Kiersten White’s Latest

It is quite extraordinary how many LDS authors can claim the credit of having written a New York Times bestseller. One of the most successful of them is Kiersten White, who lives in San Diego with her family and, according to her bio, her deeply ambivalent tortoise. The final title in her Arthurian legend trilogy, which is aimed at young adult readers, comes out in paperback in mid-December. White, probably not related to T. H. White, whose The Once and Future King (1958) launched an industry of narrative knight tales, delves in original mythology of Guinevere in The Excalibur Curse (Delacort Press). It is an adventure story that tests the queen’s sense of self and her relationships with friends and enemies alike. Kirkus Reviews wrote of this book, which gives backstory to the legendary character, “Readers will be ensorcelled by the redemptions, revelations, and reconciliations.” 

To say that White is a prolific author is leaving too much to the imagination. Her 2018 novel, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (Random House/Ember 2018) was an NPR Best Book of the Year, and her books commonly appear on bestseller lists. Check this out: White’s books that appeared in 2022 are the following: Hide (Del Rey, May 2022), Wretched Waterpark (Delacorte Press, June 2022), Padawan (Disney Lucasfilm Press, July 2022), Vampiric Vacation (Delacorte Press, September 2022), and The Excalibur Curse (published in hardcover last year and now in softcover). By any measure, an extraordinary year! It looks like she’s taking a breather, unless she has some unannounced titles ready to appear; her next book is Mister Magic, a novel about former child stars who reunite years after a tragic accident ended their children’s TV program (Del Ray, August 2023). – Glen Nelson (books available nationwide)