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anastasiadreaming's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I really wanted to love this one, and unfortunately it didn’t work out. I’m granting one star for the atmosphere, and another for Gáspár, but I’m stripping three for how nonsensical Évike’s decision-making was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Self harm, and Lesbophobia
fuitfortuna's review
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
brianna_moye's review
adventurous
dark
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: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and Animal death
Minor: Sexual content and War
adonis_march's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
The Wolf and the Woodsman is a debut novel. It’s got the clunk of one. But by god, is it a good debut novel. For all my issues with some of the tropes in this book, and it’s pacing, and occasionally meandering plot, the latter half of this novel had my heart pounding, my stomach doing turns.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Religious bigotry, Violence, Death, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Blood, Murder, Gore, and Hate crime
Moderate: Classism, Torture, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Bullying, Self harm, Body horror, War, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Animal death, Xenophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Confinement, and Kidnapping
This is a book very much about the horrific history and acts of Christian zealotry that caused both pagan and Jewish communities to be wiped out, and echoes the centuries of fear and grief that the Jewish community has had to endure since.r_a_bell's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The perfect example of what a stand-alone should be! You get all of the story of a trilogy in one book. The beginning journey did seem a little pointless in the end, and I kind of wish it had been a bit shorter if it wasn’t really going to go anywhere. However, it was still enjoyable to read and didn’t feel unnecessarily drawn out. I love how realistic it was its depiction of social structures and relationships, especially in regard to religion. I also really liked the end! It didn’t wrap everything up in a neat little bow just because that’s what the author thought readers would want. The ending was realistic and true to the story, yet satisfying, and it left that little kernel of hope that everything would end up as a “happily ever after.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Violence, Body horror, and Murder
Moderate: Death, Genocide, Sexual content, Hate crime, Misogyny, Torture, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Antisemitism
bookishchef's review
adventurous
dark
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
3.25
There's some really good stuff in here, and some bad.
There's an obvious macguffin (the Turul barely has a function gtfo) but there's also enjoyable plot twists and turns.
The love story was predictable but enjoyable.
The sexual tension and build up is nice and slow but then gets resolved quite suddenly and unrealistically. Also we didn't even get a real smut scene after all that buildup??? So needless to say I was a little disappointed with that resolution.
Mostly I really liked the worldbuilding. Even though I'm still not completely clear on all the countries and their motivations, the world building really shines when it comes to religions and ethnic groups. In this story alone there are 3 fleshed out religions. They're all original in their own way even if some of their inspirations are quite obvious (The Yehuli faith seems like a mix of Judaism and Islam to me, and the Patritian faith has elements of Catholicism).
However the character work is a bit so-so. It took me a while to warm up to Évike because she is a bit of a cliche when it comes to fantasy protagonists. Same goes for Gaspar. Almost all the other characters in this story are irrelevant. None of them get really outspoken personalities. Tuula and Szabin are interesting in theory, but only get about an alinea each dedicated to their personalities and general characteristics. Katalin doesn't get any personality traits beyond 'bitch' until the last 10% of the book. It's a bit of a shame.
There's also some plot contrivances that kind of annoyed me. For example: About 50ish percent into the book Évike and Gaspar get attacked by some kind of sex demon which makes them very horny. The only function of this scene is to speed up their relationship by them admitting they're sexually attracted to each other. The demon is never relevant again, and it is quite obvious that the author just couldn't think of another way to make the stubborn Évike and the stoic Gaspar admit anything to each other.
The characters also seem to fast travel in the later chapters. In the early chapters of the book it is emphasized again and again that the environment is rough and locations are far away. This seems realistic and the traveling by itself takes weeks. Later in the book the characters seem to travel between those same locations in a matter of days or even hours because the pacing demands it. Like, I understand why the author wrote it this way, but it did pull me out of the story a bit.
Over all, it's a very flawed book but I did enjoy it.
There's an obvious macguffin (the Turul barely has a function gtfo) but there's also enjoyable plot twists and turns.
The love story was predictable but enjoyable.
The sexual tension and build up is nice and slow but then gets resolved quite suddenly and unrealistically.
Mostly I really liked the worldbuilding. Even though I'm still not completely clear on all the countries and their motivations, the world building really shines when it comes to religions and ethnic groups. In this story alone there are 3 fleshed out religions. They're all original in their own way even if some of their inspirations are quite obvious (The Yehuli faith seems like a mix of Judaism and Islam to me, and the Patritian faith has elements of Catholicism).
However the character work is a bit so-so. It took me a while to warm up to Évike because she is a bit of a cliche when it comes to fantasy protagonists. Same goes for Gaspar. Almost all the other characters in this story are irrelevant. None of them get really outspoken personalities. Tuula and Szabin are interesting in theory, but only get about an alinea each dedicated to their personalities and general characteristics. Katalin doesn't get any personality traits beyond 'bitch' until the last 10% of the book. It's a bit of a shame.
There's also some plot contrivances that kind of annoyed me. For example:
The characters also seem to fast travel in the later chapters. In the early chapters of the book it is emphasized again and again that the environment is rough and locations are far away. This seems realistic and the traveling by itself takes weeks. Later in the book the characters seem to travel between those same locations in a matter of days or even hours because the pacing demands it. Like, I understand why the author wrote it this way, but it did pull me out of the story a bit.
Over all, it's a very flawed book but I did enjoy it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Blood, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Murder, Sexual content, and Torture
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, War, and Child abuse
darkefyres's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Blood, Antisemitism, Animal death, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Genocide
Minor: War
claudiamacpherson's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Body horror, Animal cruelty, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Bullying, Animal death, Xenophobia, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Kidnapping, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Sexual content, War, Vomit, Child abuse, and Genocide
16rcampbell's review against another edition
There was a lot of politics and religion in this book -- way more than I was expecting -- which is normally fine, if I know that's what I'm getting into first. Regardless of the surprise of it, all of the metaphors and symbolism felt way too literal. It's blatantly obvious who is being cast in which roles, which religions we're talking about, etc. Instead of creating her own religion with which to expose the abusive, racist, and sexist under AND overtones of religion (a certain religion in particular) and the horror that comes with an organized religion like this, it felt like a copy and paste. If I wanted to have those kinds of discussion, I would have picked up a non-fiction book. I understand the frustrations, and share many of the same sentiments and beliefs as the author seems to encourage, but reading this just made me angry. I encounter enough of the bs of the "love interest" in my everyday life, I don't need to relive those comments, beliefs and arguments in a fantasy book. I am all for using fiction as a way to digest and discuss contemporary issues, but the way it was presented here made me feel frustrated and angry instead of allowing me to become involved in the conversation. And there's never a break. It's constant. If we're not shitting on each other's religions, we're condemning their politics. If not that, we're fighting some monsters (and not well). Or we're sleeping. I don't understand characters' choices, I don't feel connected to them, I'm not really rooting for them because if they succeed it's still a shitty end result, and I don't like a single person in the book so far. The only reason I read this far is because I felt like I had to be missing something since it was recommended and praised so many times.
I also felt absolutely no chemistry between the main character and the supposed love interest. Accents are used purely for aesthetic purposes instead of and indication of pronunciation and it didn't look good and just confused me as I read.
I also felt absolutely no chemistry between the main character and the supposed love interest. Accents are used purely for aesthetic purposes instead of and indication of pronunciation and it didn't look good and just confused me as I read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Bullying
ridesthesun's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I really love the premise of this one! The variety of culture and mythology was really cool, and I loved seeing the Jewish stories woven in so lovingly.
I'm not sure why, perhaps it was just bad timing, but the book overall failed to really grab me. I *wanted* to enjoy it, but I found myself checking "how much longer is this audiobook" too many times. Idk if it was the pacing or what, but it felt a lot like nothing was happening while simultaneously lots of things were happening? Not sure how. Like it felt like it was dragging while simultaneously feeling under-developed.
Anyways, I would say definitely give this one a try; the concept was brilliant, the weaving of mythology was really cool, Evike and Gaspar were lovely. Also recommend the audiobook, getting the pronunciations for everything was a huge bonus.
*does deal a *lot* with anti-Semitism, and is strongly reminiscent of pogroms and pre-WWII eastern europe. The Jewish community is written beautifully and with great care, but if that's a sensitive topic for you I would avoid this one.
I'm not sure why, perhaps it was just bad timing, but the book overall failed to really grab me. I *wanted* to enjoy it, but I found myself checking "how much longer is this audiobook" too many times. Idk if it was the pacing or what, but it felt a lot like nothing was happening while simultaneously lots of things were happening? Not sure how. Like it felt like it was dragging while simultaneously feeling under-developed.
Anyways, I would say definitely give this one a try; the concept was brilliant, the weaving of mythology was really cool, Evike and Gaspar were lovely. Also recommend the audiobook, getting the pronunciations for everything was a huge bonus.
*does deal a *lot* with anti-Semitism, and is strongly reminiscent of pogroms and pre-WWII eastern europe. The Jewish community is written beautifully and with great care, but if that's a sensitive topic for you I would avoid this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Confinement, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Antisemitism, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Gore, Blood, and Bullying
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Genocide, Antisemitism, Blood, Colonisation, Murder, Body horror, Abandonment, Death, and Death of parent