reagan, who had never been an environmental proponent, suddenly gave it his all.  He created huge tracts of land to be fenced off from any human incursion whatsoever; calling them Harbours.  Any dissent or complaint from people who were uprooted, businesses that were closed, and unhappiness with the National Parks being subsumed were quieted once those complainers spent a little time with Reagan and the book. The book was passed around to other world leaders and before long every country had fenced off half of their land to create Harbours. On the Autumn equinox of 1987, Reagan formally closed the fences and the Harbours were now off-limits to all humans.  That same day, everything changed for everyone everywhere.

And every Autumn equinox, the same thing happened: every person anywhere who died on that day became something else. These creatures that they turned into were named Fae, or Wretched (by those who had reason to know), or Blessed by the fools that turned it into a religion.  The creatures were inexorably drawn to the nearest Harbour where they would disappear into a large tree which was named the Threshold Tree.  Every Harbour had one.  The problem was that from the moment the dead person turned into Fae they became murderous; and sometimes they died some distance from the nearest Harbour meaning they had quite a bit of time to wreak havoc before they were caught by the Harbour’s draw.  To combat this, the government imposed certain restrictions: everyone everywhere had to be inside with no lights or noise and only first responders allowed on the streets.  At the same time the Fae began appearing, humanity was gifted with special people to also combat the terror.  These people awakened one day to find strange tattoos of prime numbers on their bodies.  The lower the number, the stronger their ‘superpower’.  As each equinox neared, their superpower would surge stronger and stronger and then wane once the equinox passed; they were named Fencers.  The government scooped up all these new heroes and trained them to patrol towns and cities near a Harbour.  Our story follows a family: Evangeline (one of the most powerful Fencers), her husband Cal (also a Fencer) and their daughter Winnie.

As I mentioned earlier, a new religion sprang up to name the Fae Blessed and worship the Faery Queen who apparently lived in another realm beyond this world, accessed through the Threshold Tree.  These Sylvans believed those who died on the equinox were reborn and this was a very desirable state.  This belief was considered insanity on the part of the Fencers who dealt with the murderous creatures that could not, in their considered opinion, ever be considered human.  These two groups were at odds.

The government believed they should have access to this magical realm, probably to weaponize it.  So they had sent an extremely powerful Fencer through the Tree and he never returned as a human.  No one wanted to try a second time. But they didn’t stop trying.  Evangeline had been opportuned several times as she was currently the most powerful Fencer they had.

Some of these ideas were quite entrancing, at first. The book took three-quarters of the pages to set up the story before something happened.  This is spoiler territory but I have to tell it to make my final point about this story.  Winnie was deliberately murdered on the equinox in order to force Evangeline into the Harbour and through the Tree.  It was, of course, a government plot. 

This book created more questions than resolutions.  Why did each Harbour have to be so enormous when the only thing in it of note was the Tree which was only about twelve miles beyond the fence? Was the Faery realm real and what was the role of the Queen?  Did she cause the book to be written to increase her population?  Nowhere in the book was it explained how the country patrolled every small village or town which should have required thousands of Fencers. There was no particular point to the Sylvan religion other than to create personal conflict within Evangeline’s and Cal’s team.  The government was completely faceless; no conflict there, just a heavy hand pulling strings.

I cannot recommend this book.  First of all, the lack of a cohesive backstory to explain the mysterious book (although it was hinted at near the very end); nor was there any explanation of how and why Fencers existed – was it just a way of balancing good and evil?  Secondly, there was no point to the story; no adversary or conflict to overcome.  The Faery Queen was a McGuffin, nothing more.  She had no story or role to play until the very end.  There was a ritual sacrifice so an innocent could live; nevermind how many had to die to get there.  And the climax (such as it was) lent nothing to the overall story or provided any explanation how or why anything had happened since it all began in 1987.

I will own that I mostly enjoyed the build-up as there were plenty of mysteries to puzzle over.  Our main protagonists were enjoyable and relatable characters; although not with any real depth.  I was really looking forward to a resolution that answered all or, at least, some of those mysteries.  I got excited when Winnie was murdered, knowing that was the catalyst to propel the story beyond the fence around the Harbour.  If the payoff had been better, I’d be happy with the story.  But it wasn’t.  Overall, this was probably the most pointless plot I’ve ever read.   ~~  Catherine Book