Lioness

This is the story of King Midas. Or that's what we're always told. The Golden King with his palace of riches and me, the girl he turned to gold. Upon the snowy mountains in the Sixth Kingdom of Orea, I'm locked away in Highbell Castle. It's for my safety, I'm told. Away from the dangers of the world below. No one can get in. Apart from him. King Midas rescued me from the streets. He gave me food, shelter and his heart. I promised to love him forever. But when war comes to the kingdom, a deal is struck—and I am at the heart of the bargain. Everything I know starts to change.

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. He is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock. Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie - magical, comforting, wise beyond her years - promised to protect him, no matter what.