Maeve and the Other Marsh
by K. S. Shay
Erewhon Books is pleased to announce Maeve and the Other Marsh by K. S. Shay, a contemporary fantasy novel of witches and art heists, arriving in the fall of 2026.
Maeve is an ex-witch seeking to rid herself of magic after a terrible accident. All she wants to do is free herself from a power that may end doing worse than kill her. But when her best friend Ash investigates Maeve’s accident, both of them end up in the crosshairs of powerful and malicious witch, and must end her threat before all the covens of Boston are put at risk.
Author K. S. Shay says, “I am absolutely thrilled to get the chance to infect future readers with my current obsession—the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist. Maeve and the Other Marsh is a contemporary fantasy about the legacies we are born into and the legacies we leave, messy New England witches, being lost in your twenties, and, most of all, the friends that both save us and help us save ourselves. I feel so fortunate to be working with Erewhon—Diana Pho has such an incredible editorial voice, and has been instrumental in molding this novel into its best, most fearsome shape. I am so lucky to be working with her and her wonderful team, and to count myself among Erewhon’s authors! Come for the real life art heist, stay for the creepy puritan witches and the ickiness of the bog. Delighted to be here.
Editor Diana Pho added, "Covens? Fine art heists? All of the creepy autumn vibes? Maeve and the Other Marsh combines all of these elements with style and ease. Brimming with fun banter and cool modern-day magic, this contemporary fantasy is jam-packed full of addictive worldbuilding and buoyed by thoughtful, emotional character relationships. Maeve and Ash's "ride or die" sisterhood is #friendshipgoals! I can't wait for readers to discover these New England witches when this novel publishes in Fall 2026!"
More on Maeve and the Other Marsh below:
Maeve and the Other Marsh is a fun and twisty contemporary fantasy about a coven of witches hiding the mysteries that lurk in the marshes of the Northshore of Boston... and how it is connected to the greatest unsolved art heist in modern history.
All disgraced ex-witch Maeve wants is to stop being magical. Forever. Once a powerful future matriarch of the Northshore coven, Maeve messed up a spell that destroyed her reputation, hurt her best friend, and tainted her with Unbound, wild magic, a force that drives witches insane and causes them to rise as immortal half-monster Revenants. Unless, of course, Maeve can get rid of her magic.
Her best friend Ash is determined to find out why the spell went wrong. Her search for answers leads her to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she discovers the sigils of a missing local Revenant—the Lady of the Fens—carved on the frames of art stolen in the infamous 1990 Gardner Heist, the largest unsolved art heist in history.
When Ash steps through the empty frames and vanishes into a strange Other Marsh inside a stranger Other Gardner, Maeve has to use her own broken magic to get her friend back. But when they arrive back in Boston, everything has changed—when they escaped the Other Marsh, the Lady of the Fens started to escape, too. She’s gathering power, and she’s hungry. In order to stop her, Maeve will have to untangle the Lady’s past, the botched ritual that started it all, and her own coven’s role in the Lady’s monsterhood—that is, if the Unbound doesn’t turn her into a monster first.
K. S. SHAY is a writer and lover of all things strange, creepy, and magical. She grew up in the part of northeastern Massachusetts where half the streets are named after people who were accused of witchcraft, which is probably why she’s obsessed with the ghost stories in our backyards, how legends change over time, and how the stories we tell shape us in return. Kate studied English and Psychology at the University of Virginia. She currently works in communications and design for an energy policy nonprofit and cares deeply about the environment, even though she probably couldn’t last a day in the wilderness.
When she’s not writing, Kate can be found spending way too much money on band merch at her local concert venue, or befriending her barista in order to get all the best coffee shop gossip. She’ll know she’s made it in life when she lives somewhere with a secret room behind one of those hidden bookshelf doors.
You can find her across social media @ksshaywrites
Cover reveal and preorder links to come soon!