The Nightjar

Alice Wyndham has lived her whole life with unexplained visions of birds, visions that the mysterious Crowley reveals are actually sightings of nightjars, the magical soul-birds that accompany every living person. When Alice's best friend is struck by a car and her nightjar is in danger, Alice must enter the Rookery, a hidden magical version of London, to save her. Deborah Hewitt's debut fantasy won the BookNest Award for best debut novel and introduces a protagonist whose gifts arrive with costs she doesn't yet understand.

Tamaryn Payne narrates with an energy that suits the novel's brisk pacing and the freshness of a world being revealed for the first time, giving Alice's combination of curiosity and fear a natural credibility. The alternate London setting, layered over the familiar city, comes through clearly in Payne's delivery, making the geography both legible and wondrous. At under fourteen hours, the audiobook is a propulsive introduction to a promising new series.