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raccoonrae's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Really wanted to like this one, but found myself constantly frustrated, really only finished it because I got attached to the characters
Pros:
-Lots of diversity and queer rep
-Lovable characters, maybe worth it for that if you can deal with the rest
Cons:
-The metaphors are VERY heavy handed and often literally explained by the characters, and frankly most of them feel very shoehorned in
-The pace was all over the place
-The plot didn’t really have a satisfying build or conclusion
-The writing itself doesn’t feel very polished, kind of jarringly edited in some places
-I found the world building really frustrating you find out in the last few pages that witches actually have much stronger magic than fae, so how did the people with more power end up as the oppressed ones in this society?
-Too much attention is given to things that don’t matter, at one point several pages are spent giving detailed physical descriptions of a long procession of people we literally never see again, near the end of the book, when we could have been wrapping up plot points that were instead left unaddressed
Pros:
-Lots of diversity and queer rep
-Lovable characters, maybe worth it for that if you can deal with the rest
Cons:
-The metaphors are VERY heavy handed and often literally explained by the characters, and frankly most of them feel very shoehorned in
-The pace was all over the place
-The plot didn’t really have a satisfying build or conclusion
-The writing itself doesn’t feel very polished, kind of jarringly edited in some places
-I found the world building really frustrating
-Too much attention is given to things that don’t matter, at one point several pages are spent giving detailed physical descriptions of a long procession of people we literally never see again, near the end of the book, when we could have been wrapping up plot points that were instead left unaddressed
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Mental illness and Suicide attempt
Minor: Child abuse, Deadnaming, and Sexual violence
xoodlebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Violence, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child abuse, Transphobia, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Suicide attempt, Infertility, Terminal illness, Genocide, and Sexual harassment
perpetualpages's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
CWs: Death and mentions of parental death; blood, graphic violence and injury, mild gore; physical assault; sexual harassment; child abuse; trauma relating to fires; suicide attempt; misgendering and deadnaming (dead name off the page); some graphic references to and depictions of sex
This is like the angry anti-fascist queer fae fantasy romance that I've always wanted. H.E. Edgmon really wrote about a faerie realm that actually has to contend with queerness, transness, racism, systemic oppression, colonialism, and power imbalance, and my heart has never been more full.
Our main character, Wyatt, was born in the faerie world of Asalin, where the fae rule and witches like him are looked down upon, outcast, and discriminated against. When he was young, he was bonded and betrothed to the faerie prince, Emyr, but he figured that marriage contract was null and void when he A) transitioned and was no longer the "woman biologically suited to carrying on the royal line" and B) lost control of his magic one devastating night before fleeing the faerie world once and for all. This is story is about Emyr finding Wyatt in the human word, determined to see through their betrothal, and bringing him back to Asalin to face his fate.
I honestly don't know where to start with this book because I love literally everything about it. It's funny, it's irreverent, it's smart and unforgiving, and it centers a messy trans character who is absolutely full of rage and just allows him to exist.
I think that's where I want to start, because I just love Wyatt as a character so much. He can go from being a smart-ass, to raging, to being an unapologetically horny little fuck, to deeply caring about other people and wanting to do what's right. It's rare that we get to see a trans character who has not only made so many mistakes in their past, but continues to fuck up and make horrible mistakes. Wyatt is someone who acts and reacts based on instinct, without stopping to consider the impact of his actions, and sometimes that works to his benefit and sometimes it doesn't. The story does such a good job of getting underneath that instinct and showing how it's a result of deep-seated trauma ,and how that snap judgment actually speaks to a much deeper survival response that Wyatt was forced to develop in a world that was unsafe for him.
There's also a great exploration of how Wyatt's anger is, in some ways, tied to his transness. There is an anger and a resentment stemming from people being unwilling to see him, unwilling to let him be himself, unwillingly to let him break free from expectations that didn't fit, and there was also a feeling of resentment towards people who seemed to represent everything he was told he could never be. Layer on the fact that he's also a witch—and therefore hated and hunted by fae in a world that's supposed to be his just as much as it is theirs—and that creates this perfect storm of trauma, fear, and animosity that guides his instinct to lash out and hurt others. I think transness, especially, often gets mixed up in respectability politics, and we're often not allowed to show our anger at a world and a system that actively harms us in fundamental ways, and that's why Wyatt's rage feels so cathartic.
He makes mistakes, he speaks out of turn, he acts violently, and yes he hurts people—but as the story continues, he's learning to recognize where that comes from, and also how he can *use* that anger as a wrecking ball to destroy and rebuild this deeply broken world. Sometimes it's not a bad thing to break something that's already crumbling. This is a story that recognizes that anger is just another part of love, it's a part of our humanity, it can be a tool for recognizing when something is not right, and I appreciate how this story gives anger space to exist and be known.
All in all, I think this is a story all about reconnection. It's about Wyatt reconnecting with Emyr as they try to figure out where they stand and how to navigate a relationship when neither one of them is the person they knew before. It's about Wyatt reconnecting with Asalin, the world he grew up in, and finally coming to account for the damage he caused on the fateful night he left. It's about witches reconnecting with themselves and each other, recognizing the power they hold in this world, and figuring out how they can survive this oppressive system. It's about Wyatt forcing the fae rulers to reconnect their power with the reality of the throne's abusive and harmful past, and how they can move forward from a legacy predicated on harming others, if they can at all. It's about Wyatt reconnecting with himself and realizing that he has value just for existing and that he is his own person, not merely a tool for the throne or a sum of his labels.
All of these connections and reckonings are happening concurrently throughout the book, and that is a huge part of what makes it feel so powerful.
Like I said to begin with, this book really and truly has everything. If you're looking for a queer fantasy romance between a witch and a faerie prince that's dark but also somehow incredibly soft, this it it. If you're looking for banter and community between found family, this is it. If you're looking for a faerie story that centers raging against broken systems of power and injustice, this is it. If you're looking for a whip-smart story that revels in the beauty of a faerie world while also desecrating it at every opportunity, this is it. This is such a vividly imagined fae fantasy where faeries have internet connections and angry trans boys think about their binders while standing in the midst of immaculate palaces. There's political intrigue, there's violent uprisings, there's dark and dangerous magic, there's romance. There's everything you could possibly want and it's done so incredibly well.
H.E. Edgmon has written exactly the kind of fantasy romance that I've always craved but never knew I was missing. The characters in The Witch King are deeply emotional and deeply human, even if their magic suggests otherwise, and that humanity, that anger, that innate desire and need to evolve is what makes this book so successful in my eyes.
Book 1 hasn't even come out yet and I'm already DYING to know what happens in Book 2! If literally anything I've said in this review resonates with you on any level, I strongly encourage you to pick this one up. It is essential reading, in my opinion, and it makes me so excited for whatever H.E. Edgmon is going to write next!
This is like the angry anti-fascist queer fae fantasy romance that I've always wanted. H.E. Edgmon really wrote about a faerie realm that actually has to contend with queerness, transness, racism, systemic oppression, colonialism, and power imbalance, and my heart has never been more full.
Our main character, Wyatt, was born in the faerie world of Asalin, where the fae rule and witches like him are looked down upon, outcast, and discriminated against. When he was young, he was bonded and betrothed to the faerie prince, Emyr, but he figured that marriage contract was null and void when he A) transitioned and was no longer the "woman biologically suited to carrying on the royal line" and B) lost control of his magic one devastating night before fleeing the faerie world once and for all. This is story is about Emyr finding Wyatt in the human word, determined to see through their betrothal, and bringing him back to Asalin to face his fate.
I honestly don't know where to start with this book because I love literally everything about it. It's funny, it's irreverent, it's smart and unforgiving, and it centers a messy trans character who is absolutely full of rage and just allows him to exist.
I think that's where I want to start, because I just love Wyatt as a character so much. He can go from being a smart-ass, to raging, to being an unapologetically horny little fuck, to deeply caring about other people and wanting to do what's right. It's rare that we get to see a trans character who has not only made so many mistakes in their past, but continues to fuck up and make horrible mistakes. Wyatt is someone who acts and reacts based on instinct, without stopping to consider the impact of his actions, and sometimes that works to his benefit and sometimes it doesn't. The story does such a good job of getting underneath that instinct and showing how it's a result of deep-seated trauma ,and how that snap judgment actually speaks to a much deeper survival response that Wyatt was forced to develop in a world that was unsafe for him.
There's also a great exploration of how Wyatt's anger is, in some ways, tied to his transness. There is an anger and a resentment stemming from people being unwilling to see him, unwilling to let him be himself, unwillingly to let him break free from expectations that didn't fit, and there was also a feeling of resentment towards people who seemed to represent everything he was told he could never be. Layer on the fact that he's also a witch—and therefore hated and hunted by fae in a world that's supposed to be his just as much as it is theirs—and that creates this perfect storm of trauma, fear, and animosity that guides his instinct to lash out and hurt others. I think transness, especially, often gets mixed up in respectability politics, and we're often not allowed to show our anger at a world and a system that actively harms us in fundamental ways, and that's why Wyatt's rage feels so cathartic.
He makes mistakes, he speaks out of turn, he acts violently, and yes he hurts people—but as the story continues, he's learning to recognize where that comes from, and also how he can *use* that anger as a wrecking ball to destroy and rebuild this deeply broken world. Sometimes it's not a bad thing to break something that's already crumbling. This is a story that recognizes that anger is just another part of love, it's a part of our humanity, it can be a tool for recognizing when something is not right, and I appreciate how this story gives anger space to exist and be known.
All in all, I think this is a story all about reconnection. It's about Wyatt reconnecting with Emyr as they try to figure out where they stand and how to navigate a relationship when neither one of them is the person they knew before. It's about Wyatt reconnecting with Asalin, the world he grew up in, and finally coming to account for the damage he caused on the fateful night he left. It's about witches reconnecting with themselves and each other, recognizing the power they hold in this world, and figuring out how they can survive this oppressive system. It's about Wyatt forcing the fae rulers to reconnect their power with the reality of the throne's abusive and harmful past, and how they can move forward from a legacy predicated on harming others, if they can at all. It's about Wyatt reconnecting with himself and realizing that he has value just for existing and that he is his own person, not merely a tool for the throne or a sum of his labels.
All of these connections and reckonings are happening concurrently throughout the book, and that is a huge part of what makes it feel so powerful.
Like I said to begin with, this book really and truly has everything. If you're looking for a queer fantasy romance between a witch and a faerie prince that's dark but also somehow incredibly soft, this it it. If you're looking for banter and community between found family, this is it. If you're looking for a faerie story that centers raging against broken systems of power and injustice, this is it. If you're looking for a whip-smart story that revels in the beauty of a faerie world while also desecrating it at every opportunity, this is it. This is such a vividly imagined fae fantasy where faeries have internet connections and angry trans boys think about their binders while standing in the midst of immaculate palaces. There's political intrigue, there's violent uprisings, there's dark and dangerous magic, there's romance. There's everything you could possibly want and it's done so incredibly well.
H.E. Edgmon has written exactly the kind of fantasy romance that I've always craved but never knew I was missing. The characters in The Witch King are deeply emotional and deeply human, even if their magic suggests otherwise, and that humanity, that anger, that innate desire and need to evolve is what makes this book so successful in my eyes.
Book 1 hasn't even come out yet and I'm already DYING to know what happens in Book 2! If literally anything I've said in this review resonates with you on any level, I strongly encourage you to pick this one up. It is essential reading, in my opinion, and it makes me so excited for whatever H.E. Edgmon is going to write next!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Minor: Suicide attempt
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