Kate Hazel Hall has published short stories and creative non-fiction for adults, but YA fiction is where her heart is--especially fantasy, magical realism, and speculative YA with a healthy amount of Sapphic romance built in. When she isn't writing, Kate often sneaks off to the forest or the beach with a sketchbook and a surfboard. Despite wearing out several wetsuits, Kate is yet to gain her advanced surfer qualifications, but she does have a PhD in Literary Studies from Deakin University, where she teaches graduate research skills, genre studies and ecological fiction. Kate lives with her daughters and the world's naughtiest rescue cat in a small Australian coastal town, just across the Southern Ocean from Antarctica. From Darkness (Duet Books, November 2020) is her first novel.
This delicate story combines suspenseful twists with emboldening love, threading miracles out of the bleakest moments. Gentle, cloistered scenes in which Ari tries to hide Alex's return contrast with searches in a forest that's pocked with treacherous sinkholes. The novel navigates these shifting environments with ease. --Karen Rigby, Foreword Reviews Set in two richly imagined, juxtaposed worlds and cleverly infused with Greek mythology, From Darkness is an atmospheric tale of grief, courage and first love. --Julia Ember, author of The Seafarer's Kiss and Ruinsong