Colleen Mondor Reviews Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou

Threads That Bind, Kika Hatzopoulou (Razor­bill 978-0-593-52871-6, $19.99, hc, 341pp) May 2023. Cover by Corey Brickley.

Kika Hatzopoulou’s Threads That Bind is a mystery, heavily steeped in mythology, set in the marvelously complicated half-sunken city of Alante. Along with her two older sisters, teen Io Ora is a descendant of the Fates who now uses her abilities to aid her work as a private detective. Early in the novel she witnesses a bizarre murder while obtaining proof for a cli­ent of her husband’s infidelity. Strangled by a seemingly possessed woman who appears out of nowhere, the cheating husband dies, and Io is also attacked. The assassin’s identity, and why she chose to murder, becomes Io’s latest case. But she soon finds herself going far afield from a random crime, as the plot seems to be im­mersed in Alante’s recent history and forces Io to face down more than one of the ‘‘other-born,’’ the people like herself who are descendants of various gods, goddesses, or similarly powerful beings. Things get particularly sticky when her estranged sister comes home and Io learns she is knee deep in whatever is going on. Hired by a local gang boss, working with the guy she is fated to love, and struggling to understand her sister’s involvement, makes this case way more complex than anything Io has tackled before. But the more she is threatened, the more determined she is to uncover the truth, and as the bodies stack up, she finds out just how many secrets have been kept in Alante for so very long.

Threads That Bind works both as a unique fantasy with some outstanding worldbuilding (can’t say enough good things about Alante!) and as a somewhat straightforward, almost no­irish, mystery. The crime is simple: someone is killing people who all have a common link and Io (along with love interest Edei) has to uncover the source of that link. Hatzopoulou slowly reveals the many facets of other-born society and their various powers, with an obvious focus on Io’s moira-born abilities, which allow her to the ‘‘threads’’ of connection that emanate from the people around her, and to cut those threads when she wishes. (Her one sister Thais is a weaver, while the other, Ava, can lessen or intensify the power of specific threads.)

The Fates takes obvious center stage in the plot, but there are also the Nine, the somewhat creepy descendants of the Muses, and a lot of other characters, good, bad, and terrifying, who are descended from various others. Greek and Egyptian mythology are the primary focus in Threads, with the hint that other cultures will be more centrally focussed in the sequel. Poten­tial interactions with the many other-born, and their abilities, increases the tension as Io and Edei pursue clues and follow the case. There are also the various gangs operating in Alante, who have classic mafia undertones, to make things ever more complicated. On top of all that is the city itself, where the tides dominate daily life and the denizens of the Stilts, the section of the city that Io calls home, must survive with daily influxes of several feet of water. (Rather than the canal boats of Venice, Stilt residents get by with elevated walkways originally constructed to keep cats dry as they hunted the city’s rats.) (Did I mention how fascinating Alante is?!)

I am always a fan of unique worldbuildingand while Threads That Bind has a ton of that to offer, (the power politics in Alante are worthy of a review by themselves), the mystery is what makes it a true page-turner. Io originally thinks this is just the right thing to do; find out how and why an innocent woman was turned into an assassin and catch the villain who made it happen. As more murders are uncovered and she realizes her sister’s involvement, things get very, very complicated. Nothing is obvious in Threads That Bind, and the murkiness makes it a bit like a fantasy Chinatown, with Io as the world-weary investigator forced to accept that nothing is as it seems. The ending most certainly leads to what will be a supercharged sequel and Hatzopoulou offers up plenty of possibilities for the challenges Io will face in the next book. This old-school fantasy is a breath of fresh air on the current YA shelves, and with a lot of action, smart characters, and just a hint of romance, (which is remarkably realistic despite its fated nature), Threads That Bind should find a ton of fans.

This review and more like it in the August 2023 issue of Locus.

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