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careinthelibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Cherie Dimaline is one of my favourite authors. Not just because she writes compelling characters and emotional stories, but she just really seems like a good, nice person. So when I heard she had a new urban fantasy title coming, I was excited despite the fact that I tend not to love urban fantasy.
This is fun! I really loved the characters. Lucky, Stella, Freya. These "crafty ass witches" (and one's elderly relative) are the stars of the show. I'll admit that the plot wasn't my favourite, but that's more a me problem. Dimaline injects so much humour and heart into this through the dialogue. I love the way these characters talk to each other. She really knows how to make them feel real. They're likable, believable, and they're what I looked forward to when I was picking it up each time.
I didn't really get into the villains in this book. The Benandanti felt flat and those chapters I skim read, wanting to get back to the characters that I preferred. The fact that the villains weren't impactful meant this was a light read for me which I did appreciate. It didn't feel dark or like something I needed to prepare to process. The villains are definitely bad, but the tone remained fun, witchy, and mysterious. The explosive ending plus the twist (though I did see it coming, I still loved it) won me over a bit more.
I liked the structure of this. We meet Lucky and spend enough time getting to know her that we care by the time the plot takes off fully. I liked the sections about the other witches and their spoon origin stories. It was easy to pick this up and read big chunks of it at a time, which is saying a lot considering my burnout from work, current events, and general winter malaise. As I said above, the details of the plot wasn't my thing necessarily as I don't tend to pick up urban fantasy often, but I liked the pacing, humour, characterization, and ending. Cherie Dimaline is such a talented author and I'm sure fans of urban fantasy will love this.
Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC.
This is fun! I really loved the characters. Lucky, Stella, Freya. These "crafty ass witches" (and one's elderly relative) are the stars of the show. I'll admit that the plot wasn't my favourite, but that's more a me problem. Dimaline injects so much humour and heart into this through the dialogue. I love the way these characters talk to each other. She really knows how to make them feel real. They're likable, believable, and they're what I looked forward to when I was picking it up each time.
I didn't really get into the villains in this book. The Benandanti felt flat and those chapters I skim read, wanting to get back to the characters that I preferred. The fact that the villains weren't impactful meant this was a light read for me which I did appreciate. It didn't feel dark or like something I needed to prepare to process. The villains are definitely bad, but the tone remained fun, witchy, and mysterious. The explosive ending plus the twist (though I did see it coming, I still loved it) won me over a bit more.
I liked the structure of this. We meet Lucky and spend enough time getting to know her that we care by the time the plot takes off fully. I liked the sections about the other witches and their spoon origin stories. It was easy to pick this up and read big chunks of it at a time, which is saying a lot considering my burnout from work, current events, and general winter malaise. As I said above, the details of the plot wasn't my thing necessarily as I don't tend to pick up urban fantasy often, but I liked the pacing, humour, characterization, and ending. Cherie Dimaline is such a talented author and I'm sure fans of urban fantasy will love this.
Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Dementia
Moderate: Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Transphobia, Alcohol, Cancer, Chronic illness, Colonisation, and Deadnaming
Minor: Cultural appropriation
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