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catleesi's review
adventurous
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
3.5
lulu_readsalot's review
adventurous
dark
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? It's complicated
3.5
It was entertaining, had a good pace, magical elements and intrigue!
The fact that the author casually includes LGBTQ+ characters in this type of novel (young adult romance and magic) is different and very welcomed.
The fact that the author casually includes LGBTQ+ characters in this type of novel (young adult romance and magic) is different and very welcomed.
kimberlyanna91's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
thunguyen's review
3.0
Somewhere above "it's okay" but not quite "I like it". Maybe a "I appreciate it" is a better rating. Hence the 3-star rating.
The story is high fantasy with many new ideas but let's begin with the classic brief:
- Young princess married off to foreign king for the sake of the country - check
- The chosen one - check
- Quest accomplished through impossible magic that no one knew about - check
- Epic betrayal - check
- Gotta stop a war - check
Now a breath of fresh air:
- Young princess wasn't forced into the marriage. She's not even an orphan. Her family was amazingly supportive. The groom was super kind and respectful. And she understood her duties to her country, plus she had a quest of her own, to find her sister's murderer. So she got married willingly.
- People of different nations indeed don't/can't communicate easily. There's no convenient translator left and right. And when countries keep it to themselves, there's not a lot of bilingual people around. The whole plot was based on this very practicality of life, which is very refreshing after seeing so many foreigners or indigenous people just quickly switch to speaking English in Hollywood movies.
- Young princess had dyslexia and at first appeared to have severe learning disability too. Her character development is heavily based on her overcoming the language barrier.
- World-building is nicely done. Very rich in details. Every country and culture was distinguish to another, making it easy to understand the fantasy world.
- The concept of earthwalker, the ghost of a murdered victim seeking their justice, haunting, raging and eventually killing their own loved ones, is truly frightening.
However, the story is a far cry from an epic fantasy. It's way too slow and quite uneventful. Jiara, our young princess, was the opposite of a sassy heroine. She possessed no high degree of intelligence, no exceptional skills in anything. Her struggle with the language at first was frustrating to read about. For example, after weeks of traveling with a group of foreigners then a couple more weeks living in their city, she was still unsure about how to say "hello". That's a bit much! There's a lot of self pity, self doubt, and anxiety that makes it not fun to read. I get it that the story is about having a disability. But this monologue goes on for almost 80% of the book until she started to reveal that she could now speak Farngark quite well. Then it's a bit much again. Really, she only had about 1 month to secretly learn the language properly.
The book still has a meditation value. The writing is nice, not overly complicated. The story telling is very realistic. Lots of details about the surrounding, especially gardens, forests, and lakes to get lost in world-building. I like the way Azzarian connected to their Gods of nature and Farngark believed their Watchers who watch out for everything. Enough to keep me interested till the end.
The story is high fantasy with many new ideas but let's begin with the classic brief:
- Young princess married off to foreign king for the sake of the country - check
- The chosen one - check
- Quest accomplished through impossible magic that no one knew about - check
- Epic betrayal - check
- Gotta stop a war - check
Now a breath of fresh air:
- Young princess wasn't forced into the marriage. She's not even an orphan. Her family was amazingly supportive. The groom was super kind and respectful. And she understood her duties to her country, plus she had a quest of her own, to find her sister's murderer. So she got married willingly.
- People of different nations indeed don't/can't communicate easily. There's no convenient translator left and right. And when countries keep it to themselves, there's not a lot of bilingual people around. The whole plot was based on this very practicality of life, which is very refreshing after seeing so many foreigners or indigenous people just quickly switch to speaking English in Hollywood movies.
- Young princess had dyslexia and at first appeared to have severe learning disability too. Her character development is heavily based on her overcoming the language barrier.
- World-building is nicely done. Very rich in details. Every country and culture was distinguish to another, making it easy to understand the fantasy world.
- The concept of earthwalker, the ghost of a murdered victim seeking their justice, haunting, raging and eventually killing their own loved ones, is truly frightening.
However, the story is a far cry from an epic fantasy. It's way too slow and quite uneventful. Jiara, our young princess, was the opposite of a sassy heroine. She possessed no high degree of intelligence, no exceptional skills in anything. Her struggle with the language at first was frustrating to read about. For example, after weeks of traveling with a group of foreigners then a couple more weeks living in their city, she was still unsure about how to say "hello". That's a bit much! There's a lot of self pity, self doubt, and anxiety that makes it not fun to read. I get it that the story is about having a disability. But this monologue goes on for almost 80% of the book until she started to reveal that she could now speak Farngark quite well. Then it's a bit much again. Really, she only had about 1 month to secretly learn the language properly.
The book still has a meditation value. The writing is nice, not overly complicated. The story telling is very realistic. Lots of details about the surrounding, especially gardens, forests, and lakes to get lost in world-building. I like the way Azzarian connected to their Gods of nature and Farngark believed their Watchers who watch out for everything. Enough to keep me interested till the end.
xeni's review
3.0
This book has a lot happening in it. Before the story starts Jiana's sister has been murdered, somewhere in the northwest (where two enemy countries meet). No one knows what she was doing there, but her spirit is angry and getting more violent with every day that her murderer is not caught. To make matters worse, her sister's fiance, a man from a far north kingdom, has arrived early to marry her instead. After a hasty wedding, Jiana heads north to her new home, where she knows no one, hates the food, and has no idea how to learn the language.
Language is especially a big problem as Jiana has fairly severe dyslexia. Words and letters become blurry and jump around on the page when she looks at them. It's incredibly hard for her to read or write. Most people seem to perceive her disability as a personal choice rather than a real issue. She's embarrassed about her lack of skill, she wants to learn, but can't. Her struggles with learning the language feel so close to my own heart. I don't have dyslexia but I have lived in many foreign countries and have struggled to learn the local language. Hungarian was by far the worst. Sometimes Jiana's struggles just felt a bit too real. Until the second half of the book where she somehow, mysteriously, plot-driven becomes fluent in a matter of a few pages.
I enjoyed the arranged marriage trope in this book. Jiana and Raffar can barely communicate for most of the book, yet they find ways to talk. They become friends before ever becoming lovers. I'm so glad that Raffar is not the evil king trope, but just a tired young man who was saddled with responsibility too young. I also liked that the story gave us flashbacks to their first meeting years prior to the story, which set up their eventual romance far better than the story on its own. I liked that the story struggled with Raffar's desire to only have sex when Jiara was 18 and Jiara's not respecting that wish (because she doesn't understand it). It's an important discussion on consent that I thought was well treated here. It's so easy to just give in to bodily wishes, especially with teenage hormones on the loose.
Scilla is an interesting character as well. We meet her the first time as a vengeful spirit intent on harming her family because they have not yet caught her murderer. But she can also be a kind ghost, giving soft caresses and trying to hold on to her humanity. I didn't like how mindless she gets. And the second-to-last confrontation really spoiled a lot of her arc for me. We're told so often that "she just needs to know her killer, she'll take care of the rest!" and then. Frustrating.
The world is very interesting, if a bit of a caricature at times. It feels rather medieval Europe, with Jiana's home being coastal Italy and the northern kingdom similar to Germany. I did enjoy the time in Jiana's city far more than in the north. I feel far too many stories are set in the cold northern world! Why?! Give me more warm seaside paradise please. My favorite part is that everyone rides on elephant birds instead of horses. Could this have been their fate instead of extinction?
The story is written in first person, so most of the plot revolves around Jiara - her confusion and inabilities forefront while we see her get married too quickly, travel north too quickly, try to adjust to live too slowy, and all the while also try to solve her sisters murder.
One thing I did not really enjoy was how rather naive Jiara came across. I get it, I do. Also this is a YA book, so it's expected. But I didn't find it interesting or enjoyable. I think this story would have been better if Jiara had been aged up and it was written a bit more for adult audiences (almost every character is an adult already, and they are all dealing with adult problems so it makes perfect sense to take the one child and age her up).
Overall I was fairly over this book by ~60%. The story drew out too long because the plot decided it should be so. A lot of decisions by characters made no sense. The story was too simple and by the end I was thoroughly annoyed by the main character.
Language is especially a big problem as Jiana has fairly severe dyslexia. Words and letters become blurry and jump around on the page when she looks at them. It's incredibly hard for her to read or write. Most people seem to perceive her disability as a personal choice rather than a real issue. She's embarrassed about her lack of skill, she wants to learn, but can't. Her struggles with learning the language feel so close to my own heart. I don't have dyslexia but I have lived in many foreign countries and have struggled to learn the local language. Hungarian was by far the worst. Sometimes Jiana's struggles just felt a bit too real. Until the second half of the book where she somehow, mysteriously, plot-driven becomes fluent in a matter of a few pages.
I enjoyed the arranged marriage trope in this book. Jiana and Raffar can barely communicate for most of the book, yet they find ways to talk. They become friends before ever becoming lovers. I'm so glad that Raffar is not the evil king trope, but just a tired young man who was saddled with responsibility too young. I also liked that the story gave us flashbacks to their first meeting years prior to the story, which set up their eventual romance far better than the story on its own. I liked that the story struggled with Raffar's desire to only have sex when Jiara was 18 and Jiara's not respecting that wish (because she doesn't understand it). It's an important discussion on consent that I thought was well treated here. It's so easy to just give in to bodily wishes, especially with teenage hormones on the loose.
Scilla is an interesting character as well. We meet her the first time as a vengeful spirit intent on harming her family because they have not yet caught her murderer. But she can also be a kind ghost, giving soft caresses and trying to hold on to her humanity. I didn't like how mindless she gets. And the second-to-last confrontation really spoiled a lot of her arc for me. We're told so often that "she just needs to know her killer, she'll take care of the rest!" and then
Spoiler
she doesn't even do thatThe world is very interesting, if a bit of a caricature at times. It feels rather medieval Europe, with Jiana's home being coastal Italy and the northern kingdom similar to Germany. I did enjoy the time in Jiana's city far more than in the north. I feel far too many stories are set in the cold northern world! Why?! Give me more warm seaside paradise please. My favorite part is that everyone rides on elephant birds instead of horses. Could this have been their fate instead of extinction?
The story is written in first person, so most of the plot revolves around Jiara - her confusion and inabilities forefront while we see her get married too quickly, travel north too quickly, try to adjust to live too slowy, and all the while also try to solve her sisters murder.
One thing I did not really enjoy was how rather naive Jiara came across. I get it, I do. Also this is a YA book, so it's expected. But I didn't find it interesting or enjoyable. I think this story would have been better if Jiara had been aged up and it was written a bit more for adult audiences (almost every character is an adult already, and they are all dealing with adult problems so it makes perfect sense to take the one child and age her up).
Overall I was fairly over this book by ~60%. The story drew out too long because the plot decided it should be so. A lot of decisions by characters made no sense. The story was too simple and by the end I was thoroughly annoyed by the main character.
parchmints's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
ellakostka's review
4.0
★★★★☆ 4/5
thank you to flux and netgallery for the arc!
this book felt like a breath of fresh air in the YA genre, it was so unique. definitely not what i expected, but it was fantastic nonetheless. maybe it was a little long and dragged on in the middle, but the pacing was better in the beginning and end. this book tackled a lot, but i didn’t feel overwhelmed at all. i definitely recommend this if you love super immersive high fantasy.
thank you to flux and netgallery for the arc!
this book felt like a breath of fresh air in the YA genre, it was so unique. definitely not what i expected, but it was fantastic nonetheless. maybe it was a little long and dragged on in the middle, but the pacing was better in the beginning and end. this book tackled a lot, but i didn’t feel overwhelmed at all. i definitely recommend this if you love super immersive high fantasy.
thegabecole's review
5.0
I had the pleasure of reading a very early version of this book several years ago, and I’m so glad I finally had the chance to read the final version! The world building was so fun to delve into, and the language barrier as a plot device was so cleverly done. Add in a vengeful ghost and royalty from different cultures for a truly fun fantasy read.
macfiar's review
5.0
This book was so much fun. It isn't perfect but it kept me engaged and entertained the whole way through. Some have said it was slow until the end but that's not a good way to look at it. It was slower in the beginning because there was no other way to tell the story. I loved the sisterhood element and that the women were just as tough as, if not tougher than, the men. Women were not treated as inferior. I hope there are more of these books. Jiara is a great character. This is a fun YA fantasy with a sweet ending.
didsomeonesayviolin's review
[I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book based on uncorrected proof I was kindly given by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]
Feb 15, 2021
Guess who just got another ARC! Hopefully, I can read this before it comes out haha... you just never know nowadays with me. You never know.
Nov 8, 2021
DNF at 44%.
I (once again) didn't manage to read this on time, but I don't regret it that much. A Dragonbird in the Fern was written like a fanfiction by a 13yo who is imagining how she could marry her dream prince and go to his kingdom and blah blah blah. I'm always sorry to write a review such as this, but here's the thing: I wasted at least two hours of my life on this, plus the time it takes me to write this and aslo upload it to NG. Not to be too harsh, though, I think that the fact that the MC had dyslexia was interesting, but at the same time it made me so frustrated to read about the fact that she couldn't learn the new language. But it's something that could definitely be represented in books more, instead of performative LGBT rep etc.
→1 star
Feb 15, 2021
Guess who just got another ARC! Hopefully, I can read this before it comes out haha... you just never know nowadays with me. You never know.
Nov 8, 2021
DNF at 44%.
I (once again) didn't manage to read this on time, but I don't regret it that much. A Dragonbird in the Fern was written like a fanfiction by a 13yo who is imagining how she could marry her dream prince and go to his kingdom and blah blah blah. I'm always sorry to write a review such as this, but here's the thing: I wasted at least two hours of my life on this, plus the time it takes me to write this and aslo upload it to NG. Not to be too harsh, though, I think that the fact that the MC had dyslexia was interesting, but at the same time it made me so frustrated to read about the fact that she couldn't learn the new language. But it's something that could definitely be represented in books more, instead of performative LGBT rep etc.
→1 star