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A review by siannas_second_library
Not Good For Maidens by Tori Bovalino
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Thank you to RB Mrdia and @netgalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book.
Well this was a delightful surprise. I listened to this to have something short and different between Stormlight Archive audiobooks, not expecting that much from it, but the synopsis sounded interesting and it's queer so I thought 'why not'.
And I ended up really enjoying it!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not Good For Maidens is a Fantasy-Horror YA book that's a loose retelling of Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti.
It makes a real effort to have a diverse cast of characters, the main romance is sapphic and one of the main characters is asexual, which I was not expecting. It's not plot-relevant but it's always incredibly nice to have on page representation.
The writing is really fluid and the book is really good at building atmosphere, it's appropriately dark and intimidating all the way through. It has not only Goblins but also Witches, and who doesn't like Witches in their book?
I also really liked the dual timeliness, although it was a little to easy to miss when it switches to the past/present when listening to it as an audiobook.
The magic system and the market could have done with a bit more explaining but overall this was really good.
I am not a native English speaker so while I thought the narrator did a good job and it was enjoyable to listen to this book, I can not say if the atempted (I think Yorkshire?) accent was well done.
The only reason that I didn't give it five stars is that I'm not really a horror fan, I just don't get anything out of it.
But I can say that this book has just catapulted The Devil Makes Three by Bovalino, which I've had on my shelf for a while, to the top of my tbr!
Well this was a delightful surprise. I listened to this to have something short and different between Stormlight Archive audiobooks, not expecting that much from it, but the synopsis sounded interesting and it's queer so I thought 'why not'.
And I ended up really enjoying it!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not Good For Maidens is a Fantasy-Horror YA book that's a loose retelling of Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti.
It makes a real effort to have a diverse cast of characters, the main romance is sapphic and one of the main characters is asexual, which I was not expecting. It's not plot-relevant but it's always incredibly nice to have on page representation.
The writing is really fluid and the book is really good at building atmosphere, it's appropriately dark and intimidating all the way through. It has not only Goblins but also Witches, and who doesn't like Witches in their book?
I also really liked the dual timeliness, although it was a little to easy to miss when it switches to the past/present when listening to it as an audiobook.
The magic system and the market could have done with a bit more explaining but overall this was really good.
I am not a native English speaker so while I thought the narrator did a good job and it was enjoyable to listen to this book, I can not say if the atempted (I think Yorkshire?) accent was well done.
The only reason that I didn't give it five stars is that I'm not really a horror fan, I just don't get anything out of it.
But I can say that this book has just catapulted The Devil Makes Three by Bovalino, which I've had on my shelf for a while, to the top of my tbr!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Body horror and Torture