[QCrit] YA Fantasy, CURSES & CARPENTRY (and other hobbies for dead girls), 98k, first attempt
Hey all, this query has been through many rounds of revisions, but I’m getting desperate to figure out where I’m going wrong. I’ve been querying this book for a few months and it is the fifth novel I’ve queried. My request rate has always been decent, between 15 and 25 percent, but I keep getting the full request rejection like “I loved A, B, and C about it, but regretfully have to step aside”. I’ve already sent about 45 queries, but before I send any more I want to make sure I’m giving these last few batches my very best. This one is going to really hurt to shelve. Anyway, without further ado….
Query:
Dear [agent],
I’m seeking representation for my YA fantasy, CURSES & CARPENTRY (AND OTHER HOBBIES FOR DEAD GIRLS) complete at 98,000 words. This retelling embraces the folklore origins behind the classic ballet Giselle, imagining the dark tale as a fun, feminist romp for readers of upper YA.
Drama always manages to find seventeen-year-old Giselle, but dying of a heartbreak is a bit much, even for her. Luckily, the Fates intervene, and Giselle wakes to an afterlife in the realm of the wilis—winged spirit-women who haunt dreams, read books, and eat pastries—bound by a centuries-old curse that demands vengeance on the men who betrayed them. But Giselle has one teeny-tiny problem (apart from being dead, that is). She doesn’t remember her death or any alleged “heartbreak”. In fact, she’s still head over heels for Liam—the kind and mysterious boy who helped Giselle when she needed it most and stole her heart in the process—and she’s more certain than ever that someone, somewhere made a cosmic mistake.
Desperate to return home to her ailing father and to rescue the family carpentry shop where her magic thrived, Giselle searches the underworld for a way to thwart the sinister Wili Queen and find a loophole in the ancient curse. But when the queen—whose revenge plot is woven with Giselle’s—orders her to go full-blown nightmare siren on Liam, Giselle must decide if she’s willing to sacrifice the boy she still loves to shield her father from the queen’s wrath. Only by uncovering the truth behind her mysterious death and facing the guilt she’s long since buried can she prove that love is stronger than vengeance.
This dual-timeline narrative alternates between the love story that manifests Giselle’s untimely death and the unexpected afterlife that follows. As whimsical as it is romantic, this novel combines the offbeat humor in The Lady Janies series with the lush world building of Allison Saft’s Wings of Starlight with an added side of coziness as exemplified by Sarah Beth Durst.
A combination of my passion for ballet and my long-time love of fiction writing, CURSES & CARPENTRY is a standalone novel with series potential. I have my Bachelors in Creative Writing, have published a YA Fantasy novel with a small press, and am a former Pitch Wars mentee. This manuscript was runner-up in the editing competition, RevPit 2025. When not writing, crocheting, or kid-wrangling, you can find me in the kitchen, doing just about anything other than cleaning it.
Thank you again for your time and consideration!
Sincerely,
Author
First 300 words:
After Death
The cemetery is as familiar as the scent of baking bread or sawdust beneath my nails. I’ve visited my mother’s grave here hundreds of times, but this time is different. My freshest memory—the very last moment that I have in true detail—is being in the hayloft with Liam, curled together beneath his golden glow.
I’ll give the Fates one thing, it’s one hell of a memory to end on.
I circle around the freshly turned soil of the grave where I awoke, muttering every curse word I can think of. Scratching at the corners of my mind, I try to put the jumble of recent memories together into anything remotely sensical, to somehow explain how I arrived in this moment. In this place.
“Rion?” I shout into the void of the night, the sea of headstones my only audience. Could my best friend somehow be behind this twisted, elaborate hoax? It’s far-fetched, but we’ve put each other through some wild shenanigans before and, really, what other explanation is there? People don’t just materialize in graveyards at night, unless they’re . . .
No. I halt that train of thought immediately, folding my arms across my chest. People do not materialize in graveyards at night. Period.
“Rion?” My call wavers. If he isn’t to blame, then no doubt he’ll come looking for me when I don’t visit his bakery for my morning croissant. “Come out now. Please, this isn’t funny.” My voice echoes off the tall stone wall surrounding the cemetery followed by the lonely hoot of a strix owl in the distant woods.
A sinking stone settles in my stomach as I consider that perhaps this isn’t Rion’s doing at all. Are the Fates punishing me for something? I can’t imagine what for, but I’m sure my father might have a suggestion or two.
Thanks in advance!!!