Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Sorcery of Thorns

In this beautiful fantasy that centers around the protection of books, Elisabeth is an apprentice in training to be a Warden of grimoires in the Great Library. The Wardens keep and maintain the Grimoires while providing protection against sorcerers who might try to use them to control people and lower demons. We meet Elisabeth who has the reputation as an outcast, since she was an orphan left at the library as a baby. She’s been Director Irena’s ward for 16 years. Irene is very fond of the girl, taking her under her wing and giving her the apprenticeship. One night Elisabeth is woken out of a dream, feeling as if something is wrong. What ensues is a fantastic adventure and a little romance that will keep you glued to this book. Sorcery of Thorns is a book I hadn’t heard about- my daughter put it in my hands- and I will definitely be recommending it.

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kinsportch's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No

2.0

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dlrosebyh's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

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aloeverra's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? No

4.75

What a fantastic world and setting this book had! Sentient books are fantastic, along with the strange relationship between the Librarians and the Sorcerers, made this book really unique. There were some aspects of the magic I would have liked more detail on in order to understand portions of the plot progression. This was the only thing I was craving by the end though, everything else gave me great satisfaction.
Both of Margaret Rogerson's stand alone books have been a bright spot in my reading list, and I can't wait for another title coming this October.

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valenpolack's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

Initially I gave this book a 4.5 but the more time passes the more I want to reread it. It was that good. So yeah, 5 stars.

Edit: so… this is now my favorite book of all time. Rereading parts and constantly thinking about these characters does that to a person.

Edit 2: So I reread it… and it’s still amazing. Good Soup 👌

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thecourtofreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

"when terrible things have happened to you, sometimes the promise of something good can be just as frightening."

this right here is a comfort read of mine. everything about this book, i quite literally love so much. i reread this recently in 2022 because i wanted to tab it with all of the colours i have, and it was a great decision, because i loved reading this again. this book feels like home.

margaret rogerson's writing is phenomenal. she writes so fluidly and amazingly that i can't help getting swept up in the world she has created and the characters she has crafted. every bit of description is literally exquisite. and the characters? i'm bisexual with a lean towards women, but nathaniel? oh to be elisabeth right now.

nathaniel thorn was by far by favourite. his lines literally made me laugh out loud sometimes. i use orange to tab funny/lol moments, so naturally most of those ended up on his lines. elisabeth is also rooted for - i liked seeing her opinions on what she'd been taught change throughout the novel, how she grew. and silas. don't even get me started. i heard there's a novella coming out about nathaniel and silas and i WILL be purchasing it. rogerson has made her way onto my auto-buy list, because her books are nothing short of perfection.

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aseel_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

oh this was such a wonderful dark but cozy fantasy read!! I loved the atmosphere, the general world (all the libraries), the characters (so much sass), and the plot was fun and captivating at the same time! the writing was sometimes hit or miss, with the general book on the more slow side, but otherwise I really enjoyed this and would love to reread it next year

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syllareads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This Review is not spoiler-free! If you do not want to get some slight information on how the characters and their journey utterly DELIGHTED me, please don't read it and instead, go find the book somewhere to enjoy it!

So! With that disclaimer aside, let's jump right into my review of this lovely book~

Short version: I love this???

Slightly longer version: I thought I would simply enjoy it as a nice palate-cleanser in between larger SF/F Adult novels but I got past a certain point and suddenly found I couldn't put the book down - and while I'm not 1000% on board with it, I still fell in love with both the book itself and its main characters and now I can't stop thinking about them help

And now to the actual, possibly more coherent review:

Sorcery of Thorns is a stand-alone YA fantasy novel (which surprised me, given that I am much more used to reading series with at least two books when it comes to YA fantasy) with a fast-paced, action-packed plot, sympathetic characters, casual LGBT+ rep, and a main character who fights demons (or, as the book calls this particular breed of demons, fiends) off with an iron crowbar, a lot of feisty determination and probably a good amount of sheer luck. The plot itself felt a tiny bit rushed sometimes (this is reason #1 why I distracted a few points from the overall rating) and would have easily filled a trilogy with its three major events as turning points for each book, BUT the Margaret Rogerson managed to still come to a fulfilling conclusion while giving the plot enough (if very carefully measured) time to do its thing.

The Characters:

Elizabeth Scrivener, local feral librarian, and booklover, intent on becoming a warden to protect high-level grimoires from turning into Maleficts or getting into the hand of greedy sorcerers, grew up in one of the big libraries her country has to offer. Reason number one to love her: she adores books with all her being ("Why wouldn't I love [this room]? It has books in it!" is an actual quote - from me, or the heroine of this book? The answer is, both), something that is both remarked upon more than once and gets brought up simply by how she acts around books and places holding them. Apart from that, she's also a pure delight with her witty, snarky banter with her friends, her love interest, and an all-powerful demon, and she packs a powerful punch or two, especially later in the series. Her compassion for books (and sometimes other people) is however still the thing that made me fall in love with this particular lady and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Nathaniel Thorn, local resident reclusive sorcerer, and disaster bi boy is the last living member of the Thorn family, an old lineage of sorcerers most known for their necromancy. His first meeting with Elizabeth goes well (she accidentally almost drops a bookshelf on him. Ah, yes....love), but it's nothing compared to his second: he gets tasked to escort her to the capital to be brought in for questioning (she might have, in need for a better solution while fighting for her life, destroyed a grimoire gone bad, which was not something the sorcerer-community appreciated). On the long way there she manages to bite him once, almost run away twice, and throws a fire poker at her magicked trunk, believing it to be him - naturally, this does not exactly endear her to him. By the end of the book, however, his complaints about her incorrigible, wild nature have melted into endearing pet names and quite possibly open adoration, so suffice to say, he comes around (and so does Elizabeth, which might actually be the bigger surprise, considering she has been raised to hate sorcerers with all her being and believed he was about to kill her on their journey to the capital - but then again, who can resist a lonely young man engaging you in sarcastic banter while also being surprisingly ready to protect you at a moment's notice?)

Silas, our third most noticeable character, was an utter delight. One of the aforementioned demons (though not a fiend - he's instead one of the more powerful ones, summoned to serve a sorcerer family by demanding a piece off their lifetime in exchange for granting them the possibility to harness magical powers from the Otherworld), he totters on the fine line between "will not hesitate to tear your heart out with his claws" and "might actually hesitate because his fingers will get dirty and also perhaps he has some feelings in that stone-cold heart of his, oh no". His relationship with Nathaniel and later Elizabeth delighted me more than I can possibly tell, his quiet nature mixed in with his obvious and bloodthirsty otherness was perfection, and his later shown devotion to his master and Elizabeth actually made me cry (I did not expect to cry! Why did this book make me cry! How rude---).

Katrien, friends with feral librarian apprentices, socially awkward wizards, and demons with impeccable manners, didn't have as much screentime as the other aforementioned disaster trio, but I still loved her for the amount of time we had with her. One of Elizabeth's only friends at the library, she doesn't hesitate to use magic to communicate with her (even though the use of such magic is forbidden), schemes with all three of these bastards to overthrow one of the most powerful magicians adored by the public (also forbidden, possibly) while having to be very careful about not getting caught, since the new Director of her and Elizabeth's old library is a vile piece of shit and likes to abuse his power whenever possible. The fact that her politeness is, to Elizabeth at least, usually a sign of her thinking about a thousand ways to fuck someone up, is just another mark in her favor! Since there is a throw-away line about her not being interested in anyone romantically, I headcanon her as Aro, if not AroAce, another fact that utterly delighted me.

The Plot

As mentioned before, the plot itself isn't trying to invent anything new - Elizabeth wants to become a warden, but when her mentor, the former Director of her library, dies during an attack and a Malefict (a grimoire gone bad, usually due to it being damaged in any way) escapes only to be struck down by Elizabeth through sheer luck and determination, she gets sent off to the capital for a hearing in front of the magical community. Upon her arrival, she and Nathaniel Thorn accidentally team up against a bunch of fiends, earning her a far better reputation in the public's eye, and gaining her access to one of the most influential sorcerer's mansion. This does, in fact, not bode well though, because Elizabeth finds out that said sorcerer, Oberon Ashcroft, is not only a misogynistic piece of shit but also responsible for the attacks on every library which had a Malefict going out of control. Trying to entangle this controversy while also having to survive being called mad, drugged through magic, and almost shipped off to a madhouse, Elizabeth finds an ally in, surprisingly for her, Nathaniel (and subsequently Silas), who is the first to believe her about her experiences in Ashcroft Manor. The three of them, plus Katrien providing information through a magical mirror Elizabeth finds, again, through sheer luck and also possibly two feral books fighting with each other, set off to get rid of the man which is what more than three-quarters of the book talks about.

Overall, Rogerson takes a well-known premise and works with it. I have no doubt that the reason I loved this book so much after initially just thinking I'd mildly enjoy myself is the way the characters are written and work with each other. There's so much chemistry between them, their personalities work so well with each other, and they're just really, really funny in a disastrous way that made me almost hit my head on the book multiple times.

Anything else I loved?

Why, yes! Glad you asked.
The book shows multiple times that a lot of problems could have been avoided if people in power just listened for once. Many of the influential sorcerer families shown somewhere could have helped our heroine and Nathaniel if they had believed Elizabeth about Ashcroft. Later on in the book, another one of the great libraries almost gets destroyed because its Director is unwilling to listen to a "tainted" Elizabeth since she's now affiliated with a sorcerer (namely, our bisaster boi Nathaniel). Generally, the book tackles the theme "Man should have listened to Woman but instead dismisses her claims as hysteria due to reading too many books (I wish I was kidding)" with Elizabeth's story really well - which might make it a bit uncomfortable to read for some people.
The realistic portrayal of ugly grieving and how emotions can generally manifest even in situations that are positive enough also made my heart clench a few times. Nathaniel is the obvious character for this, as he lost his entire family years before the incidents in the book and still has nightmares from that particular night, turning him into a social reclusive as his nightmares often make his magic spiral out of control. Elizabeth later on in the book has a panic attack because she can't handle being perceived in a positive light again after so long being shunned and dismissed as outright mad. Both instances were heartwrenching!

Anything else I didn't like?

As mentioned before, I would have loved more than one book! Don't get me wrong, the story still works, as I said, but I'm personally just a bigger fan of large series and more content? Sign me UP. Rogerson made it work (somehow? I actually don't know how, there was so much going on and yet it felt fine, what is this sorcery (pun intended)) but the book could have been split fairly easily which would have made some moments possibly more impactful! This is a very small complaint in the grand scheme of things though.

Number two is yet another personal thing: I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing. It worked well, and the dialogue was actually beautiful (I might have sent a friend numerous DMs from Elizabeth's and Nathaniel's banter alone) but some descriptions were too on-the-nose for me to work properly, and since I'm also generally a HUGE fan of purple prose (which is not what this book delivers), I was a bit biased from the start already. Again, it worked well for the book, it's merely reason #2 why this book didn't get 5 stars from me!

Overall: I am so glad I picked this book up! It was a blast, filled with a lot of humor and some great action scenes. 9.5/10, would read again just to get my favourite disasters back on the page (also, I feel like I need to mention this, but Silas? Nathaniel has two hands, please take one of them, thank you very much---)

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