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Overview
For fans of Starling House and A Discovery of Witches with a Thomas Crown Affair twist: a contemporary New England coven hides the mysteries that lurk in the marshes north of Boston--and how they are connected to the largest unsolved art heist in modern history. Once, Maeve Ryan was the strongest witch of her generation. But Maeve messed up a spell to contact the Lady of the Fens, an eerie Revenant who lures the unwary to their deaths in the brackish marshlands of the North Shore. Maeve destroyed her reputation, hurt her best friend Ash, and tainted herself with unbound, wild magic that transforms witches into insane Revenants. With unbound power eating away at Maeve's mind, all she wants is to get rid of her magic. Forever. But Ash's research into how the spell went awry leads in an unexpected direction: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a link between the Lady and a decades-old art theft worth $500 million. When Ash disappears through a stolen painting's empty frame, Maeve has to follow. Inside is the Other Marsh, a haunting, deadly realm where only the Lady's rules apply. Within this half-world lie secrets about North Shore's history, Maeve's failure, and the fate of the masterpieces that disappeared over three decades ago. But as Maeve fights toward the truth, she risks her friendship, her coven, and her life against enemies hiding in plain sight.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781645662273
- ISBN-10: 1645662276
- Publisher: Erewhon Books
- Publish Date: August 2026
- Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.25 x 1.25 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.16 pounds
- Page Count: 368
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K.S. Shay’s Portrait of a Witch Undone is an unforgettable fantasy set in the marshes of the North Shore of Massachusetts, following the adventures of coven outcast Maeve Ryan. Ever since a spell went wildly wrong for Maeve and her best friend and ritual partner, Ash, their coven has been plagued by visits from the Lady of the Fens, a dangerous revenant whose appearances are usually accompanied by tragedy. The Lady’s presence on the marsh threatens already heightened tensions in the coven as the contest for the new matriarch looms. Ash and the other witches want Maeve to use her powerful magic to save the coven from the Lady, but they don’t know that the botched ritual tainted Maeve’s spellcasting abilities. It’s safer for her to avoid using magic, lest she become a revenant herself.
When Ash discovers that the famous, unsolved theft of paintings from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum might be linked to the coven’s issues with the Lady, her quest leads her to the Other Marsh, a mysterious, otherworldly dimension whose horrors might reveal very scary truths about the coven’s history. It’s up to Maeve and Gabriel, an uncovened witch she reluctantly allies with, to save Ash from the Other Marsh and its inhabitants, and maybe uncover the truth about the Lady along the way.
Shay excels at crafting magic that feels fresh: Ash can magick her broomstick into a pin that she wears on her jacket and constructs spells like math equations; Gabriel draws power from emotions and the fine arts. Maeve is an instantly likable and relatable protagonist, and her adventures are exciting with high stakes for both herself and the North Shore coven. Portrait of a Witch Undone is a deep, dark exploration of what it means to not only be linked to cruel intergenerational trauma, but have that trauma freshly unearthed. The Other Marsh contains the answers to plenty of uncomfortable questions the younger witches are starting to ask themselves, and is the home to terrifying guardians who will haunt readers long after the final page.
Maeve and Gabriel’s adventure is interspersed with images of the paintings stolen in the very real theft from the Gardner Museum in March of 1990, when the ominous number of 13 paintings were stolen and never recovered. Shay’s inventive reimagining of what that mystery would look like if a modern witch coven were involved is a delight, an energetic fantasy with a twist of mystery and a splash of art history.
K.S. Shay’s Portrait of a Witch Undone is an unforgettable fantasy set in the marshes of the North Shore of Massachusetts, following the adventures of coven outcast Maeve Ryan. Ever since a spell went wildly wrong for Maeve and her best friend and ritual partner, Ash, their coven has been plagued by visits from the Lady of the Fens, a dangerous revenant whose appearances are usually accompanied by tragedy. The Lady’s presence on the marsh threatens already heightened tensions in the coven as the contest for the new matriarch looms. Ash and the other witches want Maeve to use her powerful magic to save the coven from the Lady, but they don’t know that the botched ritual tainted Maeve’s spellcasting abilities. It’s safer for her to avoid using magic, lest she become a revenant herself.
When Ash discovers that the famous, unsolved theft of paintings from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum might be linked to the coven’s issues with the Lady, her quest leads her to the Other Marsh, a mysterious, otherworldly dimension whose horrors might reveal very scary truths about the coven’s history. It’s up to Maeve and Gabriel, an uncovened witch she reluctantly allies with, to save Ash from the Other Marsh and its inhabitants, and maybe uncover the truth about the Lady along the way.
Shay excels at crafting magic that feels fresh: Ash can magick her broomstick into a pin that she wears on her jacket and constructs spells like math equations; Gabriel draws power from emotions and the fine arts. Maeve is an instantly likable and relatable protagonist, and her adventures are exciting with high stakes for both herself and the North Shore coven. Portrait of a Witch Undone is a deep, dark exploration of what it means to not only be linked to cruel intergenerational trauma, but have that trauma freshly unearthed. The Other Marsh contains the answers to plenty of uncomfortable questions the younger witches are starting to ask themselves, and is the home to terrifying guardians who will haunt readers long after the final page.
Maeve and Gabriel’s adventure is interspersed with images of the paintings stolen in the very real theft from the Gardner Museum in March of 1990, when the ominous number of 13 paintings were stolen and never recovered. Shay’s inventive reimagining of what that mystery would look like if a modern witch coven were involved is a delight, an energetic fantasy with a twist of mystery and a splash of art history.