A CLOCKWORK Christmas OF BROKEN HEARTS: Tale

In Saint-Silence, even the snow doesn't dare fall sideways. Barthélemy Famine has a problem: when he is sad, the world freezes around him. In a town where the Mayor has made symmetry a law and disorder a sin, a lanky boy with the hands of a goldsmith has no place. Barthélemy keeps his head down, takes the mockery, and hides his curse like a shameful secret. The night everything changes, he flees toward the Manor of Thorns-the lair of the 'monsters' the town points fingers at. There, he finds the only family that ever welcomed him just as he is: broken, tender, and fiercely alive. But the Manor guards Saint-Silence's best-kept secret. The Mayor isn't who he claims to be. He stole a name, a town, and a father's place. And he will stop at nothing to erase the final traces of his lie-not even his own daughter, Éléonore. With only days left until Christmas Eve, Barthélemy must stop hiding, learn to love what is cracked, and prove that a heart made of old rags can beat louder than a heart of metal. A dark, gothic, and satirical Christmas tale for those who prefer frost to fairy lights and Tim Burton's aesthetic to overly smooth happy endings.