Not So Well Read | Where the Dark Stands Still

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Where the Dark Stands Still

A. B. Poranek

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A New York Times bestseller

A girl with dangerous magic makes a risky bargain with a demon to be free of her monstrous power in this young adult fantasy perfect for fans of An Enchantment of Ravens and House of Salt and Sorrows.

Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers.

Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than death: one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.

Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished.

If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.

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Posts about this title from Not So Well Read

Not So Well Read\ \ Courtney\ \ • Mar 8 2025

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I could make 10000 versions of this video–for real, my first stack of books was 20 books tall–but I decided these are the ones that still hurt the most. Not all of these were tragedies, just moments between characters that dug their claws into my soul.

Also, yes, I’m now obsessed with this trend.

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Not So Well Read\ \ Courtney\ \ • Mar 24 2024

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This book betrayed me in ways completely unimaginable and I would still gladly take it to the ends of the earth. Dark Polish Fairytale meets coming-of-age story meets immeasurable heartbreak.

#darkfairytale #booksbooksbooks #whatshouldireadnext #bookrecommendations #yafantasybooks

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Posts about this book from across Bindery

Cozy Quill\ \ Meg\ \ • Jun 2

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This one is your reminder to slow down...📚

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Skies Press\ \ Emma\ \ • Nov 25 2025

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Guess what I've got for you today...\ \ ...\ \ ...\ \ I think that's enough to keep it out of the image preview, so....\ \ \ \ Ta-daaaaa! Subscribers actually got this a couple weeks ago so shout out to you guys for keeping it a secret in the discord.\ \ For those of you who don't know the lore here, let me give you a little background. Yes, you are reading that correct, that says this is announcing the 2024 Best of Books winners. In November. of 2025.\ \ I wish I had a reasonable excuse for this, I really do...but I don't. I genuinely can't even tell you why I didn't release this in January like I was supposed to or why I haven't released it in the many months that these images have been sitting in my Canva projects, but from the bottom of my heart I have no idea. Anyway, it has now been almost a full year since we first started the process of nominating books for our Best of Books 2024 and for the love of god I need this to not be hanging over my head anymore. I say that as though there was literally anything or anyone but my own damn self keeping me from getting this out, BUT THERE WASN'T.\ \ You ever get a text or an email from someone that you don't reply to right away and then you kind of forget about it until it's a few days later and you go "oh my god I need to reply to that" but you've remembered at 1am and that's not a reasonable hour to text someone so you'll do it in the morning, and then you wake up in the morning and for many more mornings until the next time you remember it's suddenly been weeks and now it's awkward but you really should reply to it but you put it off because now you're embarrassed and then the longer you wait the worse it gets so you just never reply and suddenly you've ignored someone you really meant to get back to?\ \ That's normal...right? Anyway that's basically what has happened here and I refuse to have this sitting on my dusty, unseen to-do list any longer so HERE are the winners of our 2024 Best of Books:\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ And there we have it! I AM FREE. Free to get started all over again on our 2025 nominations...

A SURPRISE ALMOST A YEAR IN THE MAKING (or, ya know, a year late...if you want to be technically correct about it I guess)

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Cozy Quill\ \ Meg\ \ • Nov 14 2025

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Skies Press\ \ Emma\ \ • Nov 12 2025

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Guess what I've got for you today...\ \ ...\ \ ...\ \ I think that's enough to keep it out of the image preview, so....\ \ \ \ Okay, so if you don't know the lore here, let me give you a little background. Yes, you are reading that correct, that says this is announcing the 2024 Best of Books winners. In November. of 2025.\ \ I wish I had a reasonable excuse for this, I really do...but I don't. I genuinely can't even tell you why I didn't release this in January like I was supposed to or why I haven't released it in the many months that these images have been sitting in my Canva projects, but from the bottom of my heart I have no idea. Anyway, it has now been almost a full year since we first started the process of nominating books for our Best of Books 2024 and for the love of god I need this to not be hanging over my head anymore. I say that as though there was literally anything or anyone but my own damn self keeping me from getting this out, BUT THERE WASN'T. \ \ You ever get a text or an email from someone that you don't reply to right away and then you kind of forget about it until it's a few days later and you go "oh my god I need to reply to that" but you've remembered at 1am and that's not a reasonable hour to text someone so you'll do it in the morning, and then you wake up in the morning and for many more mornings until the next time you remember it's suddenly been weeks and now it's awkward but you really should reply to it but you put it off because now you're embarrassed and then the longer you wait the worse it gets so you just never reply and suddenly you've ignored someone you really meant to get back to?\ \ That's normal...right? Anyway that's basically what has happened here and I refuse to have this sitting on my dusty, unseen to-do list any longer so HERE:\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ I AM FREE. Free to get started all over again on our 2025 nominations...\ \ Upgrade for $12 or login

Hey, uh...surpriiiiiise!

you'll never guess what's in here

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The Biblio(files)\ \ Brooke \ \ • Aug 29 2025

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Cozy Quill\ \ Meg\ \ • Mar 27 2025

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🌿 Cottage Core Book Recs 🌱

Cottage core book recs for your today, my friend! 🌱 Books listed: 🌙 Bring Me Your Midnight 📖 Lore of the Wilds 🌿 Where the Dark Stands Still 🪄 The Spellshop 🌳 Daughter of the Forest 🦊 Call Forth a Fox 💐 The Grace of Wild Things 🧹 Witch of Wild Things 🥀 Story of a Hundred Promises 💞 A Witch’s Guide to Love & Poison Have you read any of these cozy stories? #cottagecore #cottagecorebooks #cozybooktok #booktok #tbr #fyp

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Arcane Nights Press\ \ Cassidy\ \ • Dec 30 2024

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I read 76 books in 2024 and only 7 of them were five star reads! I usually have pretty high standards when it comes to giving out 5 stars. The book has to not only be exceptional in story, characters, and writing, but it also has to make me feel a certain way. And these 7 books did just that!

YA: Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek

Romance: Grimstone by Sophie Lark

Dark Fantasy & Romantasy: The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig (pub May 2025) Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley

Epic Fantasy: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne

Let me know your five star reads!

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Cozy Quill\ \ Meg\ \ • Oct 22 2024

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Not So Well Read\ \ Courtney\ \ • Sep 12 2024

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Arcane Nights Press\ \ Cassidy\ \ • Aug 26 2024

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My friend Rachel came to visit me and we went on a mini bookstore crawl. You wanna see what we got?!

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Me? Late for brunch again??? Who would've guessed!

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All Shades\ \ Sera\ \ • Jun 2 2024

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Welcome to the first All Shades Sunday Brunch! A weekly debrief of my week, what I've been reading, what I plan on reading next.

Elsewhen\ \ Emma Gardner\ \ • May 28 2024

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Lots of great books this week, and also some meh ones. Thank you to Simon Teen for providing review copies of Finally Fitz and Where the Dark Stands Still.

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Skies Press\ \ Emma\ \ • May 20 2024

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Mythology/Folklore inspired books

What are some of your favorite mythology/folklore inspired books? I’m a sucker for these kinds of stories, especially when they’re inspired by myths and legends I didn’t grow up with myself.

I have a bunch of these on my shelf but I limited myself to 6 for this stack 😅

• The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid - Hungarian and Jewish folklore (4⭐️)

• The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter - Xhosa mythology (TBR)

• Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel - Indian Mythology (TBR)

• Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek - Polish folklore (4.25⭐️)

• Circe by Madeline Miller - Greek Mythology (4.5⭐️)

• Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan - Chinese Mythology (5⭐️)

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Ezeekat Press\ \ Jaysen\ \ • May 1 2024

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Thanks so much for hanging out with me and talking about books!! How was your Reading in April? Any Highlights?

Discord: https://discord.gg/5QqNANjdc7 Ezeekat Press Subscriber Community: https://ezeekat.binderybooks.com/ Fable Book Club: https://fable.co/club/ezeekats-book-club-with-ezeekat-332055432165 Fable Anime Club: https://fable.co/club/ezeekats-anime-club-with-ezeekat-513994156898

Books Featured in this Video:

Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek The Guardian Test (Legends of Lotus Island) by Christina Soontornvat Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House by R.L. Stine This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab Bestiary by K-Ming Chang Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim The Dragon’s Promise by Elizabeth Lim An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

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Written Reveries\ \ Krystal\ \ • Apr 25 2024

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This is a continuation of my video on TikTok.

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Cozy Quill\ \ Meg\ \ • Apr 14 2024

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