Review by Kay Snell
Simon and Schuster, 2022
341 pages, Hardcover, $22.00 CAD, 9781534496873
Young Adult, Ages 14+
Fantasy, Humour, Romance, LGBTQIA+
Sighing, the wizard snapped his fingers, and the parchment and quill disappeared in a spark. He folded his hands in the wide sleeves of his robes. “There are thousands of prophecies in the world,” he said. “Not all of them are true. This one happened to be. I’m marking it down in my records.”
“Wait, what?” Matt asked again, his voice a screech. “You keep data?”
Though I echoed Matt’s outrage, I felt like he missed the bigger issue. “Do you mean to tell us there was a chance we could’ve failed?” I’d never felt more betrayed in my life. The one bedrock of this whole journey was the prophecy, and it could’ve been wrong? My entire world tilted.
Have you wondered what happens after the fairy tale? Does the hero really get to live happily ever after, or is it just after? Arek, Slayer of the Vile One, and his merry band of D&D-esque friends successfully free the realm of Chickpea from the evil overlord and are meant to usher in a 1000 years of peace. At least, in theory. Arek is a 17-year-old peasant who now has to be king. King. He’s barely literate. In this humorous medieval fantasy after-story, the undercurrent of the novel asks the ever present YA question, how do I be an adult?
But if coming-of-age is the undercurrent then romantic-comedy is the torrent, pulling the story forward. The condition of being king, which Arek has to be or he’ll die, is that he must soul-bond himself to someone before he turns 18. For Arek, he wants that someone to be his best friend, Matt, but he has a terminal case of I’m Not Going To Confess My Feelings and It’s Just Not The Right Time. Instead, he decides to bury the lede and buy shots for the whole bar instead of the one he wants, by that I mean he tries to court ALL of his friends.
This book reads like a real labour of love because the amount of tropes Lukens’ manages to cram in is unreal. Trapped in a room together, sharing a bed, truth potion, sword fighting, and romantic rescue are all methods of seduction Arek tries on his friends. Through fateful happenstance, or subtle subterfuge, Arek somehow only ever manages to succeed with Matt.
If you’re like me, fantasy novel descriptions can drag on. Luckily, that is not the case with So This is Ever After. The castle is merely a backdrop. Admittedly, because it’s set after the adventure and we never leave the castle, the world feels small like a bottle episode. There is subtle world-building here and there, prejudice against mages, the existence of fae and trolls, but if you are looking for a rich fantasy setting this reads more like a modern LARP.
Instead, Lukens keeps the focus almost entirely on the characters and their dialogue. For a medieval setting, characters talk like they live in the 21st century, minus the technology. Not to mention, it’s modern in terms of LGBT+ material with fluid sexuality abound and a few non-binary characters. However, women’s rights are still not quite equal yet, as until Arek changes the rules they cannot be knights.
Occasionally, some of the dialogue slips into what I call meta-speak, where characters are a little too aware of themselves. For instance, when Matt, a peasant boy, diagnoses the team with PTSD, you might say I was a little skeptical. But on the whole the dialogue is quick and witty, making for a fast read. Likewise, the inner narration of Arek is simple and approachable. It’s not going to blow your socks off, but it will make you laugh.
Despite the fact this is set after the end of the adventure, the tension is still high, with Arek’s life on the line. But not so high you can’t enjoy the romance along the way.
Kay Snell is a Media Studies student at UBC with a passion for creative writing, puppetry and musical theatre in a way that coincidentally overlaps at times. They’re also a sucker for a happy ending.
YOUNG ADULTING 