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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Reread (audio 06/2025):
I felt a deeper sense of anxiety during this reread even though I knew exactly what happens, or maybe because I knew what happens. Because good lord this book will rip you apart. Especially those last few chapters are bloody brutal. I haven’t felt as heavy or cried that much in a Simone book since American King. Half my annotations in this book was just a string of crying emojis which should tell you how I was doing the first time I read it and it was almost worse this time.
Auden’s pov is darkly funny and with Zachary Webber narrating, I was both swooning and devastated during the entire thing. I love all my bebes but I would die for Auden Guest and Sir James Frazier. I’m sorry but I have a beef with Becket bcs the thing that they do at the end should’ve just been him and that’s it. Okay I get why it wasn’t but I’m irrational it’s fine (although in the year of our Satan 2025 I do appreciate their decision to you know, yeet). And idk what it says about me that I’m absolutely fine with all the canoodling between the different combinations of people in this sextet but I draw the line and Becket’s unrequited infatuation with Poe. Again sorry, I’m fucking protective of my baby king and his two consorts okay. Anyway, the day Sierra decides to write a full on dark Romantasy book, it is over for all of us because I’ll be retiring from life to just obsess over it full time thank you.
***
A transcendent experience
Let me just start by saying that Sierra Simone is writing on a whole other plane, at a level so Goddess like that I feel fortunate that we are even allowed to partake of her words. I feel like there should be a trial by fire or something before we get to experience this magnitude of talent. To be able to appreciate it the way it should be loved and appreciated. Her writing is a masterclass in romancing the reader, in cajoling you right into falling in love with the words. I mean when you highlight even most of the afterword, you know you have something special on hand.
In the beginning I had waited so long for this finale that I had to take a minute before diving in. I finally let myself just start and be serenaded and seduced by her words, to sink into their beauty, to indulge in their excellence. Every time I saw a particularly profound phrase or line, I let myself breathe it in like the smell of a particularly exotic rose. Actually, never mind the roses. What I’m saying is, I let myself sip and savor, until, like all good things, the revelry ended and strife began. My poor, beautiful, horny Thornchapel residents had some serious suffering to go through after all.
And if the others suffered, Auden’s was journey was the most transformative, if not the hardest. My beautiful, floppy haired, haughty, pouty, dramatic, rich boy, my lord of the manor, my thorn king, my Sir Pouts-a-lot (clearly I’m no less dramatic). Not that the others didn’t have their own hero journeys, but for me personally, I hoarded every single Auden moment like a miser. Auden’s POV is somehow funnier, in a subtle and very dry British wit manner. I’ve had a deep fascination with the story of kingship and responsibility as told through Auden, the little lordling who we watch growing into the king he’s meant to be. One of the other highlights for me was the incredible bond between Rebecca and Auden, a friendship fast and true, between two monarchs in their own right. Poe’s soft sunshine, Delphine’s bright, fizzy effervescence, Becket’s loyal fervor, all combine to make a cohesive, strange little family unit.
Steeped in stories of theology and philosophy and history and archaeology (all of which I had little to no familiarity with), the narrative is breathtakingly rambling and sharply intellectual. The symbolism is strongly pervasive. Matters of human sacrifice and ancient fairytales are discussed with equal weight. Magical realism is a guiding principle in many of the author’s stories, but this series leans into it entirely. Of course, it is still as bananas, evocative, and horny, if not more so than before. Sexual rituals, instead of being profane, are almost as sacred (or more) than ancient rituals and religious feasts. Which is one of the things I love about their world, sex isn’t icky or bad or wrong, it is as essential as breathing, as integral as the language they speak, and there are no arbitrary limits (except consent of course). This series may not be for everyone (things get freaky on the Simone scale), but it is a bit of a love letter to the true connoisseurs of Simone. Of which club I’m the chieftain(ess?)
This book left me discombobulated. I felt legitimately shaky and mildly feverish after turning the last page. To be honest, I don’t even know what exactly I felt; a little punch drunk, a little sad, mostly bittersweet. My heart is both heavy and light, full and hollow. Both freaked out and comforted, like the author intended. Was this a perfect book? Not exactly, but I appreciated the imperfections just the same. In fact, I was almost prepared to take off half a star (for reasons that shall not be discussed), but clearly if my meandering thoughts are anything to go by, I’m so thoroughly infected by Thornchapel and its denizens that anything less than a perfect 5 stars would just be a lie (basically me having a mini tantrum, again, for reasons). I’ll be haunted by this world, and these characters for a while yet.
I felt a deeper sense of anxiety during this reread even though I knew exactly what happens, or maybe because I knew what happens. Because good lord this book will rip you apart. Especially those last few chapters are bloody brutal. I haven’t felt as heavy or cried that much in a Simone book since American King. Half my annotations in this book was just a string of crying emojis which should tell you how I was doing the first time I read it and it was almost worse this time.
Auden’s pov is darkly funny and with Zachary Webber narrating, I was both swooning and devastated during the entire thing. I love all my bebes but I would die for Auden Guest and Sir James Frazier. I’m sorry but I have a beef with Becket bcs the thing that they do at the end should’ve just been him and that’s it. Okay I get why it wasn’t but I’m irrational it’s fine (although in the year of our Satan 2025 I do appreciate their decision to you know, yeet). And idk what it says about me that I’m absolutely fine with all the canoodling between the different combinations of people in this sextet but I draw the line and Becket’s unrequited infatuation with Poe. Again sorry, I’m fucking protective of my baby king and his two consorts okay. Anyway, the day Sierra decides to write a full on dark Romantasy book, it is over for all of us because I’ll be retiring from life to just obsess over it full time thank you.
***
A transcendent experience
Let me just start by saying that Sierra Simone is writing on a whole other plane, at a level so Goddess like that I feel fortunate that we are even allowed to partake of her words. I feel like there should be a trial by fire or something before we get to experience this magnitude of talent. To be able to appreciate it the way it should be loved and appreciated. Her writing is a masterclass in romancing the reader, in cajoling you right into falling in love with the words. I mean when you highlight even most of the afterword, you know you have something special on hand.
In the beginning I had waited so long for this finale that I had to take a minute before diving in. I finally let myself just start and be serenaded and seduced by her words, to sink into their beauty, to indulge in their excellence. Every time I saw a particularly profound phrase or line, I let myself breathe it in like the smell of a particularly exotic rose. Actually, never mind the roses. What I’m saying is, I let myself sip and savor, until, like all good things, the revelry ended and strife began. My poor, beautiful, horny Thornchapel residents had some serious suffering to go through after all.
And if the others suffered, Auden’s was journey was the most transformative, if not the hardest. My beautiful, floppy haired, haughty, pouty, dramatic, rich boy, my lord of the manor, my thorn king, my Sir Pouts-a-lot (clearly I’m no less dramatic). Not that the others didn’t have their own hero journeys, but for me personally, I hoarded every single Auden moment like a miser. Auden’s POV is somehow funnier, in a subtle and very dry British wit manner. I’ve had a deep fascination with the story of kingship and responsibility as told through Auden, the little lordling who we watch growing into the king he’s meant to be. One of the other highlights for me was the incredible bond between Rebecca and Auden, a friendship fast and true, between two monarchs in their own right. Poe’s soft sunshine, Delphine’s bright, fizzy effervescence, Becket’s loyal fervor, all combine to make a cohesive, strange little family unit.
Steeped in stories of theology and philosophy and history and archaeology (all of which I had little to no familiarity with), the narrative is breathtakingly rambling and sharply intellectual. The symbolism is strongly pervasive. Matters of human sacrifice and ancient fairytales are discussed with equal weight. Magical realism is a guiding principle in many of the author’s stories, but this series leans into it entirely. Of course, it is still as bananas, evocative, and horny, if not more so than before. Sexual rituals, instead of being profane, are almost as sacred (or more) than ancient rituals and religious feasts. Which is one of the things I love about their world, sex isn’t icky or bad or wrong, it is as essential as breathing, as integral as the language they speak, and there are no arbitrary limits (except consent of course). This series may not be for everyone (things get freaky on the Simone scale), but it is a bit of a love letter to the true connoisseurs of Simone. Of which club I’m the chieftain(ess?)
This book left me discombobulated. I felt legitimately shaky and mildly feverish after turning the last page. To be honest, I don’t even know what exactly I felt; a little punch drunk, a little sad, mostly bittersweet. My heart is both heavy and light, full and hollow. Both freaked out and comforted, like the author intended. Was this a perfect book? Not exactly, but I appreciated the imperfections just the same. In fact, I was almost prepared to take off half a star (for reasons that shall not be discussed), but clearly if my meandering thoughts are anything to go by, I’m so thoroughly infected by Thornchapel and its denizens that anything less than a perfect 5 stars would just be a lie (basically me having a mini tantrum, again, for reasons). I’ll be haunted by this world, and these characters for a while yet.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-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
adventurous
dark
emotional
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:
No
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
