A review by colleen_corleone
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I wasn't aware how much I loved these characters until the last 35% of the book where I started crying during different emotionally charged scenes.

The humor is wonderful and much needed as more horrific events unfold. I love their banter. I want to use cunting more often in sentences going forward. It's such a fun word to help break up the normal American swearing I do.

I love going into a book relatively blind, but for anyone who needs more context:

There is a cunting lot of gore, assault, death, dismemberment, cannibalism, unintentional necrophilia. That's in most chapters and part of the ever-present background of the world.

The relationship between Thomas and the young girl (whose name you learn later) is beautiful and bittersweet. He takes good if reluctant care of her.


For a general spoiler
Thomas and the girl make a friend whose death was the first time I cried, surprising myself. I didn't realize until that moment how much I loved loved these characters.


I cried three other times during deaths and hard battles. The general feeling of dread and/or terror keeps a low hum that built when I least expected it.

I am buying a physical copy to reread in the future.

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