Where Dreams Descend
Where Dreams Descend is Janella Angeles's 2020 debut, the first in her Kingdom of Cards duology, a young-adult fantasy that draws openly on Phantom of the Opera, Moulin Rouge, and the staged magic of the late nineteenth century. Kallia is a powerful young magician who has spent her entire conscious life inside the Hellfire House, the gilded mountain establishment of her mysterious mentor Jack. When she escapes through a perilous snowbound pass to compete in the Spectaculore, a once-grand magicians' tournament being revived in the half-abandoned city of Glorian, she discovers that the assistant judge, Daron Demarco, is the most famous magician of his generation. He is also someone whose own sister disappeared years before during a similar competition. As the rounds of Spectaculore unfold across glittering, increasingly dangerous staged illusions, the magicians who came with Kallia begin to vanish one by one. Angeles uses the showmanship of stage magic as a metaphor for memory, possession, and the cost of a name.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Where Dreams Descend
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Kallia performs real magic in a secret club called Hellfire House for her patron Jack, the only one who knows her tricks are real. The night she runs to the half-ruined city of Glorian to compete in the Conquering Circus contest, women in the audience start vanishing between acts.
Yes. Janella Angeles's Kingdom of Cards duology is Where Dreams Descend and Where Shadows Meet.
No. It is YA fantasy with romantic tension at fade-to-black level.
No. It is YA fantasy with romantic tension at fade-to-black level.
Where Dreams Descend is 464 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Where Dreams Descend takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
Where Dreams Descend is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
Where Dreams Descend is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.