Book Review: The Inescapable March, by Hana Carolina

The Inescapable March
by Hana Carolina

​Review by Julie Carpenter
​This beautifully crafted and intricate tale is a love story wrapped in a fairy tale wrapped in an Edgar Allan Poe story. It’s set in a fantasy realm but familiar elements are used in the creation of an admirably original narrative that’s at once complex and precise. 

It’s the story of two lovers, Arran and Hyacinth, men with a history of a friendship that hovers on the edge of something more. The narrative turns on the relationship between time and love with the eternal but terrible present as the moment when we can choose who we bond ourselves with and how.

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​The protagonist, Arran, has a lot to learn about love and time, even though he has the ability to manipulate the timeline through his skills in magic. His best friend, the man he can’t quite admit he loves, is an actor, singer, and creator who tries again and again to open Arran’s world and allow him to experience enjoyment of beauty and love, but Arran’s own barriers hold him back.  Arran has a hard time understanding his relationship with Hyacinth until he wonders if he’s lost it. 

The book is a puzzle and a maze of sorts, winding through time and the choices that create the ties that bind us together—all of us—for the story explores how one person’s narrative affects not only those closest to them, but every connection they make as they choose what they do, who's important, and who can be sacrificed.
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The Inescapable March follows two broken people who are trying to find each other amongst the scattered shards of time. Highly recommended by Sacred Chickens.

Bio: 
Hana Carolina (she/her) is a pseudonym of an Edinburgh-based creative and academic writer. In love with the gothic atmosphere of Scotland, she moved out of Poland as a teen and now balances her old, tired Polish identity with a conflicted mix of Scottish and British. She studied literature, film, and television for many years, and wrote a PhD thesis about the psychology of audience engagement with fictional characters. Hana has worked as a tutor, interpreter, and researcher, all while publishing academically and writing dark stories about horrible people…who on occasion end up involved in elaborate, tragically romantic scenarios.

​You can follow her at  @hanacarolina.bsky.social
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