The Department of Ever-Afters

What if your happily ever after was assigned by a government algorithm?

Ember has a perfectly satisfying life. He grows roses. He bakes sourdough. He collects teacups.

Unfortunately, he’s also a dragon.

According to the Department of Ever-Afters, that means Ember has been officially classified as a fire-breathing, treasure-hoarding villain and scheduled to battle Prince Geoffrey every Thursday at three.

Ember would like to decline.

The Department would like to inform him that declining destiny is not an available option.

So, Ember marches into the kingdom’s most bewildering bureaucracy, where princesses are required to be rescued, wolves keep getting assigned grandmothers, heroes are issued swords whether they want them or not, and everyone is expected to stay neatly inside the story someone else has written for them. But when Ember discovers that Prince Geoffrey would rather design curtains than slay dragons, he begins to wonder whether the problem isn’t the characters at all.

Maybe it’s the story.

Funny, fast-paced, and unexpectedly meaningful, The Department of Ever-Afters is a fairy-tale satire about labels, expectations, and finding the courage to tell the world: You’ve got the wrong dragon.