A World Fantasy Award Finalist! A Locus Award Finalist!
An Ignyte Award Finalist!
A New York Times Best Romance!
An NPR Best Speculative Fiction Book!
"Eerie, sharp and fiercely bittersweet." -The New York Times
"Noir and fantasy often seem to go together, but those two elements seldom uplift each other quite as well as they do in Even Though I Knew the End" -The Washington Post
"Stylish supernatural noir with a heart and a thrumming pulse. I devoured it." -Laini Taylor
"This is a must-read for those who like their queer fantasy with a little grit and a lot of soul (pun intended)." -Booklist, starred review
"Even Though I Knew the End rockets along from the very first page, with the details of author C.L. Polk's alternate Chicago revealing themselves exactly when required." -BookPage, starred review
"Powerful, emotional, stylish and smart, Polk proves themself yet again to be a talent not to be ignored." -Locus
"Even Though I Knew the End is Polk at the height of their considerable powers: romance, enchantment, tragedy, and courage to the bitter end." -Elizabeth Bear
"Readers who fell into recent Jazz Age urban fantasies...will love Polk's latest." -Library Journal, starred review
"Bracing as a slug of bourbon, with a twist of pain on the drop-or is that hope? Polk's back with a cold-eyed winner." -Max Gladstone
"C.L. Polk twists the hardboiled detective subgenre into something new and fresh and enticingly queer. ...[Even Though I Knew the End is] a thrilling, charming novella." -Tor.com
"Vivid and charming with a touch of noir edge, but way more heart." -Rebecca Roanhorse
"A layered exploration of love and power with genuine emotional stakes and a soaring, perfectly bittersweet payoff. It's another winner." -Publishers Weekly
C. L. Polk is the author of the World Fantasy Award winning novel Witchmark, the first novel of the Kingston Cycle. After leaving high school early, they have worked as a film extra, sold vegetables on the street, and identified exotic insect species for a vast collection of lepidoptera before settling down to write silver fork fantasy novels. Polk lives near the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta, in a tiny apartment with too many books and a yarn stash that could last a decade. They ride a green bicycle with a basket on the front. They spend too much time on Twitter.