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readwithria's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I love fairytale retellings, I love folklore, and I love Hannah Whitten’s other book The Foxglove King, so I went into this book wanting to love it with my whole heart. It delivered on so many things! The world was lush and beautiful, the prose was atmospheric, and the characters had such strong bonds with each other. This book took the spooky forest trope and spun it into something new and delicately beautiful.
The one thing that kept this from being a five start book for me was the pacing. It was definitely intentional, and built a lot of necessary tension, but the first half was much slower than I personally prefer. It picked up significantly around the halfway mark, and the last 40-50 pages were an avalanche of action and emotional beats.
I can’t wait to read the sequel! Hannah Whitten is making herself one of my go-to spooky season authors. 4 stars.
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Violence, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Gore, and Self harm
Moderate: Cursing, Confinement, Grief, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content
maresuju's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Blood
Moderate: Violence, Grief, Confinement, Death, and Murder
Minor: Suicide and War
emilylovesgoodbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, and Death
bea_reads_books's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Alcohol, Body horror, Violence, Animal death, Gore, and Grief
Minor: Death of parent
tifftastic87's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
⚠️ Self-harm (cutting)
When presented with her destiny as a human sacrifice, Redarys appears to take it on the chin. Really she's hiding from magic that wants to consume her. Eammon, the Wolf, is Warden of the Wilderwood where Red is destined for. But the Wilderwood is dying and Eammon is determined to save and Red and he is not accepting applications for assistants.
Supposedly, this is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but I fail to see it. The only similarities is a curse that makes the town think a man is a monster and love breaking that curse. The two main characters are both stubborn martyrs and that is where most of the conflict comes from. If they could be honest and communicate from the beginning things would have been better. But the main story is politics and religion.
The actual plot of the story, which is shadowed a bit by the romance plot, is one of religious fanaticism that is actually really well done. There's a dark versus light magic trope used where the religious use the dark magic and are out for power. The damn athiests only wantinf peace, love, and healthy trees.
That being said, the magic system was a little confusing. Its clear that is blood magic but it reacts different in different settings and different people. It isnt predictable unless it is. I would have liked to have seen this worked out a bit better.
Oh ya and the age gap, centuries to 20 years....
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, and Murder
anniereads221's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Sexism, Gore, Murder, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Body horror
hbae's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Self harm, and Death
chloescozycorner's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Blood and Self harm
Moderate: Death of parent and Death
luckylulureads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Self harm
Minor: Alcohol and Death of parent
Self harm aspects are not for suicidal reasons but for Magic reasons. Still, it can be hard to read, especially as some characters martyr themselvesasipofcozy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I really enjoyed the concept of the book, the magic, the characters and the overall arching theme. However, this is definitely a beauty and the beast retelling rather than the red riding hood that the vibes give. And when I mean you know it's a Beauty and the Beast retelling it's very obvious.
I enjoyed the characters and thought that they added to the story...somewhat. However all the side characters Raffe, Kiri, Neve, Arick, the five kings were just fillers in spaces and didn't have much personality to them.
Then there is the magic system...of which is never fully explained to us. There is a forest that is quite alive but we are never given the backstory on how it came to have magic. Then there is the whole folk lore of the five kings that once again we get very little explanation on, even the character Red keeps asking about this information and isn't given it!
Then you have the dual POV's with the sisters and I was not interested in Neve what so ever. The time gaps in this book and the jumping around created a lot of plot confusion (of which I felt like there was at least 3 different plot lines going on at once). However, Neve is well naive. While she does love her sister she only cares about herself and her own decisions and while I get she wants to save her sister she is blinded by everything.
In the end, I did enjoy some aspects of the book but wasn't totally won over by it. However, I would be interested to see Neve's development in For the Throne.
Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Gore, Death of parent, and Death