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A review by fairywhoreads
Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen
4.0
For the lovers of a great villain’s arc. For the passionate of twisted fairy tales, of villain’s point of view and of romances that don’t end well. For every reader who was looking for a long-waited original young adult fantasy book, here is your autumn read of the year.
It took me a while to start writing this review, as I was deeply confused by the end of my reading. I had enjoyed the book; however, I could not bring myself to rate it five stars as I felt something was definitely missing. And I was glad to understand this absence by reading other reviews on Goodreads, written by our fellow readers.
First of all, the characters. I identified a lot with Violet…
‘I want to want to be in this crowd. Everything would be simpler if I didn’t know what I know, didn’t think what I think, and I could just be like everyone else. I’d hate that version of me’
But only to a certain degree, for she went too far when she started her villain’s journey.
‘I don’t have the luxury of being nice. The only people who are nice are those who have never had to claw for anything they’ve wanted. There are kind people, like Dante, who know how unfair life is and somehow hold on to their compassion. I’m not kind either. Kind people get eaten alive in this world’
As a romantic, that’s a big no. As I continued my reading, I wished for a happy ending or a realisation from Violet that everything was going to play along. I will not say how it went; however, I believe these types of thinking and reasoning were part of my disliking of a part of the book… which could also be why some people would love it so much. Violet is this antagonist character you all waited so long to receive and there she is, on a golden plate. I did not read The Cruel Prince but I saw the true comparison when Violet said ‘Maybe cruel is the best thing I can be’.
I mean ‘What you achieve in the end is what matters’? Excuse me but since when does the end justify the means?
So Violet was definitely a complicated character for me to adopt and understand, but happily, I found other characters to be completely of my liking (not you Princey) such as Dante.
‘’If something bad happens,’ Dante says, with his soft smile and a halo of star-candles overhead, ‘we’ll do what we always do when everything seems hopeless.’ I stare up at him. ‘Hope.’’
Dante was all the romantic and hopeful character I needed to have in this book, and -in my opinion- the main love interest and the best character (competing closely with Camilla but she wasn’t enough). Dante did not disappoint me and he was also there to support the whole plot of the book which was definitely not well presented.
The fantasy world presented by the author is… Confusing. The diplomatic relations seem interesting but it could have been more interesting if they weren’t interrupted by Princey’s flirting with our little witch, flirting that felt misplaced for me. I am a big lover of royal romances and enemies-to-lovers storylines but this didn’t feel right. The romance was off. The relationship between our lovebirds was off. And it feels like the author put so much effort into making this book original, with our beloved antagonist and her villain’s arc, that she completely forgot to write everything else correctly. So we fall directly into an original book that could have been five stars but dropped to a 4 because of the rapidity with which she wrote the plot, the relationships, and the romance. The plot twists were amazing but they didn’t feel amazing. The tension between the lovebirds was well written but it didn’t feel well written.
However, I will still admit that I enjoyed reading this book. It was addicting, it was funny (‘As Camilla says: ‘In dates or death, go out in style’’) and it had all these little quotes that I could highlight about people, life, relations, and philosophy (‘a history unremembered may as well have never existed’). I am definitely happy that I read this book and I would definitely recommend it, especially to the villain’s lovers and the new readers who want to discover young adult fantasy. Only don’t except too much of it.
It took me a while to start writing this review, as I was deeply confused by the end of my reading. I had enjoyed the book; however, I could not bring myself to rate it five stars as I felt something was definitely missing. And I was glad to understand this absence by reading other reviews on Goodreads, written by our fellow readers.
First of all, the characters. I identified a lot with Violet…
‘I want to want to be in this crowd. Everything would be simpler if I didn’t know what I know, didn’t think what I think, and I could just be like everyone else. I’d hate that version of me’
But only to a certain degree, for she went too far when she started her villain’s journey.
‘I don’t have the luxury of being nice. The only people who are nice are those who have never had to claw for anything they’ve wanted. There are kind people, like Dante, who know how unfair life is and somehow hold on to their compassion. I’m not kind either. Kind people get eaten alive in this world’
As a romantic, that’s a big no. As I continued my reading, I wished for a happy ending or a realisation from Violet that everything was going to play along. I will not say how it went; however, I believe these types of thinking and reasoning were part of my disliking of a part of the book… which could also be why some people would love it so much. Violet is this antagonist character you all waited so long to receive and there she is, on a golden plate. I did not read The Cruel Prince but I saw the true comparison when Violet said ‘Maybe cruel is the best thing I can be’.
I mean ‘What you achieve in the end is what matters’? Excuse me but since when does the end justify the means?
So Violet was definitely a complicated character for me to adopt and understand, but happily, I found other characters to be completely of my liking (not you Princey) such as Dante.
‘’If something bad happens,’ Dante says, with his soft smile and a halo of star-candles overhead, ‘we’ll do what we always do when everything seems hopeless.’ I stare up at him. ‘Hope.’’
Dante was all the romantic and hopeful character I needed to have in this book, and -in my opinion- the main love interest and the best character (competing closely with Camilla but she wasn’t enough). Dante did not disappoint me and he was also there to support the whole plot of the book which was definitely not well presented.
The fantasy world presented by the author is… Confusing. The diplomatic relations seem interesting but it could have been more interesting if they weren’t interrupted by Princey’s flirting with our little witch, flirting that felt misplaced for me. I am a big lover of royal romances and enemies-to-lovers storylines but this didn’t feel right. The romance was off. The relationship between our lovebirds was off. And it feels like the author put so much effort into making this book original, with our beloved antagonist and her villain’s arc, that she completely forgot to write everything else correctly. So we fall directly into an original book that could have been five stars but dropped to a 4 because of the rapidity with which she wrote the plot, the relationships, and the romance. The plot twists were amazing but they didn’t feel amazing. The tension between the lovebirds was well written but it didn’t feel well written.
However, I will still admit that I enjoyed reading this book. It was addicting, it was funny (‘As Camilla says: ‘In dates or death, go out in style’’) and it had all these little quotes that I could highlight about people, life, relations, and philosophy (‘a history unremembered may as well have never existed’). I am definitely happy that I read this book and I would definitely recommend it, especially to the villain’s lovers and the new readers who want to discover young adult fantasy. Only don’t except too much of it.