Scan barcode
A review by mcaliz
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
4.0
Rep: sibling relationships, slow burn romance
Reread Jan 2024: Had just as much fun as the first time I read this. So excited for book 2!
Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:
If you liked For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten then I think that you’ll really enjoy this! The world is lush, atmospheric and vivid. The lore was really interesting and I just kept wanting to know more and MORE. This is Gillig’s debut novel and you can tell by the writing in this book; which in my opinion, was the weakest part of this book. The writing can be a little choppy, and it made the pacing of the story a little awkward at some points, but I think that if you enjoy the story and the characters enough, then you can overlook the choppy writing. (I did foreshadow some things that were revealed towards the end of the book, but I didn’t guess HOW they were going to be revealed so I appreciated that).
I also followed along with the audiobook & I don’t think that it’s a bad method of reading this story, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of narrator when she was speaking Elspeth’s dialogue, it just felt like she was emoting the right emotions that Elspeth was ACTUALLY saying when you’re reading it and it was making her more timid and insecure than Elspeth actually is/was in certain scenes.
And the romance? I loved Elspeth and Rayvn. I loved their dynamic and the “will they, won’t they”, push and pull that was between them. I just thought that they were VERY cute
Reread Jan 2024: Had just as much fun as the first time I read this. So excited for book 2!
Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:
If you liked For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten then I think that you’ll really enjoy this! The world is lush, atmospheric and vivid. The lore was really interesting and I just kept wanting to know more and MORE. This is Gillig’s debut novel and you can tell by the writing in this book; which in my opinion, was the weakest part of this book. The writing can be a little choppy, and it made the pacing of the story a little awkward at some points, but I think that if you enjoy the story and the characters enough, then you can overlook the choppy writing. (I did foreshadow some things that were revealed towards the end of the book, but I didn’t guess HOW they were going to be revealed so I appreciated that).
I also followed along with the audiobook & I don’t think that it’s a bad method of reading this story, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of narrator when she was speaking Elspeth’s dialogue, it just felt like she was emoting the right emotions that Elspeth was ACTUALLY saying when you’re reading it and it was making her more timid and insecure than Elspeth actually is/was in certain scenes.
And the romance? I loved Elspeth and Rayvn. I loved their dynamic and the “will they, won’t they”, push and pull that was between them. I just thought that they were VERY cute