Silas Umber has returned from Arvale, carrying a curse with him. He's unleashed a malevolent huntsman who will stop at nothing to get his prey. As his family and friends begin to suffer the Huntsman's wrath, Silas must seek help from the few who are still willing to help him: the dead of Lichport. He must also look into his own past and the mystery surrounding his birth if he has any hope of stopping the Huntsman before the town of Lichport burns.

LYCH WAY by Ari Berk is the gripping conclusion to The Undertaken Trilogy by Ari Berk. So often, conclusions fail to live up to the first exciting book in a trilogy. LYCH WAY does the extraordinary and not only satisfactorily ends this vibrant and poignant series in a beautiful and haunting manner, but it made me re-examine my initial impression of the first two novels in the series. As the story unfolds, elements from Death Watch and Mistle Child can be seen in a new light and it completely changes how I viewed certain characters. I love this complexity. The world is seen in each book as Silas sees it. All the characters and their motives are extensions of Silas's feelings and thoughts. As he grows from a child who lost a parent, to Undertaker, and then to Janus, his view of the world expands and his understanding grows, allowing him to see beyond his own need and thoughts. This is truly a coming of age story that is not only reflected in the harrowing physical journey Silas undergoes but through the masterful storytelling of Ari Berk who captures the painful emotional growth of a child transitioning to adulthood.

I highly recommend The Undertaken Trilogy but suggest you do read them in order. Ari Berk's haunting prose will pull you into the world of Lichport and the endlessly fascinating death customs, but it will be his brilliant plot that will have you re-reading The Undertaken Trilogy in order to find all the clues and subtle hints to the overarching story which concludes in LYCH WAY. The Undertaken Trilogy has earned a place on my permanent favorites shelf. It is a series I urge everyone to read.

Book Summary

In the conclusion to the Undertaken trilogy that Publishers Weekly called “a thought-provoking gothic fantasy,” Silas must master his powers and confront a past that is anything but dead.

Silas Umber has returned from Arvale, his family’s ancestral home. Frantic to retrieve the shade of his beloved Beatrice, he turns his back on the spectral chaos he has left behind, unaware that the malevolence he unleashed has followed him back to Lichport.

As his family and friends suffer and fall at the hands of the vengeful Huntsman from Arvale’s sunken mansions, Silas must reach deep into his complicated bloodline to summon powers and wisdom beyond those required of a simple Lichport Undertaker. But the dark and painful secrets of his birth threaten to overwhelm him, and if he can’t lay the ghosts of his own past to rest, Silas may lose everything and everyone he has grown to love and worked to protect.