medium-paced

Io and her sisters are Fate-born: sisters born with powers of the goddesses of fate.  Each has a different gift that let's them interact with the threads that bind people together and to life. But while her sisters' can make threads stronger, Io's gift is the ability to cut those threads. A gesture from her, and a person could lose their love for their partner or lose their life entirely. It's an ability that's earned her a lot of distrust and suspicion over the years, but Io tries to keep her head down and get by with her struggling private investigation service. But when abducted women start turning up on the streets as wraiths because of strangely cut life threads, Io finds herself in the middle of heating tensions between the slums and the elite. Worst of all, one of her sisters might be mixed up at the center of it all.

THREADS THAT BIND is an engaging noir mystery in an atmospheric post-climate disaster world. Io lives in the city of Atlante, a city where "neo-monsoons" regularly flood the lower parts of the city (where unsurprisingly, the lower class citizens live), creating a warren of haphazard walkways between rooftops; people have to risk crossing on rickety boards rather than brave flooded streets that could whisk them away. It's a great backdrop for a mystery: a city where it's constantly raining and where there's a literal labyrinth of ways to crisscross the crumbling parts of the city. The ambiance is also very 1930s, with phonographs and cars the height of technology.

The mystery itself definitely kept me hooked, especially as it had Io traversing Atlante and poking into weird corners of the city. She has to contend with both gang lords and upper class politicians as she tries to figure out who is creating these wraiths and why. That means she's as likely to investigate an opera house as a derelict wharf in her investigations.

At the same time, Io is also dealing with her own somewhat toxic relationships with her own sisters. Half the mystery for the reader is learning what happened in Io's own past. Some event clearly drove the sisters apart, but what? Who was at fault? It's a messy situation that adds some great layers to Io's character.

The other big dividing line in Atlante is between "normal" humans and "other-born," those who have manifested powers that take after groups of gods. The magical rules here are fairly rigid. Those with fate powers, for instance, will always be born as three sisters, with each sister having a gift in order of birth. Gods of sleep and nightmare are always born as a sibling pair and so on. Here is where things start to get a little fuzzy, as most of the "other-born" are referred to by Greek gods that inspired them, while indicating that other parts of the world refer to them by other names (and yet healing other-born in this book are referred to as Horus-born, after the Egyptian god). 

The fuzziness of the world-building, and the way it felt a bit crammed into the story, were what held me back from loving this one. The world-building and backstory of the sisters was introduced in very choppy fashion, with constant interruptions in the middle of conversations to slide in a paragraph about this aspect of the world or an anecdote from the sisters' past. While the world definitely needs explanation, it gave a kind of start-stop feeling to the story momentum, as it felt like you could scarcely get through a conversation between two characters without multiple interruptions.

And while I like the other-born as a concept, it does raise some questions. The book indicates this story takes place in the far future of Earth after a climate disaster, and the other-born powers are a recent phenomenon. So why now? Are there pairings of other-born siblings around the world that come from a different pantheon, or does this all derive from Greek mythology?  And why are other-born generally lower-class citizens? The second I ask one question, five more come to mind.

But on the whole, the world-building works for the story THREADS THAT BIND wants to tell. Given that this is part one of a duology, it is entirely possible some of the questions will be answered in the second book, which I fully intend to read. If you keep yourself focused on the core central mystery of the wraiths haunting the city, the class tensions threatening to boil over, and the sisters at the heart of it all, then you'll find THREADS THAT BIND a successful mystery jaunt with a promising set up for the sequel.

4 ⭐️

Characters: 7
Atmosphere: 7
Writing: 7
Plot: 8
Intrigue: 8
Logic: 8
Enjoyment: 8
adventurous mysterious reflective tense 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: Yes
adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
medium-paced

This was a reread for me via audiobook to prepare for the sequel. I do think I preferred physically reading it over listening.
adventurous funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous dark inspiring 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
adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes

This is very much a YA book. It's well done and an interesting concept but a lot of the ideas and world building weren't as fleshed out as I wanted them to be. 
adventurous challenging mysterious tense 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: Yes
adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book showcases a very immersive world and characters. It was predictable in a positive way.