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A review by rowena_m_andrews
To Dream and Die as a Taniwha Girl by Benedict Patrick
4.0
I actually binged the previous four books in the Yarnsworld series before this one, so I came to that fresh with all the other stories and the connections in mind. However, I would argue that To Dream and Die a Taniwha Girl could be read as a standalone with equal enjoyment, although there was something especially satisfying at being able to follow the threads through the books, and revisiting Kaimana and Rakau and I would wholeheartedly advise people to check out the entire series.
There was so much I loved about To Dream and Die a Taniwha Girl, and I have to say that Patrick knows how to weave an incredible tale within a relatively short book. In a strange way, I would say that there were simplicity and complexity to this book, on the one hand, the language and the storytelling style are fairly simplistic and give the writing the feel of one those tales that can be read aloud or told from memory around a campfire, and matches perfectly with the folkeloreish (is that a word, it should be a word) nature of the story. This is paired with well-developed characters and a world that has breadth and depth, without ever losing the thread of the main story.
I particularly enjoyed how the story itself was interspersed with smaller tales and myths, which were not only beautiful, fascinating tales in and of themselves and told with the weight and affection of tradition, but which were also a clever way of world-building, giving us more context to the events in the main storyline. I would say, however, that it felt in places that the main story could have been expanded a little more, and perhaps that expansion was prevented by these dips into the mythology. That said, those interludes were some of my favourite parts of the book, and the main plotline is satisfying and well-balanced for all that, and it would certainly lose something without those shorter tales within a tale.
This was an emotional rollercoaster of a book, and arguably the darkest of the series which was a little bit of a shock after coming immediately off the others. Patrick made some bold choices with the path this book took, and it worked beautifully, even if there were moments when I was reading them that I wanted to rail against them. However, the ending and the feeling this book left me with at the end were worth the sometimes unexpected flow of the story, the blows to my emotions, and left me in that wonderful place between satisfaction and wanting more.
This was a fantastic read, and I actually enjoyed the fact that it took a slightly darker path than the others. I would highly recommend To Dream and Die as a Taniwha Girl to anyone who loves fantasy rife with mythology, fairytales and with that feeling of a story told across the ages. I am incredibly glad I finally dove into Yarnsworld and will be eagerly waiting to see what the author does next.
There was so much I loved about To Dream and Die a Taniwha Girl, and I have to say that Patrick knows how to weave an incredible tale within a relatively short book. In a strange way, I would say that there were simplicity and complexity to this book, on the one hand, the language and the storytelling style are fairly simplistic and give the writing the feel of one those tales that can be read aloud or told from memory around a campfire, and matches perfectly with the folkeloreish (is that a word, it should be a word) nature of the story. This is paired with well-developed characters and a world that has breadth and depth, without ever losing the thread of the main story.
I particularly enjoyed how the story itself was interspersed with smaller tales and myths, which were not only beautiful, fascinating tales in and of themselves and told with the weight and affection of tradition, but which were also a clever way of world-building, giving us more context to the events in the main storyline. I would say, however, that it felt in places that the main story could have been expanded a little more, and perhaps that expansion was prevented by these dips into the mythology. That said, those interludes were some of my favourite parts of the book, and the main plotline is satisfying and well-balanced for all that, and it would certainly lose something without those shorter tales within a tale.
This was an emotional rollercoaster of a book, and arguably the darkest of the series which was a little bit of a shock after coming immediately off the others. Patrick made some bold choices with the path this book took, and it worked beautifully, even if there were moments when I was reading them that I wanted to rail against them. However, the ending and the feeling this book left me with at the end were worth the sometimes unexpected flow of the story, the blows to my emotions, and left me in that wonderful place between satisfaction and wanting more.
This was a fantastic read, and I actually enjoyed the fact that it took a slightly darker path than the others. I would highly recommend To Dream and Die as a Taniwha Girl to anyone who loves fantasy rife with mythology, fairytales and with that feeling of a story told across the ages. I am incredibly glad I finally dove into Yarnsworld and will be eagerly waiting to see what the author does next.