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tiakiwi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The story is wound in Magic and the author cleverly adds in Jewish history and stories as one if the people's in the book. The love between the two characters is definitely a slow burn but you are rooting for them the whole time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Violence, War, and Torture
chrisljm's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
Meh. Not a fan of the narration, which read like poetry but in the way where I just don't know wtf they're talking about sometimes. The folklore is written well but it became repetitive and too drawn out, making the story drag.
Also for all the people who recommended this book because of the romance, you had to be making shit up because the romance sucked. Not to say the romance came out of nowhere, because I knew it was going to happen, but there was absolutely no build up at all. I didn't care for any of the characters, which is besides the point because they also had no chemistry at all. I truly don't understand what Gáspár liked about Évike because she was honestly dumb as fuck. She had no common sense and no sense of self preservation. She absolutely refused to think before any of her actions, even when Gáspár explicitly explains how she'd make the situation worse. She also spends majority of the book belittling Gáspár, and constantly attacking him on how she thinks he's ashamed they've laid and slept together, even though they have so many other things to worry about. He literally tries to get her to think before doing something rash and getting them both killed and she accuses him of fearing people will found out he's no longer pure. Like be fucking fr.
The book also touches on religious/ethical/moral themes but honestly with the messy plot and execution, flat characters, and confusing narration, I honestly don't know what the take away was supposed to be.
Also for all the people who recommended this book because of the romance, you had to be making shit up because the romance sucked. Not to say the romance came out of nowhere, because I knew it was going to happen, but there was absolutely no build up at all. I didn't care for any of the characters, which is besides the point because they also had no chemistry at all. I truly don't understand what Gáspár liked about Évike because she was honestly dumb as fuck. She had no common sense and no sense of self preservation. She absolutely refused to think before any of her actions, even when Gáspár explicitly explains how she'd make the situation worse. She also spends majority of the book belittling Gáspár, and constantly attacking him on how she thinks he's ashamed they've laid and slept together, even though they have so many other things to worry about. He literally tries to get her to think before doing something rash and getting them both killed and she accuses him of fearing people will found out he's no longer pure. Like be fucking fr.
The book also touches on religious/ethical/moral themes but honestly with the messy plot and execution, flat characters, and confusing narration, I honestly don't know what the take away was supposed to be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Abandonment, Bullying, Genocide, War, and Death of parent
Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, and Vomit
bethsreading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
This book was definitely a disappointment. It had an enticing concept, a matriarchal village that must pay the tithe of one girl a year to the ruling patriarchal coloniser of the area. The main character, Evike, is the only girl in her village without magic, and so she is cast away into the arms of the enemy when the tithe must be paid. I thought the story would be comprised of a dark and mysterious journey through the woods between these two enemies, with some obvious enemies to lovers romance in there. I think that if the book had been this, it would have worked a lot better. However, the scale became too grand with kings, politics, and war, and sadly it just felt flat and tropey for me. In fact most of this book was a genuine struggle to get through.
Evike on the surface is an interesting heroine, someone without magic from a community where magic defines and protects them. But she was so irritating and ends up getting a dark magic anyway! Whatsmore, she is supposed to be the best huntress in her village and Gaspar (the love enemy love interest) is supposedly keeping her alive because he is a useless hunter and she will protect him. However, it ended up being him saving her over and over again — also he ends up being a really skilled swordsman which completely conflicted that element of the plot. She doesn’t save him once, except by wrapping his wounds and cooking his dinner, which feels like it is just reinforcing the gender stereotypes it was trying to subvert.
I did like the books commentary on religious hypocrisy, but it kept hammering it home every page as if it thought the reader was too stupid to recognise it. A lot of the book was obvious and the rest convoluted. I did not genuinely care about a single character and if I hadn’t have DNF’d Belladonna just before it, I wouldn’t have dragged myself through it. I have heard good things have Reid’s other book, Juniper and Thorn, which I would be willing to try in the hopes it is better than this
Evike on the surface is an interesting heroine, someone without magic from a community where magic defines and protects them. But she was so irritating
I did like the books commentary on religious hypocrisy, but it kept hammering it home every page as if it thought the reader was too stupid to recognise it. A lot of the book was obvious and the rest convoluted. I did not genuinely care about a single character and if I hadn’t have DNF’d Belladonna just before it, I wouldn’t have dragged myself through it. I have heard good things have Reid’s other book, Juniper and Thorn, which I would be willing to try in the hopes it is better than this
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Murder, War, Violence, Body horror, Racism, and Sexual content
maresuju's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Religious bigotry, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Animal death, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
soffafa's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
cant believe i spent so much time reading this. tldr; its basically an enemies to lovers but also stockholm syndrome. two characters with nothing in common other than they travel together. shes like "oh hes actually cute" and fawns over him when hes gives her the cold shoulder the entire book. their interactions are so toxic, so many dialogue lines that emphasize "to spark a reaction from him..." or "in hopes to rattle...". that comes up so often in this book its annoying.
the interactions between the different groups also could have been addressed better. weirdly OP villian and then the royal court-- the conflicts werent interesting in the slightest for the pagans or the woodsman folk.
not worth spending time reading for mid story and characters
the interactions between the different groups also could have been addressed better. weirdly OP villian and then the royal court-- the conflicts werent interesting in the slightest for the pagans or the woodsman folk.
not worth spending time reading for mid story and characters
Content Warnings
Moderate: Genocide and War
beccaand's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- 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
3.5
this was super interesting (and similar-ish in feel to Spinning Silver), but i don't think audiobook was a good choice for me?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Antisemitism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Gore, Self harm, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent and War
jaybird_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-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
Read the book you will NOT regret it!! A dark, gorey fantasy with a cast of fully dimensional female characters and a well-done enemies-to-lovers romance. I don’t even want to say much else because it’s just such a good read. I loved the main character and the love interest is babygirl to me!!
Readers who dislike religion (even in the fictional setting) may want to pass this one over because it’s such a heavy theme but I thought it was delicious.
The critique: the author LOVES purple prose and cannot stop herself from writing as many metaphors as possible. This is a pro or con depending on personal taste imo.
PS there’s a pronunciation guide at the back of the book lol
Readers who dislike religion (even in the fictional setting) may want to pass this one over because it’s such a heavy theme but I thought it was delicious.
The critique: the author LOVES purple prose and cannot stop herself from writing as many metaphors as possible. This is a pro or con depending on personal taste imo.
PS there’s a pronunciation guide at the back of the book lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, War, Death, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Sexual content and Vomit
bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Xenophobia, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and War
Moderate: Child death
katievallin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Xenophobia, War, Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Genocide, Death, Racism, Religious bigotry, Torture, Grief, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Gore, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Antisemitism, and Bullying
Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Sexual content
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, and Alcohol
fuitfortuna's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Mixed feelings on this one.
I really liked the world building, it was interesting and I could tell that the author was really knowledgeable about the folklore that inspired the world and the magic system was intriguing.
My problems lie everywhere else. While Reid certainly is talented I often found some of the writing repetitive, the author would find a phrase she liked and rinse it multiple times within 5 pages and at times i found it very difficult to power through - i actually put the book down for almost two months when i reached the halfway point because i had no motivation to continue.
And that’s not even to mention how this almost felt like a YA masquerading as an adult? Evike is supposed to be 25 but spends most of the book acting like she’s 16. I have no real basis for this but there were multiple times where the vibes were just incredibly YA.
The pacing was also a large issue for me the first half of the book almost moved too slow and the second half moved way too fast. The book really started to pick up once they reached the city and then it felt like events were flying by. This was really unfortunate as once we meet Katalin once again and have the big battle (for some reason?) it feels so unearned that I just didn’t really care.
I also have some conflicted thoughts on the romance. I’d heard it was more of an enemies-to-lovers type of deal and to not expect it to be the main focus of the story. And while they were certainly enemies at the very start by virtue of their backgrounds, the romance actually felt very insta-love to me,with little development as to why they’d grown to care for each other. Though I agree that the romance should not be the main thing you focus on, it’s difficult not to when Evike is horny for Gaspar on like every page.
The epilogue left me very unfulfilled, while I could understand how Evike longed to belong somewhere and loved Keszi despite her difficult history I do not understand why she would have chosen to go back there when like every single person there was terrible to her at best and actively abusive at worst.
Overall I was quite disappointed as I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did, perhaps I just built it up too much in my head. However I did still enjoy most of the book and would read some of the authors other works.
I really liked the world building, it was interesting and I could tell that the author was really knowledgeable about the folklore that inspired the world and the magic system was intriguing.
My problems lie everywhere else. While Reid certainly is talented I often found some of the writing repetitive, the author would find a phrase she liked and rinse it multiple times within 5 pages and at times i found it very difficult to power through - i actually put the book down for almost two months when i reached the halfway point because i had no motivation to continue.
And that’s not even to mention how this almost felt like a YA masquerading as an adult? Evike is supposed to be 25 but spends most of the book acting like she’s 16. I have no real basis for this but there were multiple times where the vibes were just incredibly YA.
The pacing was also a large issue for me the first half of the book almost moved too slow and the second half moved way too fast.
I also have some conflicted thoughts on the romance. I’d heard it was more of an enemies-to-lovers type of deal and to not expect it to be the main focus of the story. And while they were certainly enemies at the very start by virtue of their backgrounds, the romance actually felt very insta-love to me,
Overall I was quite disappointed as I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did, perhaps I just built it up too much in my head. However I did still enjoy most of the book and would read some of the authors other works.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Blood, Death, Self harm, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Antisemitism, War, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury