There’s a girl behind locked doors with charcoal under her fingernails, and every time she draws, a prince somewhere else bleeds. The Netherworld Witch by Lisa Acerbo opens with this hook. Mina Rubenstein is a Jewish girl studying in her junior year at a Connecticut Catholic School where her last name alone makes her a target for bullying. Her sketchbook is her escape when dodging her classmate’s cruelty. Her drawings call up Auralon, a snowbound elven kingdom whose king has vanished, his warrior daughter Elarona, and the scholarly Prince Callon who would rather study old laws than fight a war or accept an arranged marriage. Mina’s parents worry, her therapist pushes her to trade drawing for journaling, but Mina must decide how much of Auralon she is willing to let go, and by the end of the book it will leave you questioning which world is the one worth caring about.

I went into The Netherworld Witch expecting a straightforward YA fantasy; instead I got something strange and honest. Lisa Acerbo describes Connecticut with a sharp, weary eye. The potholes, the plaid skirts, the casual cruelty of teenagers who’ve decided someone is easy prey. From there, when the pace shifts to the brutal action sequences in Auralon, the whiplash is intentional. The story has bullying, self-harm, and assault. Mina’s voice is funny even when she’s in pain. She is sarcastic, and you can feel that she is using humor as armor in the way teenagers often do. Callon carries his own quiet ache; however, he also gives the book its other pulse, all sword work and sibling rivalry with his sister. What I loved most was how Acerbo refuses to let either world be purely good or purely bad. Auralon costs Mina something. Reality does too. That was the thought that kept circling when I finished reading: that the stories we build to survive can also be the ones that nearly bury us.

Mina Rubenstein is a top student at a renowned college preparatory school. She’s also an outsider among wealthy kids from traditional families and faces constant bullying. Mina thankfully finds comfort in her best friend and fellow bullied girl, Ayden, for whom she’s starting to develop feelings, and in her drawings. Her depictions of the fantastical kingdom of Auralon feel especially vivid as she imagines the lives of its inhabitants. But when Mina finds herself in Auralon, tasked with saving the realm as the prophesied Netherworld Witch, she wonders what is imagined and what is real. Lisa Acerbo’s The Netherworld Witch follows Mina as she hops between Earth and Auralon, dealing with increasingly tough challenges in both worlds.

This is a solid coming-of-age story with a relatable protagonist, but it’s definitely on the more mature side. Topics like sexual assault, school violence, and domestic violence make this darker than your average young adult novel, so reader discretion is advised. Lisa Acerbo does a great job of contrasting this darkness with the more straightforward adventures in Auralon, where good and evil are clearly defined, and Mina has the power to strike back. No matter how complicated and dangerous things get, we always get the sense that good will prevail. This is comforting but problematic, as it creates a chasm between Mina’s two lives. After all, there’s no magic on Earth. In fact, Mina can’t even be sure this isn’t all in her head. The dilemmas caused by living in two worlds, the psychological exploration, and the darker, more mature tone set The Netherworld Witch apart from other YA stories.