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A review by egelantier
The Grass King's Concubine by Kari Sperring
4.0
a final verdict: a gorgeous, lush, unhurried book, a darker fairytale that manages to avoid both being overwrought and drowning in edginess, populated with relatable, fascinating and lovely characters, both human and unhuman.
aude, the dissatisfied rich heiress, sets out to find the origins of her privilege and finds way, way more than she bargained for (i take back her alt!england origins, by the way, the worldbuilding is more interesting than i presumed). aude is determined and sheltered but not naive, full of dignity and determination, unwilling to bow to the scariest of circumstances and never giving up, and i've loved her to pieces; she didn't always win, but god did she ever go down fighting.
jehan, her husband, an unlucky officer with too much ethics for his own good, loyal and kind to the end of the earth, steadfast and calm; together they made a pretty much unstoppable team.
ferret witch-sisters julana and yelena, book-stealers (metaphorically and literally too), who gave their loyalty and their love to a scholar from human land and bit and fought and intrigued for him and found their identities and their personalities in process; they started out as interesting worldbuilding detail and ended up being my favorites (and wow that was a perfect example of how to create an inhuman narrative just right).
and finally, the cadre, the elemental bannermen of enigmatic grass king of the land below, wound tight in a knot of old conflicts and older loyalty, fighting for their very existence. there was a whole different book about them hidden inside this one, and the narrative glances at it and skitters away, and it's understated and clever and creepy and beautiful, and i've loved how scarilyalien they were while being so, so understandable.
and, of course, the beautiful, beautiful dead remains of the worldbelow, terrifying and wonderful; the worldbuilding is subtle and gentle and just a bit out of step, and, yes, definitely merits a mention.
aude, the dissatisfied rich heiress, sets out to find the origins of her privilege and finds way, way more than she bargained for (i take back her alt!england origins, by the way, the worldbuilding is more interesting than i presumed). aude is determined and sheltered but not naive, full of dignity and determination, unwilling to bow to the scariest of circumstances and never giving up, and i've loved her to pieces; she didn't always win, but god did she ever go down fighting.
jehan, her husband, an unlucky officer with too much ethics for his own good, loyal and kind to the end of the earth, steadfast and calm; together they made a pretty much unstoppable team.
ferret witch-sisters julana and yelena, book-stealers (metaphorically and literally too), who gave their loyalty and their love to a scholar from human land and bit and fought and intrigued for him and found their identities and their personalities in process; they started out as interesting worldbuilding detail and ended up being my favorites (and wow that was a perfect example of how to create an inhuman narrative just right).
and finally, the cadre, the elemental bannermen of enigmatic grass king of the land below, wound tight in a knot of old conflicts and older loyalty, fighting for their very existence. there was a whole different book about them hidden inside this one, and the narrative glances at it and skitters away, and it's understated and clever and creepy and beautiful, and i've loved how scarilyalien they were while being so, so understandable.
and, of course, the beautiful, beautiful dead remains of the worldbelow, terrifying and wonderful; the worldbuilding is subtle and gentle and just a bit out of step, and, yes, definitely merits a mention.