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A review by eclecticbookwrm
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
5.0
I absolutely adored this book. It had a bit of a slow beginning for me, but I devoured the last half. Vespertine has most of my favorite elements in a story:
✅ a fierce, believable, complicated heroine forced to battle both her inner and outer demons
✅ fantastic chemistry and friendships between characters
✅ deep, nuanced world-building
✅ solid writing
✅ enemies to friends tropes
Artemisia is not your average MC. She is stoic, anxious, and tries to avoid people at all cost. There is quite a bit of emotional distance between her and everything that’s happening in the book because of her personality. As such, this book reads in a more detached manner than what I would normally choose. That being said, once I learned more of Artemisia’s backstory and why she is the way she is, I was emotionally hooked and ended up loving it.
Rogerson’s a wonderful writer. For a pretty dark, violent book, there were plenty of places where I laughed out loud while reading it. The conversations and dialogue between Artemisia and the revenant were some of my favorite parts of the book. Highlights include:
✨“Stupid? If there’s one thing I can always rely upon, it’s the reassuring dependability of human idiocy. Give your kind a century or so, and they’ll happily repeat the exact same mistakes that nearly wiped them all out a few generations before.” (p. 66 in the hardcover).
✨“Oh, pardon me, you’re a nun. Silly of me to suggest that you’ve ever imagined a single delightful experience in the entire span of your dull, miserable, hateful nun existence.” (p. 125)
The ending has unexpected twists and turns that I really did not see coming. I am very excited for the sequel, and can’t wait to see where Rogerson takes us next. Thank you so much to Simon Teen for providing me with a finished copy of this book.
✅ a fierce, believable, complicated heroine forced to battle both her inner and outer demons
✅ fantastic chemistry and friendships between characters
✅ deep, nuanced world-building
✅ solid writing
✅ enemies to friends tropes
Artemisia is not your average MC. She is stoic, anxious, and tries to avoid people at all cost. There is quite a bit of emotional distance between her and everything that’s happening in the book because of her personality. As such, this book reads in a more detached manner than what I would normally choose. That being said, once I learned more of Artemisia’s backstory and why she is the way she is, I was emotionally hooked and ended up loving it.
Rogerson’s a wonderful writer. For a pretty dark, violent book, there were plenty of places where I laughed out loud while reading it. The conversations and dialogue between Artemisia and the revenant were some of my favorite parts of the book. Highlights include:
✨“Stupid? If there’s one thing I can always rely upon, it’s the reassuring dependability of human idiocy. Give your kind a century or so, and they’ll happily repeat the exact same mistakes that nearly wiped them all out a few generations before.” (p. 66 in the hardcover).
✨“Oh, pardon me, you’re a nun. Silly of me to suggest that you’ve ever imagined a single delightful experience in the entire span of your dull, miserable, hateful nun existence.” (p. 125)
The ending has unexpected twists and turns that I really did not see coming. I am very excited for the sequel, and can’t wait to see where Rogerson takes us next. Thank you so much to Simon Teen for providing me with a finished copy of this book.