In “Among the Burning Flowers,” Samantha Shannon returns to the world of “The Priory of the Orange Tree” with a tale that feels both inevitable and heartbreaking. Belief splinters, kingdoms fall and in Yscalin’s ruin, we glimpse not just the collapse of a nation, but the private shattering of the people bound to it.

The newest entry in Shannon’s universe does not disappoint in delivering her signature style. Politics simmer, blood spills and the spiderweb of cause and effect is tugged at until it quivers. Shannon’s prose remains hypnotic — easy to read, easy to get lost in and always gesturing toward a vast world beyond the page. For new readers, the book works almost like a keyhole view: a sliver of history that makes the “Priory”-shaped door behind it all the more inviting.

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