Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Gilded Wolves

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

24 reviews

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? No

5.0

5 ⭐ CW: violence, descriptions of blood, pet tarantula, child abuse, slavery mention, human zoo mention, death of parents, antisemitism mention, subtle racism

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi is book one of the Gilded Wolves trilogy. This is the second Chokshi book I've read this year, and I loved it! I flew through the story and now I wish I had the next book!

We get different POVs from each of our characters: Séverin, our ring leader and hotelier trying to get his inheritance back; Tristan , his brother in all but blood who owns a pet tarantula (why did no one warn me about this?!) And loves gardening; Enrique, the historian who is trying to find his place in the world when he fits nowhere; Zofia, the Jewish, neurodivergent engineer with a debt to pay; Laila, a performer with a secret and a quest; and Hypnos, the Patriarch of House Nyx (although we don't get his pov until the end).

This was such a fun read! It's like if Six of Crows met Indiana Jones/antiques roadshow. The story is set in the Beautiful Era in Paris where opulence, science, and industry are flourishing. Chokshi gives us such an illustrious setting, but doesn't shy away from the horror that was also present at this time due to racism and colonialism. We get a heist and found family trope. All each of these characters want is to belong, to have a family, for them to all be together.

I loved all of the character moments we get throughout the book. I love all of the small, but loving things they do for each other. Like Laila makes sure she is always clear with her instructions to Zofia and brings her favorite cookies. Séverin is our broody, handsome guy that keeps pushing his feelings down about Laila (serious Kanej vibes). Hypnos is my favorite! He's charming, annoying, and chaotically bisexual. I love how flamboyant he is. I really need for Hypnos, Enrique, and Zofia to be poly.

So. Many. Mixed. Race. Characters! Both Séverin and Hypnos are the sons of enslaved women and French noblemen, and this plays a role in how they are treated in society. Enrique is Filipino and Spanish, but his features appear more Spanish and so he suffers from not feeling Filipino enough and we see this reinforced when he is brushed off by the Illustrados. I also didn't realize that Chokshi herself is mixed race, being Indian and Filipino. I think this is also the first book I've read that had Tagalog in it.

Now I need to get my hands on book two! This definitely a new favorite for sure.

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karambit's review

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adventurous challenging funny mysterious 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

3.75

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childoflight's review

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4.5

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rebeccaxpaige's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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lilifane's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-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

3.0

I don't know how to rate this. Because there were things about the book I absolutely loved. And then there were things I absolutely hated.

What shines the most are the characters. They were basically what kept me reading. The story lives with these characters, their friendship is just so special and wholesome. So, I hated what happened at the end because this is just cheap writing.

And as much as I loved the setting and atmosphere of the story and the adventure of it, the writing felt very rushed and convenient most of the time. There was A LOT of world building crammed into a very small book. I could hardly keep up with every new description and magical object or power. When nothing else was going on, it was easy to imagine the magic and the locations, for example the amazing hotel. But as soon as there was action involved, I couldn't picture anything at all. Which is a shame because I feel these places were really cool. But I liked that riddles were included into the book, even though they were either too easy or too vague. And for someone who is interested in a lot of cultures and myths and history, there were a lot of references too (Maybe a little too many even...).

I'm not particularly interested in the plot anymore, but I will probably continue the series for the characters, their diversity and the discussions about colonialism and theft of art/cultural artifacts from other cultures. It's really cool that this is part of a YA series these days.

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