Announcing THE LISTENERS (my new novel!)

The short version:

I wrote another novel, I love it, you can read about it on Penguin Random House's site here (UK/ Ireland edition here). 

Pre-order personalized, signed copies from One More Page Books here. 

The longer version:

It's been a hot second since my last novel. After I finally concluded the world of the Raven Cycle, I knew I wanted to approach my next project like one might approach a bear: intentionally. With a plan. With a desire to use all the skills I've acquired over fifteen years to curate the bear's emotional experience. 

(this is how you approach bears, right?)

I wanted to write controlled, intense, strange, sensual, truthful novel set firmly in a genre I'm increasingly thinking of as Wonder (what is the opposite of Horror? or at least, what do you call it when the speculative aspects are more likely to provoke awe than terror?). I wanted it to be magical, but I wanted the story and characters so firmly stitched into the fabric of human history that it all felt truer than true. Am I describing magic? Probably not. I wanted to write myth. I wanted to write something ambitious enough to make me work harder than I ever had before. My readers have grown into curious, sophisticated folks, and I wanted my writing to grow with them. 

THE LISTENERS is that novel, my adult debut, published by Viking in the US and Headline in the UK. It's a very Stiefvater novel. There's odd prose, slippery magic, class conflict, an ensemble cast, about four different kinds of love, and the mountains in whose shadow I was born.

It's the most authentic thing I've ever written. I did my best. I adore it. I hope you guys will, too. 

The Listeners:

As the U.S. joins World War II, the manager of an uncanny luxury hotel set in the remote West Virginia mountains finds herself charged with the care of detained Nazi diplomats—and the FBI agent looking for a spy among them, by the #1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater.
JANUARY 1942. THE AVALLON HOTEL AND SPA offers elegance and sophistication in an increasingly ugly world. Run with precision by June Hudson, the hotel’s West Virginia born-and-bred general manager, the Avallon is where high society goes to see and be seen, and where the mountain sweetwater in the fountains and spas can wash away all your troubles.

June was trained by the Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, and she has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. Now, though, the Gilfoyle family heir has made a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats. June must convince her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the frontlines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

She also must reckon with Tucker Minnick, the FBI agent whose coal tattoo hints at their shared past in the mountains, and whose search for the diplomats’ secrets disrupts the peace June is fighting so hard to maintain. Hers is a balancing act with dangerous consequences; the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal, and only June can manage the springs. As dark alliances and unexpected attractions crack the polished veneer of the Avallon, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

THE LISTENERS is a mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.

Final 2024 Appearances

September 21: Back to Back Books by the Warren County Public Library (Bowling Green, KY). 3:00 pm. Registration is free; the festival is giving away 200 books by each presenting author (first come, first served). I will have a scheduled signing.

September 29: The International Literary Festival in Utrecht (Utrecht, the Netherlands). 1-6 pm, further details to be posted on their site. ILFU is a ticketed event (€25 ticket). I will have a scheduled signing.

Pre-order links

Bookshop.org
Amazon
One More Page (signed copies)
Books-A-Million
Hudson Books
UK/Ireland links

An aside: this year, my Twitter/X account got hacked, and Twitter/X told me I had to just start a new one. I did not bother. My old one's selling laptops or something; if you followed it, know that it's dead as a doornail.

You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Substack, and Threads.