Read our interview with Cassidy Ellis Salter on These Shattered Spires

Name: These Shattered Spires
Author: Ellis Salter, Cassidy
ISBN: 9781526682994

Article | Apr 2026

These Shattered Spires by CASSIDY ELLIS SALTER is a gothic fantasy that follows four magical rivals who are forced to work together to avoid certain death in a deadly competition.

Read on for a Q&A.

MEET CASSIDY ELLIS SALTER

What first inspired the idea for These Shattered Spires, and how did the world begin to take shape for you?

I struggled to write for years: I’ve always loved reading dark, gothic fantasy tales, but every time I put pen to paper I was holding myself back, trying to write something that seemed right but wasn’t. The seed was really planted when I came out and made a lot of changes to my life. I felt lost, but also free, and I just decided to have fun. It felt a bit like therapy. I used all of the things I’d been cooking up in the back of my head for years, and which didn’t have a home – undead nuns, monsters called starvelings, magic wrested from pain, a sky of teeth and bones, an apocalypse – and screwed it all together with characters who weren’t nice, but who I actually related to. And I poured all of my anger into it. And it just grew into this big, gorgeous, gothic story that finally made sense.

How did you go about creating the history and mythology of Fourspires Castle? Were there specific stories that shaped it?

I’m a huge fan of big stories in contained spaces, where you can turn the pressure up and watch everyone explode. Anything from space stations to pirate ships or ageing castles.

I was obsessed with Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan and Gormenghast as a teen. In these books, an entire society lives in one sprawling castle under the thumb of a single ruler, taking part in ludicrous ceremonies every day. The same ceremonial reverence is part of Fourspires: the suppression of the apocalypse every morning, the awful twenty-course dinners watched over by nuns, the strict hierarchy, the ridiculous rules, all in a place that nobody can leave.

The Slaughter is a brutal, high-stakes competition central to the story. What drew you to explore themes of power, survival and the choices characters make under extreme pressure?

As a teen and young adult, I felt very trapped, like my characters do – and probably like most other teens and young adults. The book really started when it felt like I was burning my world down. It’s through writing that I was able to explore the anger I felt at the time, the pressure of having a ‘normal’ life, and what it’s like to make tough choices. I think fantasy is the perfect space to explore those themes, because it’s both safe and completely limitless. And I like the idea that even one person might read it and think, I can make huge choices under pressure too.

What can you tell us about each of the four familiars and the rivalries between them?

Taro is an ultra-gothic bone witch who papers over her deep insecurity and guilt with jokes and sarcasm. She’s obsessed with Nixie, her botanic witch ex-girlfriend, who’s gorgeous and clever and very controlled, but who’s also secretly quite manipulative. Alis is Nixie’s former friend, an ex-stone witch who was kicked out of her tower and took shelter in the collapsing library. Elliot’s magic is taken from blood; he’s the book’s long-suffering emo boy, literally cursed and very unpleasant, who wants to be a villain but miserably fails.

They’re all trained to never interact with each other. It doesn’t stop them from being obsessed with/in love with each other, or trying to commit murder on the regular. They have long and complicated histories with each other, and Nixie’s the one who (reluctantly) holds them all together.

How did you develop the rules of magic in this world, and in particular, what inspired the four distinct magical disciplines?

My favourite books are those where magic has a price. In These Shattered Spires, when you produce magic, you start rotting. That’s where the familiars come in – I thought, What awful loophole would people try to exploit to avoid pain? The familiars are forced to produce the magic that someone else then uses, which lets the user avoid suffering. And it forces a choice for the familiars. Do you keep obeying and producing magic at the cost of your life, or do you risk rebelling, also at the cost of your life?

I wanted the four magical disciplines – blood, bone, stone, and botanic – to reflect and shape the personalities that use them. Botanicals have to be nurtured into existence, whereas stone can be plucked from the ground. Blood and bone necessitate some kind of violence, or even death, before they’re useful. Getting those materials changes who you are, and it sets up really deep rivalries by the people who use them.

Can you tell us a little about your writing process for this book – what does a typical writing day look like for you?

I’m a morning and night writer. The earlier I can get up the better. I start writing at around seven, and I drink two massive mugs of tea and one coffee, and I keep going until lunchtime. The minute I stop to eat, my brain implodes and I’m pretty useless until dinner. So in the afternoon I do less creative stuff, like admin, or if I’m trying to work out a plot problem I’ll go to the gym and plod on the treadmill while I’m thinking about it. Either that, or I’ll watch trash TV while slurping tea. At least seven cups a day. I definitely have a problem. Then I try to start working again in the evening, but I don’t really come alive until nine. I can keep going until the early hours of the morning. It’s terrible for sleep.

What do you hope readers take away from These Shattered Spires?

I hope they’re left breathless from the pace and with sore ribs from snort-laughing. But I also hope they see part of themselves in the familiars.

Can you share anything about where the story will go next in the series?

If These Shattered Spires is about fighting tooth and claw for freedom then the second book, These Hollow Ruins, is about getting what you asked for and realising it’s actually the opposite of what you wanted. I think readers will be surprised by where it goes – nobody’s been able to guess it so far. The third, which is like the boss battle of the trilogy, has a very bittersweet finale.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cassidy Ellis Salter is a fantasy author who lives in London with a pile of bones and historical oddities they’ve rescued from the Thames. They hold a bachelor’s degree and MA from the Warwick Writing Program.