Just so perfectly strange. I had consistent whiplash throughout this book- a Great War with a hero with a mission bestowed upon them by God in one chapter, a quick shopping trip- but you better avoid those kiosks- in the next.

Funny and strange and a super quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eArc in exchange for my honest review.

This is a wildly inventive epic that defies easy categorization while delivering profound insights about faith, identity, and human connection. This novel follows two unlikely heroes: Yara, reluctantly chosen to slay an army leader, and Adrena, a disillusioned prophet seeking divine approval.
Yara's journey from isolation and self-doubt to reluctant heroism feels authentically earned, while their struggles with family rejection and past trauma add emotional weight to what could have been a simple quest narrative. Adrena's desperate pursuit of divine favor, driven by grief for her deceased mother, creates compelling motivation that transcends typical prophetic character tropes.
The world-building is imaginatively surreal yet grounded in recognizable human emotions and conflicts. Lewis creates a universe where "Good Guys" and "Bad Guys" exist as literal armies while exploring the moral complexity that makes such distinctions meaningless.
What elevates "Canon" beyond clever premise is the fearless exploration of faith, queerness, and belonging. Yara's gender identity and spiritual struggles interweave naturally with the fantastical elements, creating authentic representation within an otherworldly context. The novel's treatment of religious themes feels both reverent and questioning, never mocking faith but also challenging institutional interpretations.
The parallel structure builds toward a convergence that feels both inevitable and surprising. The novel succeeds as both literary fiction and speculative adventure, offering something for readers across several genres.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

WOW. I need to 3-7 years to think about this book. Need to reread this galley immediately because I was blown away. Feels like a mix of: Good Omens, Awakened, a Page Lewis book of poetry, and a Lemony Snicket book? I've never read anything like this. It was perfect.

Every single page of this novel is an absurdist delight. What a gift for folks who love epics, myths, and a completely bonkers ride. The whole book is a fantastical, hilarious exploration of theism and human agency. What do we have control over and when are we riding on the back of a whale with a truth-telling newt because that’s just how the cookie crumbled?

Being able to tell a story like this takes immense skill and talent. At every point, Lewis is aware of both the overarching themes of the book and the conceits she’s using to tell the story. Just the chapter titles are a joy in and of themselves.

This book felt like a callback to the kind of comedic genre fiction I grew up reading (Douglas Adams and Richard Anton Wilson and the like) but updated and broken free from a singular lived experience.

I truly can’t wait for this to be on shelves next year.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this incredibly difficult to describe book. It is a novel that feels like a poem that feels like a dream sequence.

It is hard to compare this to anything I've read, but I would absolutely recommend it to fans of "Gideon the Ninth." The humor and weird religious theming are going to appeal to the same audience.

Humor and suspense paired beautifully in an epic quest that simultaneously doesn't take itself too seriously while clearly holding deep passion for the story and characters. The way it works through the scope of religion without in any way feeling overly critical or endorsing of the source really hit the mark for me. Every character, no matter how brief in appearance, managed to feel like an essential piece to the story.

Canon shows off Paige Lewis’s sharp eye for people...and the divine. Its funny and sharp and The character work is precise, specific, and often luminous. What kept me at arm’s length was the cool narrative distance, but that was a prosaic choice I just have trouble with. So much is filtered through a careful, controlled voice that scenes feel observed rather than lived. The result is craft you can admire more than a story you can inhabit. If you love meticulous characterization and restraint, it delivers. I really plan on getting a hard copy of this or the audio because I think a different format will be more helpful for me as a reader when I try it again.

Canon is like... a modern Alice in Wonderland, spinning down the bizarre, brutal rabbit hole.

The writing format is really unique in itself, and the story is just strange and entirely unpredictable. The narrator sometimes breaks the third wall to address the reader, has a very casual, quirky tone throughout.

But the STORY- how, how can I describe this adequately? Yara (they/them) is chosen by God to kill Dominic and defeat The Bad Guys. Accompanied by a color changing newt and HOWBIG! the whale, their journey is something entirely fresh, new, and brilliant. I honestly don't know the author's hope for the message of this, but for me it touched beautifully on the danger of looking away from uncomfortable things or investing energy into the wrong things, (cutting down all the trees on the island so that the plastic bags did not get caught on them), the hypocrisy and divisive nature of religion, the risk of following something blindly, the value of staying true to yourself and, when needed, starting over, creating your new world, (literally, in this case).

I really loved it. I love that this book is not trying to be something everyone will understand, but is unapologetically what it is.

Will be sharing review on Goodreads.