"This dark, delicious retelling of Hansel and Gretel reimagines the world through the eyes of a girl awakening to her own strength." -- Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Gretel had no choice.

Her brother Hansel was in danger, and she had to kill the witch. Five months later, she is still ripped from her dreams and awoken by the noise of her sword tearing into the witch’s flesh. Her waking hours are no better. Hansel has grown more and more like their monstrous father by the day. The society she now inhabits has trapped her in an endless cycle of balls with nobles who sneer at her family’s new money. And worst of all, her greedy father has issued his newest ploy to increase his wealth. Gretel must marry, and soon.

Devastated at the prospect of a lifetime with an old, decrepit husband, she flees a ball…and runs right into Prince Wilfried. When Gretel divulges the reality of her situation, Wilfried comes up with a solution. He is also being pressured to find a suitable future queen -- they can both delay the inevitable by faking an engagement. Gretel agrees, and what starts as a ruse quickly deepens as she finds herself falling for the handsome prince.

But in the quiet of night, still trapped in her castle with her memories, Gretel feels the walls closing in and ventures into the neighboring woods. There, she meets Katharina, a beautiful witch who introduces her to the witch community. But these women aren’t evil -- they’re healers, and Gretel is drawn to them.

When information comes to light implicating her family’s involvement in a traitorous plot and endangering the lives of herself and those she’s grown to care about, Gretel must ask herself -- did the wrong person die in that cottage? And can the Witchkiller become a witch?

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press (October 7, 2025)
• ISBN-13: 978-1546137689