The Killing Spell

by Shay Kauwe

In this spellbinding fantasy debut set in a future where language magic reigns, a young Hawaiian woman must solve a murder to clear her name.

Kea Petrova is dealing with more than her fair share of trouble.

At just twenty-five years old, she’s the youngest of five Hawaiian clan leaders living on the Homestead in outer Los Angeles. Nearly 200 years ago, when a catastrophic flood submerged the Hawaiian islands and unleashed magic into the world, these clans forged a treaty with the city, establishing a new Hawaiian homeland. But that treaty is about to expire.

Kea struggles to keep her small clan afloat, scraping together rent each month through odd jobs and selling her own crafted Hawaiian language spells. While her talent for language magic is her saving grace, she feels like a shadow of those who came before her. Just when she thinks things can’t get any more complicated, the murder of Angelo Reyes—LA’s most prominent Filipino activist—turns her world upside-down.

Angelo was killed by a death spell—something that, due to the properties of each school of language magic, can only exist in Hawaiian. With independent spellsmithing being technically illegal, Kea quickly becomes the prime suspect, known for her spellwork on the Homestead. To clear her name, she must unravel the mystery behind Angelo’s murder and confront LA’s most powerful (and dangerous) players, each wielding their own type of magic. The clock is ticking—can Kea save herself, her clan, and the Homestead before it’s too late?

Genres: Fantasy, Indigenous, Mystery, Adult, Paranormal, Dystopia, Mystery Thriller

304 pages, Paperback

Expected publication April 14, 2026

About the author

Shay Kaleoʻoluhoʻiloliokawaipāhe Kauwe is a kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) author from the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi. She grew up on the Homestead in Waimānalo but moved to Russia because she fell in love with a boy. Her and the boy now live in Honolulu with their poi dog, Iris.

Shay holds an M.Ed in Education and taught English, ESL, and Literacy for nearly a decade.

Reviews

[Rebecca Roanhorse]

An absolutely fantastic debut. The Killing Spell is an urban fantasy set in a near-futures Los Angeles that manages to balance humor, romance, and adventure with a murder mystery, all driven by language magic. It also manages to be a thoughtful exploration of the consequences of colonization and the choices the colonized are forced to make in order to survive. I tore through it in two days and loved every second.

[Lori]

Native Hawaiian/Pacific adult fantasy book. Sign me up! I'm so excited for this

[Sara.]

you had me at language magic

[Emme · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book absolutely lives up to the incredible premise. I read the blurb on NetGalley and immediately requested it because of the language based magic system. That part was every bit as cool as I thought it would be, but it was just one piece of this book that I absolutely loved.

The worldbuilding beyond the magic system is really interesting - LA is ruled by a Board with members from clans that specialize in specific languages. Kea, the main character, lives outside LA on the Homestead, a diasporic Hawaiian community after a flood swallowed the islands. There are politics in the Homestead and in LA, and the power games in both were super interesting.

Kea was a great main character and her relationships all felt fleshed out and real. Her family was hilarious, and the other side characters were each interesting in their own way even if it was a love-to-hate-them kind of thing (ahem, Charles).

I can’t wait to read this book in print!

[Siavahda · Rating 3 out of 5]

*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*

27% in, and I’m out. I spent a week feeling guilty for not enjoying it, made myself read another chapter, and am convinced that I just don’t care where this is going. Absolutely no part of this is interesting or fun for me.

It’s not objectively bad! But the language magic doesn’t make this feel any different from your typical urban fantasy. The prose and vibe/feel of it all is very generic; the first-person narration isn’t very descriptive or beautiful, it’s plain and blunt and weighted heavily towards telling-not-showing; the worldbuilding is very minimal and simple (there is no obvious connection between each language and the kind of magic it’s best suited to, for example, and no attempt at explaining the connection); Kea is the kind of heroine we’ve seen a thousand times before, with nothing about her personality or interests standing out in any way. The only unique thing is the magic, and in practice it might as well be any magic-words magic system. (I think some of this is my own unfamiliarity with Hawaiian, and the author’s inability to really make me comprehend how the language works and what it feels like? Because in terms of reading experience, the book is basically just telling me spells as they come up, there’s nothing for me to feel or appreciate or put together on my own. The only comparison I can think of is something like Suzette Haden Elgin’s Native Tongue trilogy, which did a much better job at making me understand, at least emotionally, a language I don’t speak.)

Kea is inexplicably responsible for her entire clan despite there being older family members available. I hate this trope/setup and am extremely tired of it. Her family is very poor, and she is the sole breadwinner, which is portrayed as believably stressful and awful. What confuses me is that the kids in the house seem unaware of the family’s situation? The book opens with one child getting all the family chickens killed by breaking the ward that protects them – for the dozenth time, after many previous warnings. The kid is unrepentant, and when Kea yells at him, Kea is the one her grandmother says has to apologise. Even though the kid is objectively in the wrong, said horrible things to Kea, and has gotten the family’s protein source killed. What even. I hated that scene so much!

(They never make the kid apologise, even. WHAT.)(He sort of apologises for saying he wanted Kea to be the one who died, but he doesn’t apologise for, you know, getting the chickens killed. Despite knowing full well he wasn’t allowed to break the ward he did.)

Casual worldbuilding details make no sense – at one point we learn that wards only work if the people within the wards want everyone inside to be safe. The whole of LA is warded, and a whole lot of the plot revolves around this. But if the ward needs the people inside it to be unified, why on earth does the Board and the rest of the city government not work so much harder at preventing…I can’t think of the word, dis-unity? There all these factions, all these political feuds, clans who hate each other, voting blocs; shouldn’t it all be weakening the ward? Is it possible to have something as big as a city be the kind of unified the ward requires? One way or another, this doesn’t work.

I was hoping for something that stood out, that was different and unique and beautiful. This doesn’t seem to be that. It’s your typical urban fantasy with a scrappy underdog forced to investigate things. The language magic is really unclear to me, and there’s no sense of wonder. There’s potential for the way magic is tied to culture and heritage in this setting to be something really powerful and meaningful, but for me it was falling flat. It’s perfectly fine, but it’s not what I was here for.

[Mystie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whenever someone describes their book as similar to Ilona Andrews’ Urban Fantasy stories, I get skeptical.

The Killing Spell, though, made me eat my skepticism page by page until I was forced to banish it from my mind. And I am telling you now, if you loved the Hidden Legacy series, or Kate Daniel’s series, or Nalini Singh’s urban fiction series… THIS IS YOUR NEXT FAVORITE READ!!!!!

I swear!

First of all, come through new lore! Shay Kauwe takes us into the world of Hawaiian folklore. In between the book drama, we got all of these fascinating stories of how the original people came about. We learned about where mana/magic lives. Then there was the explanation of the sacred connection to the land and why that relationship was vital. I mean, it was really a whole new world for me. I enjoyed every second of reading it all.

Then, the book is really a murder mystery! That mystery was a little predictable for me, but the WHY of the murder was where all the sauce was, in my opinion. It was juicy. It was complicated. It was colonizers that needed boot to a$$! And most of all, it was the type of reading that I happily surrendered sleep for. She fleshed out the story and gave us insight, monsters, and a real feel for life and what happens when we surrender too much of our power.

We had a found family that I think the author wrote about in a way to torture me… personally. Just like Ilona Andrews does, as well as Nalini Singh. Shay Kauwe has joined their ranks. Because HOW can you create all of that love and endearing personalities, and I have to leave them when the book is over? Why would you do that? Cruel!

Sigh… this better be a series. At least Ilona and Nalini gave us multiple series. Sniff! (I’m watching you, Shay!)

Did I mention the slow burn, enemies to lovers part? Heh! Delish!

And I mean the MMC and the tension, both of them are DELISH!

As for the FMC, Kea. She is the heart and soul of this book. A firstborn daughter, with so much responsibility. Kea tries her best to do what is right. But those hits just keep coming! You will have to read the book to find out how she makes it through, if she makes it through... ;)

This is a beautiful, audacious, heart-melting story.

Shay Kauwe, you are a new auto-buy author for me. I will support and champion anything you write because your writing is soul-filling.

I want more, and I cannot wait to greedily consume anything else this author will write for us, her readers!

Thank you NetGalley, Solaris S&S Saga Press for sharing this arc in return for an honest review.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Killing Spell is one of those rare urban fantasy novels that feels both wildly imaginative and deeply grounded. Drawing on Hawaiian culture, language, and mythology, it delivers a world that feels lived‑in, layered, and refreshingly different from anything else in the genre.

Kea Petrova is an instantly compelling protagonist — young, overburdened, and doing everything she can to keep her small clan afloat in a post‑flood Los Angeles that’s equal parts gritty and magical. Her spellcrafting, her stubborn loyalty, and her quiet resilience make her easy to root for, even as the stakes around her spiral into something far more dangerous than she ever expected.

The murder mystery at the heart of the story is gripping, but what really elevates the book is its thematic depth. The author weaves anti‑colonial commentary, diaspora identity, and the politics of language into the narrative without ever slowing the pace. Each school of magic feels purposeful, tied to culture and history rather than just aesthetics, and that makes the worldbuilding feel incredibly rich.

As Kea races to clear her name, the story expands into a tense, twisty exploration of power — who holds it, who’s denied it, and what happens when marginalized communities are forced to fight for survival in a city that would rather erase them. The supporting cast is vibrant, the magic system is clever and original, and the pacing never lets up.

If you love fantasy that blends sharp social commentary with immersive worldbuilding and a heroine you can’t help but cheer for, The Killing Spell is absolutely worth your time. It’s bold, atmospheric, and full of heart — a standout addition to the urban fantasy landscape.

My thanks to Shay Kauwe, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

I found the magic system in this book absolutely fascinating. It’s all rooted in language (echoes of Babel) and this has created significant power and influence divides. Certain languages are better for certain things, some are better for healing, others for defence, even tech languages are considered as part of this which I thought was a wonderfully interesting concept! The author explores this so well and sets up the power dynamics that influence the novel. Some languages aren’t able to get the same consideration as the main eight and this leads to people being unable to legally use them for spells.

This is where we find our main character, a bold, caring and intelligent young woman. She’s dedicated to her family, protecting them from strange monsters that attack their homestead. She’s Hawaiian but we find the islands lost and they are living on land outside of Los Angeles. This drives a desire to remember her roots and language. She’s a wonderful character to root for, she faces so much horrible behaviour from people both inside and outside of her community and she’s struggling to make ends meet due to the seriously unfair situation they find themselves in. She’s defiant against despair and fights back to protect herself, her family, her home. She is brilliant.

There’s a murder mystery and political intrigue undercurrent to this story which finds our main character embroiled in, and central to solving this crime. Her knowledge of her language and her particular and rare ability finds her paired with a powerful magic user and member of the council to uncover what has happened.

This book was compelling, fascinating with a beautiful exploration of culture and language and a wonderful main character who is so easy to root for.

[Sasha Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book about a young Hawaiian woman trying to save her clan's land from the machinations of a magical board and developers. The novel is set in and around LA after a climate disaster has flooded the Hawaiian islands, and the magic system is based on the differing languages of the population. This premise becomes the vehicle for reflections on the differences between indigenous and colonial knowledge and culture, which I loved. I also liked the resilience of the lead character, which felt appropriate to the mystery genre on which the plot draws. I did have some issues with pacing, with the final battle going on too long for my taste, but this is a personal preference, and other readers may enjoy these scenes more. A few of the plot points also strained my suspension of disbelief, and the romance felt a little clichéd, but nothing I couldn't live with.

Unfortunately I did feel that the book was let down by poor editing. Some of the issues relate to punctuation and word choice, but as I was reading an uncorrected proof, these may be corrected in time for publication.

More seriously, I counted three internal factual contradictions, one of which related to an important plot point. There was also what seemed to be some unintentional repetition of information, at least one nonsensical simile and a few sentences that did not make sense as written. These issues will be more difficult to fix at the proof stage.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Killing Spell has a beautiful message, but I found it was lost behind an unstructured, frenetic delivery. I wanted to understand and appreciate the world-building and the magic rules so that when things happened I would feel immersed and involved. Instead, things were only explained in the moment as necessary for the immediate hijinks. The magic and political revelations felt too convenient and inconsistent with what had come before. Even though a fantasy book is made up, it shouldn't feel made up. The romance almost worked, but the pacing was off for me--which was really frustrating because I wanted to be swept off my feet. The end battle was distant and overly generalized so that I couldn't properly visualize the scene, and this detracted from what should have been an emotional and powerful ending. This is an early e-arc, so it's possible a developmental edit could come along before publication and drastically improve these faults.

I think this is a cool premise, a sweet romance with relatable characters, plus a beautiful message, but a missed chance in its current state at conveying those ideas to an audience used to more polished work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Language magic, Hawaiian culture and a murder mystery? Sold.

Kea, our protagonist, is carrying the weight of being the head of a clan, and barely scraping by in the Hawaiian Homestead in outer LA. When she is drawn into a murder investigation because of her skills in Hawaiian spell smithing, she quickly realizes that it is not only her life that is at stake, but also the future of the Homestead.

I picked up The Killing Spell mainly because I was intrigued by the language magic. I found the worldbuilding and magic system interesting and liked how it shows that words have power. In her search for the murderer, Kea finds so much more: her power, community, and an understanding of how easy it is for the victors to write history. I appreciated that the story shows connection to the land and importance of language for identity through a Hawaiian lens. I quite enjoyed the romance too.

The Killing Spell is an interesting debut, and I will be looking out for Shay Kauwe’s next novel.

[demon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Advanced Reader Copy received from NetGalley

First of all, I hold this book in high esteem because of the underlying issues it presents to us on the surface. There is great value in published material by Native Hawaiian authors, and Kauwe spells out the current and ongoing issues that Hawaiians have been experiencing, presented to the outside world in the form of a fantasy novel. Not only does she weave the culture’s deep history into the actions and consequences of this book, but she presents to readers the effects of colonialism and how it is so entrenched in the history of Hawai‘i that, even in a fictional 200 years later, Hawai‘i’s roots are still tangled in its mess, and its people still trying to survive, revive, and thrive with their culture intact.

Read FULL REVIEW here on Pagebound!

[Zoey M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved just about every minute of reading this book. It's an absolutely magical debut from Shay Kauwe, and it left me hungry for more. I loved the way language is so intrinsically connected to magic in the world, and the elements of culture and world building that are tied into it. Kea is a dynamic main character who cares about her family and community, and her love for her culture and family is apparent in her decisions throughout the book. She goes through a lot of development and growth through the story as she investigates Angelo's murder. While some of the plot twists were somewhat predictable, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story at all. I loved reading this, and I look forward to reading whatever Shay Kauwe writes next.
5/5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

[Ryn W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

10/10 do recommend. Okay, so I stayed up past my bedtime to finish this. I don't really do that anymore. But I literally could not put it down. I flew through it. I really thoroughly enjoyed so much of this story, from the way the author worked in actual Hawaiian history, to the magic system (LINGUISTICS, HELLO???). I also really loved how she worked in the anti-colonialist messaging, staying true to what Native Hawaiians are trying to accomplish today. I cannot tell you how excited I was to see that it's set in modern times with a magical twist--we don't get too much of that in fantasy!

My only issue was with the main character Kea reading a bit younger than twenty-five at times, but she was a solid FMC and I adored her.

I really cannot recommend this enough.

[Ana Sanchez-Ortiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up!
Not often do I find books that actually surprise me, but this one did!
Kea was a character I could totally root for but the whole cast was nuanced yet their motivations understandable, and it was the first time I had the opportunity to read any fiction inspired by Hawaian folklore...
The setting itself was particularly fascinating, with a flooded Los Angeles, a murder to be solved, and, my soft spot, word magic.
I fell under the spell of this book in no time. Think R.F Kuang's Babel in a Reminiscence setting, if you loved any of those, you will adore this book!

[M. Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been one of my most anticipated reads ever since it was first announced, and it did not disappoint! Clever, fast-paced, and full of heart, The Killing Spell is a thoroughly enjoyable read and a fantastic debut. The action scenes are crackling, the magic is smart and fun, and there's a delicious juxtaposition of classic fantasy scenes (duels! balls! training montage!) set against a near-future urban fantasy backdrop. I absolutely loved this and am eagerly anticipating the author's next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

[lovelifeandbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Killing Spell does a fascinating job of showing the creativity of how language moves. Not just through etymology (I learned a new word and I’m gonna use it); but how it flows depending on accessibility. Serious discussions about displacement and colonization were balanced with humor and hope.

Thank you NetGalley and Saga Press for this eARC.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

this will be one of the top fantasy releases of 2026

RTC!