Rapunzel Meets Six Of Crows In New Dark Fantasy

At the center is Netta, a young woman who has spent her entire life almost completely separated from society. When an attack destroys the little world she understands and leaves her mother missing, Netta is forced into an unfamiliar kingdom filled with people who seem to know far more about her than she does. The result is a fairy tale with the intrigue of Six of Crows and considerably more bite than a traditional princess adventure.

A Darker Take On Rapunzel

Netta makes a stunning Rapunzel stand-in, but Eames gives her a much stranger starting point. She has lived in a tower for roughly two decades, surrounded by books, scrolls, embroidery supplies, and her mother's research. Her closest companions are her sentient red Hair and Baldbeak, a telepathic raven whose presence provides some welcome humor.

That isolation is important to understanding Netta. Although she is twenty years old, her sheltered upbringing has left her with little understanding of ordinary relationships or the wider world. She can be stubborn, trusting, impulsive, and occasionally frustrating, but those qualities make sense for someone experiencing society for the first time.

When the tower comes under attack, Netta's sheltered existence ends almost instantly. Her mother disappears, along with an extraordinarily powerful spellbook, while Netta is left trying to understand what happened. With few answers available, she leaves home for the first time and begins a dangerous search that gradually reveals how little she knew about her own life.

Magic With A Grisly Price

The unique magic system in the book gives A Tangled Magic an especially macabre tone. Spellcasting is connected to sacrifice, with practitioners traditionally giving up things such as hair, nails, or teeth to fuel their abilities. That concept makes magic feel physical rather than abstract, while also tying directly into Netta's unusual relationship with her own enchanted Hair.

Even more disturbing is the forbidden form of magic associated with sacrificing bones. The practice is connected to an ancient catastrophe that left the world scarred by a plague and an army of the dead. Bone magic consequently carries enormous historical and political weight, particularly because the powerful Temple attempts to control how magic is practiced and understood.

Netta's Hair is more than just a clever reference to Rapunzel. It becomes one of the story's most intriguing mysteries. Her Hair moves independently and possesses abilities Netta does not fully understand, making it both a companion and a potential threat. As she learns more about magic, she also begins questioning what her mother may have deliberately kept from her.

A Kingdom Full Of Secrets

The novel expands well beyond the tower once Netta begins her journey. The kingdom is caught in a dangerous political crisis, with its monarch dying and competing factions positioning themselves for power. The Temple, aristocratic families, magicians, and other groups each have their own interests, creating a fantasy landscape where almost everyone appears to be hiding something.

That atmosphere gives the story some of the qualities readers might associate with Six of Crows. Netta encounters an assortment of unusual figures, including a revolutionary-minded thief, a mysterious black-market bookseller, and a magician capable of moving between shadows and light. Their motivations are not always obvious, and alliances constantly seem vulnerable to betrayal.

The adventure also moves through wildly different settings, from lavish social gatherings and masked celebrations to secret religious institutions and underground catacombs. Hidden libraries and prophetic dreams add another layer of mystery, while the story's emphasis on books and bookbinding gives the world a tactile quality that distinguishes it from a standard fantasy kingdom.

The political material also reinforces one of the novel's larger ideas about how power is rarely as simple as good versus evil. Different groups believe they have legitimate reasons for controlling magic, protecting society, or pursuing Netta. As she learns more about her mother's work, Netta must decide whether the people offering answers actually deserve her trust.

Netta's Journey Is About More Than Magic

One of the strongest aspects of A Tangled Magic is that Netta's main quest is ultimately tied to discovering herself. Finding her missing mother provides the immediate reason for leaving the tower, but the journey forces Netta to reconsider everything she thought she knew. Her understanding of family, friendship, independence, and power changes as she encounters the outside world.

That development is not always comfortable. Netta's sheltered upbringing affects the way she forms relationships, sometimes causing her to trust people too quickly before swinging in the opposite direction when she feels betrayed. Those inconsistencies can make her difficult to understand at times, but they also show how inexperienced she really is, and that was very interesting to read about.

The romantic storyline is secondary to Netta's personal journey, which helps the book stand apart from fantasy romances where the relationship becomes the primary objective, more commonly known as romantasy. There is a charming and imperfect love interest in Patrick, but Netta's search for her mother and the truth about herself are more important than finding a partner throughout the novel.

Eames also balances the darker material with moments of humor and warmth. Baldbeak is an especially memorable presence, bringing an amusing personality to a story filled with conspiracies, corpses, and dangerous magic. That contrast helps A Tangled Magic maintain its fairy-tale charm even when the story ventures into genuinely unsettling territory.

A Fairy Tale For Dark Fantasy Fans

A Tangled Magic is the perfect TBR addition for readers who enjoy fairy tales that refuse to remain pretty. Its Rapunzel foundations are recognizable, but the story uses them as a launching point rather than simply retelling the original tale. Bone magic, religious conflict, royal intrigue, and an undead threat give the familiar premise a much broader scope.

The book's tone also has an interesting middle ground. Netta's perspective and sheltered personality sometimes give the story a youthful quality, even though she is an adult protagonist. That works as part of the premise because her emotional and social development have been deliberately stunted by her unusual upbringing.

Readers looking for a straightforward romantasy will find something different and darker here. The romance exists, but it does not take up more space than the larger adventure. Instead, A Tangled Magic places its focus on mystery, friendship, magic, political maneuvering, and a heroine gradually learning how to make decisions without the mother who controlled nearly every aspect of her life.

Eames' 464-page fantasy is available from Kensington's Erewhon Books as of July 28, 2026, in both hardcover and a deluxe limited-edition trade paperback featuring stenciled edges. With its combination of Tangled-style fairy-tale imagery, Six of Crows-inspired intrigue, and grisly magical ideas, A Tangled Magic offers a decidedly darker way to revisit one of fiction's most recognizable stories.