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The Misheard World
Elize Janview is a soldier, one of the few survivors of an unimaginably terrible weapon, which ended the long détente between the North and the South and plunged them back into all-out war. She enlisted with a dream of finding those responsible, of somehow getting revenge for the deaths of everyone she knew, but was posted to guard the prison at Crag, the fortress of the South, which has never fallen to the enemy.
Janview’s life is transformed when a rough wooden box is delivered to Crag, holding the performer and spy Marius Mondegreen, agent of the North: the Misheard Word, who can read minds, breathe fire, and make objects appear and disappear. Janview is to witness Mondegreen’s interrogation by his captor, the beautiful and cruel Allynx Syld, who promises the end of the war. As recorder – and by degrees participant – in the interrogation, Janview comes to question everything she knew about the war, and the very world she lives in…
Janview’s life is transformed when a rough wooden box is delivered to Crag, holding the performer and spy Marius Mondegreen, agent of the North: the Misheard Word, who can read minds, breathe fire, and make objects appear and disappear. Janview is to witness Mondegreen’s interrogation by his captor, the beautiful and cruel Allynx Syld, who promises the end of the war. As recorder – and by degrees participant – in the interrogation, Janview comes to question everything she knew about the war, and the very world she lives in…
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 24, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 14, 2026
A couple months ago I made the mistake of clicking on a UFO video on Twitter, and now the algorithm thinks I'm a total whackjob, bombarding me with nonstop craziness. Not only are the aliens real, but they are already here and walking among us. They are our most talented of celebrities, our biggest world influencers. And, while I don't buy into all that stuff, I definitely got the vibe that the author of this book would. In this sci-fi/fantasy hybrid, the Illuminati isn't just real--it's from outer space. The whole thing felt like watching an episode of Inside Job that forgot to add any of the jokes. Long live the reptilians!
March 9, 2026
A fascinating and timely story also exploring how war itself is a story and what that means - strange intricate and surprising it’s strongly recomended
Full review https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Full review https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
March 16, 2026
Review originally on JamReads
The Misheard World is a thought-provoking sci-fi novel written by Aliya Whiteley, published by Solaris. A powerful story that takes a dive to examine the concept of war as a story and how it shapes the world through a curious lense, how war can be storytelling for powerful people; an intricate story that leaves the reader wondering more about the meaning of their own worlds.
Elize Janview is a soldier, one of the few survivors of the terrible weapon that devastated the city of Droad and that broke the detente between the North and the South; a war that neither side can afford to lose. She opted for reasons to work at Crag, a prison for those captured in wartime; when they receive Marius Mondergreen, legendary spy and storyteller, Elize is chosen to observe the interrogations conducted by Allynx Syld, a noble, and report to the prison's governor. An interrogatory that seems to have the key to why and how this war can be stopped and that evolves into something bigger.
Whiteley has created a weird story that works like an onion, a composite of multiple layers: from the simple interrogatory between two characters that clearly know more than what the third person in the room understands; we see Elize trying to understand the cryptic meanings behind the stories told by Mondergreen, and what that really means about the war between the South and the North. Later, we will see how the own Mondergreen will act as our narrator to give a new meaning to this war, how it's no more than an instrument for others in a literal superior layer; a parallelism that could be easily established with our own world and how war serves the interest of the powerful alone, while they are not suffering the consequences.
The brilliance of this novel is something I firmly believe I cannot capture with words, it needs to be experienced; if you are looking for a though-provoking and timely-accurated novel, Whiteley's The Misheard World is the perfect choice for you. An astounding novel that firmly enters on my top reads list of the year!
The Misheard World is a thought-provoking sci-fi novel written by Aliya Whiteley, published by Solaris. A powerful story that takes a dive to examine the concept of war as a story and how it shapes the world through a curious lense, how war can be storytelling for powerful people; an intricate story that leaves the reader wondering more about the meaning of their own worlds.
Elize Janview is a soldier, one of the few survivors of the terrible weapon that devastated the city of Droad and that broke the detente between the North and the South; a war that neither side can afford to lose. She opted for reasons to work at Crag, a prison for those captured in wartime; when they receive Marius Mondergreen, legendary spy and storyteller, Elize is chosen to observe the interrogations conducted by Allynx Syld, a noble, and report to the prison's governor. An interrogatory that seems to have the key to why and how this war can be stopped and that evolves into something bigger.
Whiteley has created a weird story that works like an onion, a composite of multiple layers: from the simple interrogatory between two characters that clearly know more than what the third person in the room understands; we see Elize trying to understand the cryptic meanings behind the stories told by Mondergreen, and what that really means about the war between the South and the North. Later, we will see how the own Mondergreen will act as our narrator to give a new meaning to this war, how it's no more than an instrument for others in a literal superior layer; a parallelism that could be easily established with our own world and how war serves the interest of the powerful alone, while they are not suffering the consequences.
The brilliance of this novel is something I firmly believe I cannot capture with words, it needs to be experienced; if you are looking for a though-provoking and timely-accurated novel, Whiteley's The Misheard World is the perfect choice for you. An astounding novel that firmly enters on my top reads list of the year!
February 26, 2026
The Misheard World is an ode to the power of storytelling, how the things we hear can shape our identities, our loyalties, and our very realities. It’s a stunning work of speculative fiction that left me changed for having experienced it.
If the act of telling stories makes us teachers, then you can’t find a better professor than Aliya Whiteley. She’s written some of the most beautiful, interesting and exquisite speculative fiction, weird and wild, imaginative and illuminating. But this is by far her most accessible book, while also being one of her lengthiest offerings to date.
It all surrounds the repercussions of a conversation between two characters from either side of a long-laboured war. To say anymore than that would be to spoil the surprise and the nuance of the way this story unfolds. Sufficed to say, just as a conversation builds, so too the book grows and expands, shifting in unexpected and mind-altering ways.
Expect changes in perspective and direction, mysteries raised and solved, and an atmosphere about the world that will captivate you (rather appropriately, I might add). Holding it all together are the three participants in this huge conversation: the questioner, the answerer, and the listener.
The book is framed from the viewpoint of the listener, raised as a soldier, she has the most to learn about the reasons for the conflict that has been her life. She’s strong-willed, capable, and intuitive. But most of all, despite the thirst for revenge that burns inside her, she’s a gentle soul embroiled in the needs of a violent world. I loved how her quietness permeated the entire book, how the wildness simmering inside of her patient heart is also acting as an undercurrent that drives the narrative forwards.
Then there’s the illusionist. He’s the one with all the answers, and his intrigue is matched only by his flamboyance. What an enigmatic character! From the moment he becomes the target of interrogation, you can’t look away. His words drip with magic, and the secrets he’s hiding are every bit as fantastic as you hope them to be.
And finally, the questioner. The interrogator. A woman who commands authority and respect, whose fierceness is tempered only by the fur she wears. She’s written with the presence of a predator, and you’re never sure whether she’s about to pounce.
Each character is so strong in their own right, but when they all come together, the story comes alive. It acts as an absolute masterclass in how to create drama from dialogue, how to make a conversation epic, and how to imbue power into words. You don’t know who to trust. You don’t know what games are being played and by whom. And as the answers begin to come, you won’t believe how many layers are peeled back.
The unfolding plot will take you to new places and give you so many things to ponder. It’s a conversation starter, and you’ll find yourself wanting to talk about the themes it raises: the nature of conflict, the consequences of control, the accountability of knowledge, the yearning of discovery, the dynamics of loyalty, and the shifting balance of our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the worlds we build.
The prose is beautiful. The structure is sublime. The world-building is incredible. The craft that has gone into this story is second to none. Aliya Whiteley has always been a master of her own peculiar brand of weird fiction, but this feels like something new, something broader, something with a scope that is altogether more intimate and infinite at the same time.
And as for the ending, well, I’ll leave you to decide on that one.
Let the conversations commence. Let the stories be told. But let them all reflect the achievement that is The Misheard World. Aliya Whiteley strikes again. This is a masterpiece. Yes, I said masterpiece. And no, you have not misheard.
If the act of telling stories makes us teachers, then you can’t find a better professor than Aliya Whiteley. She’s written some of the most beautiful, interesting and exquisite speculative fiction, weird and wild, imaginative and illuminating. But this is by far her most accessible book, while also being one of her lengthiest offerings to date.
It all surrounds the repercussions of a conversation between two characters from either side of a long-laboured war. To say anymore than that would be to spoil the surprise and the nuance of the way this story unfolds. Sufficed to say, just as a conversation builds, so too the book grows and expands, shifting in unexpected and mind-altering ways.
Expect changes in perspective and direction, mysteries raised and solved, and an atmosphere about the world that will captivate you (rather appropriately, I might add). Holding it all together are the three participants in this huge conversation: the questioner, the answerer, and the listener.
The book is framed from the viewpoint of the listener, raised as a soldier, she has the most to learn about the reasons for the conflict that has been her life. She’s strong-willed, capable, and intuitive. But most of all, despite the thirst for revenge that burns inside her, she’s a gentle soul embroiled in the needs of a violent world. I loved how her quietness permeated the entire book, how the wildness simmering inside of her patient heart is also acting as an undercurrent that drives the narrative forwards.
Then there’s the illusionist. He’s the one with all the answers, and his intrigue is matched only by his flamboyance. What an enigmatic character! From the moment he becomes the target of interrogation, you can’t look away. His words drip with magic, and the secrets he’s hiding are every bit as fantastic as you hope them to be.
And finally, the questioner. The interrogator. A woman who commands authority and respect, whose fierceness is tempered only by the fur she wears. She’s written with the presence of a predator, and you’re never sure whether she’s about to pounce.
Each character is so strong in their own right, but when they all come together, the story comes alive. It acts as an absolute masterclass in how to create drama from dialogue, how to make a conversation epic, and how to imbue power into words. You don’t know who to trust. You don’t know what games are being played and by whom. And as the answers begin to come, you won’t believe how many layers are peeled back.
The unfolding plot will take you to new places and give you so many things to ponder. It’s a conversation starter, and you’ll find yourself wanting to talk about the themes it raises: the nature of conflict, the consequences of control, the accountability of knowledge, the yearning of discovery, the dynamics of loyalty, and the shifting balance of our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the worlds we build.
The prose is beautiful. The structure is sublime. The world-building is incredible. The craft that has gone into this story is second to none. Aliya Whiteley has always been a master of her own peculiar brand of weird fiction, but this feels like something new, something broader, something with a scope that is altogether more intimate and infinite at the same time.
And as for the ending, well, I’ll leave you to decide on that one.
Let the conversations commence. Let the stories be told. But let them all reflect the achievement that is The Misheard World. Aliya Whiteley strikes again. This is a masterpiece. Yes, I said masterpiece. And no, you have not misheard.
April 23, 2026
One of the best this year, for me
Read
January 31, 2026You can find my review of this fascinating and very clever novel in February 2026 edition of Locus.
October 13, 2025
The only problem I have with this book (other than it not being out yet) is that I can't really go into why I love it without spoiling what makes it so great. I was hooked on the first few pages. And it's one of those rare books that make you want to flip back to page 1 and start reading again immediately. I loved Skyward Inn, I had... issues with Three-Eight-One that were more about me than the book (I listened to the audio and the use of footnotes made it very difficult for me to find my footing). I think this book seals her as someone I'll definitely add to my must-buy list.
April 8, 2026
I have been reading and loving Aliya Whiteley since 2014 and she is an instant yes for me any time I see a new book by her. Recently, however, I have been struggling with a book she co-wrote with someone and so I went into The Misheard World with a little trepidation. That was gone within the first few pages, however, as I fell fully in love with her writing all over again. Thanks to Rebellion and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What I adore about Aliya Whiteley's writing is that while she opens up different amazing worlds in her stories, she also always returns to the idea of storytelling itself. Her novels and novellas aren't necessarily meta in that they actively comment upon the writing itself, but they do always engage with what a story is, what it can do, and how powerful it is. Whether the story is good or bad, the telling of it does something and Whiteley is intrinsically aware of this. In The Misheard World, this awareness also grows in the protagonist and getting to witness it was a real pleasure. An even greater pleasure was the sheer breadth of stories she and I were being served. Whiteley teases all kinds of stories, be it kings in towers, girls in caves, or the cost of high-stakes gambles and none of them fully find an ending. In a weird way, neither does The Misheard World. I don't want to spoil anything, but Whiteley takes the open-endedness of story to heart. You can always tell a different story, you can always go on after the expected ending, and there is power and beauty in that. I continue to adore Whiteley and in The Misheard World she tells another story that will stay with me for a while.
The Misheard World is told in various parts. We meet Elize who is stationed at the Crag, a prison fortress, amidst a war between the North and the South. The destruction of her home triggered the war and also put Elize on a path of vengeance, but she has begun to wonder whether such a thing as an enemy and revenge truly exists. Then, the Unheard Word, Marius Mondegreen, is delivered to Crag to be interrogated by the Allynx Syld and Elize is meant to be a quiet observer during the interrogation. Always on the outside, Elize is slowly sucked into the complicated relationship of Mondegreen and the Sylduntil all of a sudden she is in the very midst of events. What if the world she knows is not as it seems? What if the stories that are told hold a kernel of truth? What will Elize do? What kind of story will she tell? I absolutely adored Elize as a main character. There is something very quiet but steely at her core and when this is shaken I felt that echo within myself. While most of The Misheard World is narrated through her, there is also a part told through another perspective and I loved how this switch in perspective also allowed a mix-up of focus and intent. Where Elize begins somewhat naive, the other narrator is full of cynicism, and when we return to Elize I felt happy to be back with her. The Syld and Mondegreen are also very intriguing characters who begin as cyphers and are slowly revealed.
I am hardly an objective reader of Aliya Whiteley, since I've enjoyed pretty much everything she's written. However, with that kind of history comes the niggling worry that maybe, just maybe, this one won't hit the same way. My relief at this not being the case was almost immediately pushed aside by my focus on this new story, this new world, these new characters. Whiteley has a knack for crafting speculative worlds and settings that intrigue while being deeply familiar. Her characters also always feel deeply human, even if they maybe aren't entirely or do things we don't immediately understand. The same is true for The Misheard World. Another aspect to this novel, which it shares with her novel Skyward Inn, is the presence of war as a context for an investigation of storytelling. If we look at our world today, right now in April 2026, surely we can see how deeply entwined stories are with the horrors of war. Who is telling us these stories? What are they trying to get us to believe? Who is in control? These are all important questions to ask and novels such as The Misheard World encourage us to do so.
I adored The Misheard World and my only complaint is that it's over. However, I have the feeling it is the kind of book that will reward rereading. And otherwise there are always more stories to hear, tell, and read.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
What I adore about Aliya Whiteley's writing is that while she opens up different amazing worlds in her stories, she also always returns to the idea of storytelling itself. Her novels and novellas aren't necessarily meta in that they actively comment upon the writing itself, but they do always engage with what a story is, what it can do, and how powerful it is. Whether the story is good or bad, the telling of it does something and Whiteley is intrinsically aware of this. In The Misheard World, this awareness also grows in the protagonist and getting to witness it was a real pleasure. An even greater pleasure was the sheer breadth of stories she and I were being served. Whiteley teases all kinds of stories, be it kings in towers, girls in caves, or the cost of high-stakes gambles and none of them fully find an ending. In a weird way, neither does The Misheard World. I don't want to spoil anything, but Whiteley takes the open-endedness of story to heart. You can always tell a different story, you can always go on after the expected ending, and there is power and beauty in that. I continue to adore Whiteley and in The Misheard World she tells another story that will stay with me for a while.
The Misheard World is told in various parts. We meet Elize who is stationed at the Crag, a prison fortress, amidst a war between the North and the South. The destruction of her home triggered the war and also put Elize on a path of vengeance, but she has begun to wonder whether such a thing as an enemy and revenge truly exists. Then, the Unheard Word, Marius Mondegreen, is delivered to Crag to be interrogated by the Allynx Syld and Elize is meant to be a quiet observer during the interrogation. Always on the outside, Elize is slowly sucked into the complicated relationship of Mondegreen and the Sylduntil all of a sudden she is in the very midst of events. What if the world she knows is not as it seems? What if the stories that are told hold a kernel of truth? What will Elize do? What kind of story will she tell? I absolutely adored Elize as a main character. There is something very quiet but steely at her core and when this is shaken I felt that echo within myself. While most of The Misheard World is narrated through her, there is also a part told through another perspective and I loved how this switch in perspective also allowed a mix-up of focus and intent. Where Elize begins somewhat naive, the other narrator is full of cynicism, and when we return to Elize I felt happy to be back with her. The Syld and Mondegreen are also very intriguing characters who begin as cyphers and are slowly revealed.
I am hardly an objective reader of Aliya Whiteley, since I've enjoyed pretty much everything she's written. However, with that kind of history comes the niggling worry that maybe, just maybe, this one won't hit the same way. My relief at this not being the case was almost immediately pushed aside by my focus on this new story, this new world, these new characters. Whiteley has a knack for crafting speculative worlds and settings that intrigue while being deeply familiar. Her characters also always feel deeply human, even if they maybe aren't entirely or do things we don't immediately understand. The same is true for The Misheard World. Another aspect to this novel, which it shares with her novel Skyward Inn, is the presence of war as a context for an investigation of storytelling. If we look at our world today, right now in April 2026, surely we can see how deeply entwined stories are with the horrors of war. Who is telling us these stories? What are they trying to get us to believe? Who is in control? These are all important questions to ask and novels such as The Misheard World encourage us to do so.
I adored The Misheard World and my only complaint is that it's over. However, I have the feeling it is the kind of book that will reward rereading. And otherwise there are always more stories to hear, tell, and read.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
April 13, 2026
The Misheard World begins as a book about a young soldier waiting for a battle; Janview is traumatized by the devastation of the place she grew up and the loss of her family and is keen to exact some kind of revenge on the forces of the North. At a military school turned prison, she and her comrades wait as the enemy approaches. As the synopsis of the novel describes, the South captures a well known performer believed to have taken the North’s side in the conflict; Janview, having seen him perform in her youth, is intrigued. When she is asked to record his interrogation, she is drawn into something she knows she doesn’t understand. From there, the book turns – multiple times – into something unexpected.
This is a hard book to review without giving away more than is desirable. It is book that I would suggest going into with as few preconceived notions as possible – avoid scouring reviews as you’ll likely bump into a spoiler that reveals one or more of the twists that make this such an impressively constructed story. I can see some of the choices Whiteley has made being devisive – the ending may really work for some readers and not for others – but overall, I appreciate how cleverly Whiteley has crafted a story that unfolds slowly yet contains twists that are truly jarring. There are also some elements that I think function effectively as commentary on contemporary real world events without feeling overly didactic or as though they’ll age quickly, which is also a note in this book’s favour. This is the kind of book that immediately leaves me wanting to return to the beginning to read the first half again to see how the twists and turns might’ve been foreshadowed in ways I did not recognize at the time.
Content warnings: war, grief, injury detail, confinement
Thank you to Rebellion / Solaris, the author, and NetGalley for providing me an eARC to review.
This is a hard book to review without giving away more than is desirable. It is book that I would suggest going into with as few preconceived notions as possible – avoid scouring reviews as you’ll likely bump into a spoiler that reveals one or more of the twists that make this such an impressively constructed story. I can see some of the choices Whiteley has made being devisive – the ending may really work for some readers and not for others – but overall, I appreciate how cleverly Whiteley has crafted a story that unfolds slowly yet contains twists that are truly jarring. There are also some elements that I think function effectively as commentary on contemporary real world events without feeling overly didactic or as though they’ll age quickly, which is also a note in this book’s favour. This is the kind of book that immediately leaves me wanting to return to the beginning to read the first half again to see how the twists and turns might’ve been foreshadowed in ways I did not recognize at the time.
Content warnings: war, grief, injury detail, confinement
Thank you to Rebellion / Solaris, the author, and NetGalley for providing me an eARC to review.
May 14, 2026
Aliyah Whiteley is one of the hidden gems of SFF. The fact that (at the time of writing) only 18 reviews have been posted show how little known she is, and that's a shame because her books are wonderful.
Whiteley doesn't write straightforward stories. You'll find you have to think about them, then think about them again, and even then you won't be completely sure what the story is about. But this doesn't mean her books are hard work. Her writing is elegant, the characters are sympathetic and her world building is understated but beautifully done.
I read all but the last few chapters in a single session, and I only (reluctantly!) put it down because I was reading on a train and had reached my destination. If you like the softer and slightly weirder end of science fiction you should put this at the top of your "to read" pile.
Whiteley doesn't write straightforward stories. You'll find you have to think about them, then think about them again, and even then you won't be completely sure what the story is about. But this doesn't mean her books are hard work. Her writing is elegant, the characters are sympathetic and her world building is understated but beautifully done.
I read all but the last few chapters in a single session, and I only (reluctantly!) put it down because I was reading on a train and had reached my destination. If you like the softer and slightly weirder end of science fiction you should put this at the top of your "to read" pile.
Read
March 1, 2026the thing I love most in the world is discovering a renowned author’s blog from the 2000s where I get to see all of their questionable opinions and like reviews of Q-Tip’s solo album…has anybody found Marlon James’ blog yet because girl…I love Aliya Whiteley’s novels so I was poking around the internet after I finished her latest and found some of her old short stories from the 2000s, some of which are affecting, some of which are like Roald Dahl if he got kicked in the head, all of which despite their silly shock-jock constructions display in utero the bitter, sharp quality which pleased me so profoundly in Skyward Inn and Three Eight One, two SF classics of the 2020s…I have absolutely no hesitation in declaring the present Whiteley an author of startling and bracing genius so it is so pleasing to me to dig up her younger self’s opinions on the Matrix trilogy. I pray to God that no one ever does the same to me.
like Whiteley’s previous novels there are a lot of books I can think of as comparison points for this—GGK’s Tigana for the manipulations of language/history sustained by magic both literal and otherwise, Harrison’s Light or Banks’ Walking on Glass for the very British and sardonic slippages between reality levels, Black Leopard Red Wolf for the immured and untrustworthy narrator, John Crowley’s The Deep for the constructed nature of the fantasy world—but none that it truly resembles. all those books are, in their own manner, very angry and bitter books, true anti-fantasies in every sense, committed to denying readerly consolation—but none of them (Harrison excepted) are so good at contrasting that bitterness with such a curious tone of flatness! of banality, of defeat, a certain cheap shambolic quality. the genius of Three Eight One is that it is a mass-produced fantasy novel, and knows it, and incorporates that into every level of its symbolic hierarchy—a quest narrative which annotates the quest to death, a conspiracy plot where the ultimate masterminds may not only be half-witted but actually nonexistent, a Bildungsroman in which nothing is learned and the hero, after so many miles walked, ends her story still believing it will be one extra step that changes her. it is a deeply offputting book, as most true anti-fantasies are, and no one but Whiteley could have made it offputting in that specific way. here, you see the same cynicism, the same neoliberal despair. the joke that ends the first section (about the Allynx’s coat) made me laugh but it also sums up exactly what I mean. “our lives are turning into copies of things we see on TV,” one character announces. the human race discovers a fantasy planet devoid of struggle or suffering and immediately start using it for sports betting. (with the past year of basketball gambling scandals we’ve had, that subplot hits especially hard lmao.) it is really easy to draw lines to M. John Harrison’s whole career-long anti-fantasy project here (Whiteley has written positively about The Sunken Land Begins To Rise Again) but Whiteley is totally her own artist. basically what i am saying is: this book has a great title, a really wonderful one, and whatever book you’re imagining when you hear it, it’s better.
p.s. i pirate pretty much everything i read so i really respect that whiteley does so much of her writing for print magazines and small presses that would require me to pay actual money. i salute a real hustler 🫡
like Whiteley’s previous novels there are a lot of books I can think of as comparison points for this—GGK’s Tigana for the manipulations of language/history sustained by magic both literal and otherwise, Harrison’s Light or Banks’ Walking on Glass for the very British and sardonic slippages between reality levels, Black Leopard Red Wolf for the immured and untrustworthy narrator, John Crowley’s The Deep for the constructed nature of the fantasy world—but none that it truly resembles. all those books are, in their own manner, very angry and bitter books, true anti-fantasies in every sense, committed to denying readerly consolation—but none of them (Harrison excepted) are so good at contrasting that bitterness with such a curious tone of flatness! of banality, of defeat, a certain cheap shambolic quality. the genius of Three Eight One is that it is a mass-produced fantasy novel, and knows it, and incorporates that into every level of its symbolic hierarchy—a quest narrative which annotates the quest to death, a conspiracy plot where the ultimate masterminds may not only be half-witted but actually nonexistent, a Bildungsroman in which nothing is learned and the hero, after so many miles walked, ends her story still believing it will be one extra step that changes her. it is a deeply offputting book, as most true anti-fantasies are, and no one but Whiteley could have made it offputting in that specific way. here, you see the same cynicism, the same neoliberal despair. the joke that ends the first section (about the Allynx’s coat) made me laugh but it also sums up exactly what I mean. “our lives are turning into copies of things we see on TV,” one character announces. the human race discovers a fantasy planet devoid of struggle or suffering and immediately start using it for sports betting. (with the past year of basketball gambling scandals we’ve had, that subplot hits especially hard lmao.) it is really easy to draw lines to M. John Harrison’s whole career-long anti-fantasy project here (Whiteley has written positively about The Sunken Land Begins To Rise Again) but Whiteley is totally her own artist. basically what i am saying is: this book has a great title, a really wonderful one, and whatever book you’re imagining when you hear it, it’s better.
p.s. i pirate pretty much everything i read so i really respect that whiteley does so much of her writing for print magazines and small presses that would require me to pay actual money. i salute a real hustler 🫡
October 17, 2025
The Misheard World is an experience that left me utterly bewildered. I spent the entirety of the book's 272 pages searching for a solid plot to grasp onto, and ultimately, it remained elusive.
This is a piece of speculative fiction that attempts to channel the cerebral, reality-bending concepts of works like Dark Matter and The Three-Body Problem while giving a nod to the philosophical construction of something like The Truman Show. However, in attempting to blend these ambitious ideas, the book struggles to establish its own coherent foundation. It is an abstract literary effort, but the narrative often feels intentionally impenetrable, leaving the reader with little footing.
I went back over several sections, wondering if I had missed or misunderstood a key turn, but the fundamental problem remained: the story is driven by a deep sense of disorientation that, for me, failed to pay off. The characters, unfortunately, reflect this narrative choice; they are thinly sketched and elicited no real emotion in me beyond the continuous confusion. Furthermore, for a story centered on alternate realities, the world-building itself lacked the creative depth needed to anchor such a complex, two-world narrative.
While I can appreciate Aliyah Whitely’s ambition and willingness to write something so profoundly unconventional, this particular journey was an intellectual struggle that required two full days of committed reading. There is certainly a reader out there who will appreciate the sheer mind-bending, abstract nature of this book, but for me, it simply did not coalesce into a satisfying story.
+++I have received this eARC in an exchange for an honest review+++
I want to thank @netgalley and @rebellionpublishing for allowing me to read this eARC.
This is a piece of speculative fiction that attempts to channel the cerebral, reality-bending concepts of works like Dark Matter and The Three-Body Problem while giving a nod to the philosophical construction of something like The Truman Show. However, in attempting to blend these ambitious ideas, the book struggles to establish its own coherent foundation. It is an abstract literary effort, but the narrative often feels intentionally impenetrable, leaving the reader with little footing.
I went back over several sections, wondering if I had missed or misunderstood a key turn, but the fundamental problem remained: the story is driven by a deep sense of disorientation that, for me, failed to pay off. The characters, unfortunately, reflect this narrative choice; they are thinly sketched and elicited no real emotion in me beyond the continuous confusion. Furthermore, for a story centered on alternate realities, the world-building itself lacked the creative depth needed to anchor such a complex, two-world narrative.
While I can appreciate Aliyah Whitely’s ambition and willingness to write something so profoundly unconventional, this particular journey was an intellectual struggle that required two full days of committed reading. There is certainly a reader out there who will appreciate the sheer mind-bending, abstract nature of this book, but for me, it simply did not coalesce into a satisfying story.
+++I have received this eARC in an exchange for an honest review+++
I want to thank @netgalley and @rebellionpublishing for allowing me to read this eARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Aliya Whiteley’s new book The Misheard World, opens in an intriguing way. A man arrives at a prison called the Crag in a box. Very quickly Whiteley brings readers into what feels like a fairly standard fantasy world. Until she pulls the rug out from under the reader, not once but multiple times in ways that might well break some readers’ brains.
The man in the box is a former magician called Mondegreen and he is a hero of the North. Since the destruction of a city called Droad by a mysterious destructive weapon there has been a war between the North and the South. Mondegreen, who goes by the nickname ‘The Misheard Word’, has been captured and sent to the Crag as it is seen as unassailable. He is there to be questioned by one of the leaders of the South, a woman called the Syld. The forces of the South want, among other things, to understand the secrets behind the destruction of Droad. The story of their encounter is narrated by a guard, a woman called Elize Janview. Elize is ordered by the prison warden to observe the meetings and report back every detail. Elize has her own connection not only to Mondegreen but to Droad, which she keeps mainly to herself.
It is best not to say anything more about the plot of The Misheard World which twists and turns and reinvents itself in ways that no reader is likely to predict. As a result, it is likely that many readers will to want to go back to the beginning and read it a second time. The twists allow Whiteley to dig into themes around storytelling and the lies people tell both themselves and others to get by, loyalty, control and the yearning to lead a different life. The Misheard World is by no means a perfect book but it is a mind bending one and one that will make readers think and that is always appreciated.
The man in the box is a former magician called Mondegreen and he is a hero of the North. Since the destruction of a city called Droad by a mysterious destructive weapon there has been a war between the North and the South. Mondegreen, who goes by the nickname ‘The Misheard Word’, has been captured and sent to the Crag as it is seen as unassailable. He is there to be questioned by one of the leaders of the South, a woman called the Syld. The forces of the South want, among other things, to understand the secrets behind the destruction of Droad. The story of their encounter is narrated by a guard, a woman called Elize Janview. Elize is ordered by the prison warden to observe the meetings and report back every detail. Elize has her own connection not only to Mondegreen but to Droad, which she keeps mainly to herself.
It is best not to say anything more about the plot of The Misheard World which twists and turns and reinvents itself in ways that no reader is likely to predict. As a result, it is likely that many readers will to want to go back to the beginning and read it a second time. The twists allow Whiteley to dig into themes around storytelling and the lies people tell both themselves and others to get by, loyalty, control and the yearning to lead a different life. The Misheard World is by no means a perfect book but it is a mind bending one and one that will make readers think and that is always appreciated.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This is a novel best entered blind because half its power lies in how quietly it leads you astray.
The Misheard World begins as something deceptively straightforward - an interrogation between spies, a soldier with secrets of her own, a war that feels familiar in its machinery and moral compromises. At first reading like a taut meditation on conflict, power and truth. Then Aliya Whiteley starts to turn the lens and what seemed like traditional commentary fractures into something far more layered, inventive and unsettling.
This is wildly imaginative fiction, alive with ideas. Whiteley’s prose is phenomenal. She toys with language and dual meanings, inviting the reader to read between the lines of reality itself and uncover the truth for themselves. Meaning here is not just delivered — it’s discovered.
At its heart, The Mishear World is a celebration of stories and how truth is shaped, how memory is weaponised, how perception can both liberate and deceive. Whiteley works with extraordinary sleight of hand. Every time you think you understand where the story is going - what the characters mean, what the war is - she draws back the curtain just enough to widen your perspective, defying expectation and drawing you deeper into her mind bending spell.
The characters remain lightly sketched, sometimes even deliberately elusive, with the emotional weight carried by theme, implication and slow reveals, layer by layer until you realise how carefully you've been guided - and misled.
My thanks to Solaris for the arc
The Misheard World begins as something deceptively straightforward - an interrogation between spies, a soldier with secrets of her own, a war that feels familiar in its machinery and moral compromises. At first reading like a taut meditation on conflict, power and truth. Then Aliya Whiteley starts to turn the lens and what seemed like traditional commentary fractures into something far more layered, inventive and unsettling.
This is wildly imaginative fiction, alive with ideas. Whiteley’s prose is phenomenal. She toys with language and dual meanings, inviting the reader to read between the lines of reality itself and uncover the truth for themselves. Meaning here is not just delivered — it’s discovered.
At its heart, The Mishear World is a celebration of stories and how truth is shaped, how memory is weaponised, how perception can both liberate and deceive. Whiteley works with extraordinary sleight of hand. Every time you think you understand where the story is going - what the characters mean, what the war is - she draws back the curtain just enough to widen your perspective, defying expectation and drawing you deeper into her mind bending spell.
The characters remain lightly sketched, sometimes even deliberately elusive, with the emotional weight carried by theme, implication and slow reveals, layer by layer until you realise how carefully you've been guided - and misled.
My thanks to Solaris for the arc
February 24, 2026
Alicia Whiteley is rapidly emerging as a genre all of her own: operating on the border of sci-fi, fantasy, magical realism and literature, and always with an interest in the unreliability and trustworthiness of the narrative and the narrator. What’s the story? Who is telling it - and why?
The Misheard World starts with a foot firmly in fantasy. We’re at the end of bitter cold/warm/ now hot again war between the North and South - in which soldier Elize is one of the few survivors of a war crime that has wiped out the entire city of Droad. At the vast frontier fortress Crag - shades of Gormenghast - one of the North’s most potent and elusive spies, Mondegreen, arrives for interrogation. Elize is enlisted as recorder of questioning led by the haughty Allnyx, who promises their work will end the war.
There’s enough here in the slipperiness of the questions and answers, of who Mondegreen and Allynx are, and what Elize’s role is, to fascinate - but a third of the way in Whiteley pulls the rug out from under the reader in spectacular fashion. So spectacular it would be a crime to give it away in a review. From this point on any reserve I had about this book was shattered. If I can draw a parallel with China Mieville’s City and the City, it’s to illustrate how expertly Whiteley keeps the world of Mondegreen, Allnyx and Elize in the air while introducing another overlapping reality entirely. A giant leap forwards from one of the fastest developing writers in UK speculative fiction.
An ARC provided by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
The Misheard World starts with a foot firmly in fantasy. We’re at the end of bitter cold/warm/ now hot again war between the North and South - in which soldier Elize is one of the few survivors of a war crime that has wiped out the entire city of Droad. At the vast frontier fortress Crag - shades of Gormenghast - one of the North’s most potent and elusive spies, Mondegreen, arrives for interrogation. Elize is enlisted as recorder of questioning led by the haughty Allnyx, who promises their work will end the war.
There’s enough here in the slipperiness of the questions and answers, of who Mondegreen and Allynx are, and what Elize’s role is, to fascinate - but a third of the way in Whiteley pulls the rug out from under the reader in spectacular fashion. So spectacular it would be a crime to give it away in a review. From this point on any reserve I had about this book was shattered. If I can draw a parallel with China Mieville’s City and the City, it’s to illustrate how expertly Whiteley keeps the world of Mondegreen, Allnyx and Elize in the air while introducing another overlapping reality entirely. A giant leap forwards from one of the fastest developing writers in UK speculative fiction.
An ARC provided by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
“When everyone has a story of loss to tell, nothing is worthy of the grand title of tragedy”
It is difficult to say anything about some books without revealing certain surprises and possibly changing a reader's first magical experience of reading them. There is a lot to say about The Misheard World, and at the same time, every word feels like too much.
I started reading this book because of the description about Elize Janview and her place in the war between the North and the South and her quest for answers about a terrible weapon that wiped an entire city off the map. A search for the guilty, revenge, and secrets.
But this book quickly became more than that. It's not (only) about Eliza's story, but about so much more. It's about truth, stories, and reality. It's about what is true and what is power. It's about what lies hidden between the lies and what we want to believe. Mysteries that are revealed and yet remain questions.
This book is therefore not for all readers. You are left with questions in an attempt to understand everything, while at the same time it is all right in front of you. You want to read it immediately after it is finished, or it will not work for you. Immerse yourself if you want to experience this, because you have to read it to understand it.
“And sleep, sleep had the same quality as answers: a small amount was worse than none.”
This is an ARC read thanks to Netgally
It is difficult to say anything about some books without revealing certain surprises and possibly changing a reader's first magical experience of reading them. There is a lot to say about The Misheard World, and at the same time, every word feels like too much.
I started reading this book because of the description about Elize Janview and her place in the war between the North and the South and her quest for answers about a terrible weapon that wiped an entire city off the map. A search for the guilty, revenge, and secrets.
But this book quickly became more than that. It's not (only) about Eliza's story, but about so much more. It's about truth, stories, and reality. It's about what is true and what is power. It's about what lies hidden between the lies and what we want to believe. Mysteries that are revealed and yet remain questions.
This book is therefore not for all readers. You are left with questions in an attempt to understand everything, while at the same time it is all right in front of you. You want to read it immediately after it is finished, or it will not work for you. Immerse yourself if you want to experience this, because you have to read it to understand it.
“And sleep, sleep had the same quality as answers: a small amount was worse than none.”
This is an ARC read thanks to Netgally
March 26, 2026
5/10 stars
Ugh, I have a problem with this book. It is beautifully written. The prose is striking, precise, evocative and efficient in a way that borders on the best poetry, hinging on the hidden emotional connection, painting images with few judiciously selected words. Fabulous, really.
The plot, however, and especially the ending, let me down. The Misheard World reads like an ambitious writing experiment which takes the author - and the reader - on a wonderful journey... to nowhere. The ending particularly seems like a cop out, as if Whiteley has written herself into a corner and needed a quick, dirty resolution. The unevenness and abruptness of the ending left a bitter taste in my mouth after all the careful build up that led to it. Would I have been more forgiving had I been initially less invested? Quite possible. As it is, however, while The Misheard World ended up a letdown, Whiteley remains on my to-read list - the promise and ambition are still very much there, and her writing craft is incredibly impressive.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.
Ugh, I have a problem with this book. It is beautifully written. The prose is striking, precise, evocative and efficient in a way that borders on the best poetry, hinging on the hidden emotional connection, painting images with few judiciously selected words. Fabulous, really.
The plot, however, and especially the ending, let me down. The Misheard World reads like an ambitious writing experiment which takes the author - and the reader - on a wonderful journey... to nowhere. The ending particularly seems like a cop out, as if Whiteley has written herself into a corner and needed a quick, dirty resolution. The unevenness and abruptness of the ending left a bitter taste in my mouth after all the careful build up that led to it. Would I have been more forgiving had I been initially less invested? Quite possible. As it is, however, while The Misheard World ended up a letdown, Whiteley remains on my to-read list - the promise and ambition are still very much there, and her writing craft is incredibly impressive.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.
July 3, 2026
I am once again left delightedly surprised with the way Whiteley weaves her stories. The way that she sequences events in her books and plants information makes her plots feel so very organic to me. The ending confused me for a moment, and I'm still not sure what my interpretation is, but I love that I feel this way. Aliya Whiteley is one of the best spec fiction authors working today, and in my opinion is still very underrated! Another awesome book!
June 17, 2026
I enjoyed the characters and concept but felt it didn't wrap up the ideas well enough at the end. I was left wondering if I missed some details. I don't think I did, I think the author just left it a bit too vague to really feel like it wrapped up into something profound.
October 31, 2025
I am a fan of sci-fi and fantasy. I just couldn’t get my hear around this novel and what it was trying to say. I really wanted to like it. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Wildly weird. starts out as a standard spy drama before spinning wildly out of control to something much more unique. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.
June 29, 2026
I'm grateful to Solaris for giving me access to an advance e-copy of The Misheard World to consider for review.
Oh this is a tricksy book. How much to say in a review? That's also tricky.
To start as the book starts, then, Elize Janview is a soldier, in an army, fighting an existential war against a deadly enemy. She's fighting for the South, against the North, in a struggle that follows a long period of coexistence. (If you're asking, South of what? North of where? those are good questions - but I won't enlighten you, you'll need to read the book).
The war started after the North used a dreadful weapon against a city where people from North and South lived together, worked together, made art together. Now the South is desperate to copy that weapon, before the North can use it again. And there's an urgency since the North is winning and war comes closer and closer.
We see Elize and her comrades defending Crag, a fortress used as a prison for captured soldiers from the North. Whiteley's portrayal of Elize and her little circle is great, showing the moments of boredom made bearable by endless gambling, bets on anything and everything. The food. Elize's helping out in the bakery. It all helps build up a picture.
Then, suddenly, the South has a stroke of luck. The notorious Northern spy, Marius Mondegreen, has been captured! His great enemy, the Allynx Syld, will interrogate him at Crag - and Janview is invited to witness the process. Surely Mondegreen (a magician who goes by the stage name 'The Misheard Word') will reveal the secret of the Weapon?
So the first part of this story proceeds. The land where North and South fight has, perhaps, something of the Ruritantian about it, these two minutely realised antagonists lying in mountainous country apparently isolated from anywhere else and in a seemingly pre-Modern world. Distrust abounds between the two (and did before the War) so things in Crag are complex - though perhaps Crag forms a third little world, with North and South again living and working together.
And at the heart of that is Mondegreen's interrogation. It's clear that something lies between him and the Allynx (a Northern title) but we don't learn what until the final catastrophe, after Crag's fall when he and Janview are on the run. Then there's a whole different story that she finds incomprehensible and unlikely, though for us, reading this book, it will be more familiar and will put the nature of Janview's world in a rather different perspective.
For her, though, she's now forced to choose between impossible absurdities. A survivor of that terrible weapon - one of few - she had joined the army to get revenge. Now she's faced with the possibility that her time has been wasted, that her enemies are elsewhere (but where?) and that her world may be doomed.
In The Misheard World, Whiteley deploys a brilliant concept, a wonderfully realised nesting of realities that operates on multiple levels. There's the question of what's really going on, the answers to which emerge, but only in part, as a result of the interplays between those realities. There's a question behind that - a why and how question - that isn't answered, but which preys on the mind of the reader: you will perhaps create your own answers to that. Finally, there's the wonderfully realised story of Mondegreen and the Allynx who, as I have said, have History - they almost step off the page (the kind of thing that could easily happen in this book) as real, living people with their own history and setting.
And of course, there's Janview who is also vivid and rather touching in her impossible situation.
How does it all end? Whiteley very definitely leaves that open. The book is in the end, I think, about how reality is written, and rewritten, and part of that concerns just what we mean by "end". This author refuses to be definite, and I loved the way she achieved that.
A mind-bending, worlds-spanning SFF treat that you really mustn't miss. Strongly recommended.
Oh this is a tricksy book. How much to say in a review? That's also tricky.
To start as the book starts, then, Elize Janview is a soldier, in an army, fighting an existential war against a deadly enemy. She's fighting for the South, against the North, in a struggle that follows a long period of coexistence. (If you're asking, South of what? North of where? those are good questions - but I won't enlighten you, you'll need to read the book).
The war started after the North used a dreadful weapon against a city where people from North and South lived together, worked together, made art together. Now the South is desperate to copy that weapon, before the North can use it again. And there's an urgency since the North is winning and war comes closer and closer.
We see Elize and her comrades defending Crag, a fortress used as a prison for captured soldiers from the North. Whiteley's portrayal of Elize and her little circle is great, showing the moments of boredom made bearable by endless gambling, bets on anything and everything. The food. Elize's helping out in the bakery. It all helps build up a picture.
Then, suddenly, the South has a stroke of luck. The notorious Northern spy, Marius Mondegreen, has been captured! His great enemy, the Allynx Syld, will interrogate him at Crag - and Janview is invited to witness the process. Surely Mondegreen (a magician who goes by the stage name 'The Misheard Word') will reveal the secret of the Weapon?
So the first part of this story proceeds. The land where North and South fight has, perhaps, something of the Ruritantian about it, these two minutely realised antagonists lying in mountainous country apparently isolated from anywhere else and in a seemingly pre-Modern world. Distrust abounds between the two (and did before the War) so things in Crag are complex - though perhaps Crag forms a third little world, with North and South again living and working together.
And at the heart of that is Mondegreen's interrogation. It's clear that something lies between him and the Allynx (a Northern title) but we don't learn what until the final catastrophe, after Crag's fall when he and Janview are on the run. Then there's a whole different story that she finds incomprehensible and unlikely, though for us, reading this book, it will be more familiar and will put the nature of Janview's world in a rather different perspective.
For her, though, she's now forced to choose between impossible absurdities. A survivor of that terrible weapon - one of few - she had joined the army to get revenge. Now she's faced with the possibility that her time has been wasted, that her enemies are elsewhere (but where?) and that her world may be doomed.
In The Misheard World, Whiteley deploys a brilliant concept, a wonderfully realised nesting of realities that operates on multiple levels. There's the question of what's really going on, the answers to which emerge, but only in part, as a result of the interplays between those realities. There's a question behind that - a why and how question - that isn't answered, but which preys on the mind of the reader: you will perhaps create your own answers to that. Finally, there's the wonderfully realised story of Mondegreen and the Allynx who, as I have said, have History - they almost step off the page (the kind of thing that could easily happen in this book) as real, living people with their own history and setting.
And of course, there's Janview who is also vivid and rather touching in her impossible situation.
How does it all end? Whiteley very definitely leaves that open. The book is in the end, I think, about how reality is written, and rewritten, and part of that concerns just what we mean by "end". This author refuses to be definite, and I loved the way she achieved that.
A mind-bending, worlds-spanning SFF treat that you really mustn't miss. Strongly recommended.
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