Over the past several years, Kelly Link has slowly (and maybe not so slowly) become one of the best short story writers alive. For the record, I didn’t say best fantasy/new weird/horror/slipstream/impossible-to-categorize (the sandbox Link plays in) writers alive. She’s one of the best, period. Her collections—Get In Trouble, Magic for Beginners, Stranger Things Happen, White Cat, Black Dog—are downright magical and hard to describe, and believe me, I’ve tried, because I tend to babble on to anyone who will listen about books I love. It’s a little bit like if Ellison, Lafferty, Borges, Barker, and the Brothers Grimm spent a drunken night together and through some infernal alchemy created Link, but that barely scratches the surface. She’s utterly original.

So, when I heard that Link had written her first novel, I was excited, but also a little worried. Not every brilliant short story writer is equally brilliant as a novelist.

I shouldn’t have worried.

If I tell you that The Book of Love concerns a group of young adults whose lives get turned upside down by two powerful magicians and an actual goddess, what do you picture? Castles, dark forests, dualing wizards in long cloaks? This is not that kind of book.

The Book of Love is set in the present, in Lovesend, a small New England town. At the beginning of the novel, three of the four main characters find themselves once again alive, after having been dead for nearly a year. Except, their families don’t seem to remember them being dead, and they have only dim memories of what happened themselves.

What follows is a novel drenched in magic, filled with wonders, written in a kinetic, high-flying style that had me smiling as I read, even rereading paragraphs for the pure enjoyment. At the end of the first chapter (and each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character, alternating the MCs with others) I found myself wondering if Link could possibly keep it up for an entire novel. My friends, she so does, through all 640 pages.

All of Link’s trademarks—beautifully realized characters, laugh-out-loud humor, mysteries piled on mysteries, breathtaking moments of magic realism, and scenes of indescribable wonder that Link somehow manages to describe—are well-represented here. The plot is a thing of beauty, meandering, not afraid to pause and reflect, yet always moving with assurance toward the perfect conclusion.

The Book of Love is aptly named, as Link is concerned with love in all its many permutations, from romantic to familial to friendship, and she nails every aspect. Another thing. The young adult characters here—gay, straight, bi—often do what young adults do. This is a joyfully, playfully, and sometimes cathartically horny book.

Special shoutout to one of my favorite characters in the novel, a young girl named Carousel. You’re my hero.

The Book of Love will be released on February 13, 2024, and is available for pre-sale now. Don’t miss this one. In a year filled with great books, this just might be my favorite.