Today’s review is about THE EVERLASTING by Alix E. Harrow. It’s a standalone novel with a lady knight, time travel, and fated love. It’s also, at its heart, a novel about propaganda and nationalism.
Author: Alix E. Harrow
Series: None
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: Tor Books
Publish Date: October 28, 2025
Print Length: 320
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The Everlasting Synopsis
Synopsis
From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.
Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.
Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.
But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself.
The Everlasting Review
THE EVERLASTING by Alix Harrow is a standalone, time-travel fantasy that examines the power of legend in the deployment of propaganda, war, nationalism, and racism. After the war Owen Mallory becomes a scholar of history with a focus on the legend of Una Everlasting. He receives an anonymous package that contains a very old book. Little does he know that that book will thrust him back to the days of Una in a seemingly infinite loop of retellings.
What I love foremost about THE EVERLASTING is Harrow’s writing style. It evokes that “tale as old as time” feeling. Because there is a limited point of view, the writing also has a mysterious quality to it and magic simmers quietly below the surface. It feels like an epic story despite its relatively short 320-page length.
This book also seems like an ode to Arthurian legend, or even legends in general. I am definitely not an expert on Arthurian lore. But the fact that the main character’s name is Owen Mallory seems like a nod to Thomas Malory, who wrote Le Morte d’Arthur. Moreover, Malory’s work is arguably the most popular and well-known “history” of Arthur and his contemporaries and is the source for many later works. Owen Mallory’s role parallels that of Thomas Malory’s in that Owen becomes the caretaker and curator of Sir Una Everlasting’s story.
Additionally, one can liken Una to King Arthur in that both are legendary figures that may or may not have existed. Both have a powerful history that has been retold as a reflection of the time, which the Medievalist describes regarding King Arthur. Such popular stories or legends are ripe for harvest in use of unification or propaganda, as Harrow shows in THE EVERLASTING.
I feel like this book would be very interesting to analyze in a literature class. It’s not something I’m well equipped to do, though. I don’t have a deep knowledge of Arthuriana, medieval history, or the deployment of propaganda. But I am at least aware enough to recognize parallels in THE EVERLASTING by Alix Harrow to our own history. The book occurs in a country that I think is essentially England. They’ve been at war for centuries with those around them trying to take over the lands of other peoples for the “good” of the Dominion.
Owen’s character provides an interesting contrast to this “country first” mentality. He is a scholar and therefore can avoid the draft, yet Una’s sway drives him to enlist anyway. His father is anti-authoritarian and a disruptor. And Owen looks like he has a foreign heritage (i.e., not white), so he faces automatic judgment from strangers. Thus, he constantly tries to be as law abiding as possible to show that he is “not like them.” (There is a lot to unpack on that last note, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll leave it there. But in a nutshell, it doesn’t matter how “good” you are if you “look like them.” Systemic prejudice and racism prevail.)
In addition to using legend as propaganda to unite and further a means, this book also explores how heavy it feels to be a legend. When Owen first meets Una, she has become somewhat disillusioned by her role. When one is a legend or a powerful figure, there is an expectation that one is or must be perfect. A legend does not fail. A legend has no faults and is loyal and does not question. Yet Una is at a point where she grapples with thoughts and feelings such as these. Expectation of a nation is a heavy burden. It’s been a while since I read a book that had such well-incorporated themes that I felt the need to wax on about interpretations. In addition to the writing style, the themes and messaging are also my favorite aspects of the book.
However, as far as time travel and love stories go, I wasn’t as moved. So that’s why this is not a 5-star read for me. The incorporation of time travel as a mechanism to change history is interesting. But by the end I was starting to get bored with how many iterations there could be. I think Harrow cut the story off at a good page length, otherwise I suspect more folks might feel similarly. The love story is a quiet one that grows with mutual trust and respect. But in a way it is also destiny as it has happened before. Their bodies recognize the draw to each other, even if it takes them both a while to openly acknowledge it.
Anyway, I think I’ll wrap up this review here lest I continue to incompletely analyze this book. I know this is more of an analysis than a review. But I couldn’t resist since the themes are so brazen to me. THE EVERLASTING by Alix Harrow is an excellent choice for those who have an appreciation for legends, time travel, and quiet romance. It elegantly explores the use of stories and legend in war and nationalism and how difficult it can be to break free of their influence.
Rating: 4
Content warnings: sexual content, violence, blood, gore, abortion
Reading format: Hardback
If you liked this book, you may also enjoy THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES and A SPINDLE SPLINTERED by Alix E. Harrow.
Wonderful review. Yes, there’s a lot to unpack in this book. I thought the repetitiveness could have been worse, but there was one section where it felt like she was repeating herself and I wondered if the whole book was going to be like that!
Thank you! I agree, the repetitiveness could’ve been worse. I was so glad when Harrow started shortening the recaps with each new iteration of time travel.
I love this review and your analysis of the themes in this novel. I’ve seen several reviews but this is the only one I think that made these so explicit. It’s quite a hard line between drawing parallels in a novel that lets the reader draw their own connections or hitting the reader so hard over the head with them that it spoils the actual story. I’ve read a couple of the second type but it sounds as though Alix Harrow does it a lor more successfully.
Aw, thank you!! I didn’t realize I had all these thoughts until I sat down to write this review. Harrow does a great job with not banging you over the head with obvious themes. I thought the themes were done quite well here and let me mull over them on my own. I remember feeling similar about PERILOUS TIMES, another Arthurian retelling.
I LOVE this review! I agree that it invokes the “tale as told as time” vibe and I love how you talk about the Arthurian legend here! I truly didn’t catch all the references and I agree, I’d love to hear people who knows more about the topic to dissect it 🙂
Thank you! ^_^ Thinking more about it now, I realized Harrow has another book that makes a nod to Arthurian legend: The Once and Future Witches (like The Once and Future King). It’s been too long ago since I read it, so I can’t recall if there were any similarities in the actual story to any Arthurian characters.