HOW TO FREE A LEVIATHAN

Risks become personal for a 13-year-old Italian healer in this sequel to How To Save a Unicorn (2023).

The world travels continue as Giada and her beloved black cat familiar, Sinistro, embark on a trip to meet other veterinarians who work with magical creatures. Giada and Mrs. Calamoneri, the vet she’s traveling with, plan to attend the Convención de Criaturas Mágicas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, a conference for magical vets. They hope to warn as many people as possible about the sinister C&C Medicinals, a corporation that’s intent on exploiting magical creatures. A local sanctuary promises to showcase a rare, reclusive leviathan during the event. Giada tours the sanctuary, and although Sofia, her teenage guide, is welcoming, something feels off about the facility, like how the building is protected by intense magical wards, and the founder, Dr. Dolores Messi, has an odd familiar, a spider that resembles a bejeweled brooch. When Giada and Sofia investigate, they uncover some unsettling information that threatens the local magical fauna as well as the lives of familiars. Can Giada and Sinistro make it out alive? In this well-paced story, Cannistra expands on her worldbuilding through intriguing cross-cultural elements. Over the course of the book, Giada faces intense emotional threats. Although Mrs. Calamoneri supports her judgment and provides her with some protection, Giada takes many high-stakes risks, and the narrative validates her feelings and offers space for her to fully experience them.

An emotionally raw trilogy closer.