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A review by emmasnothere
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
2.75
if there’s anything niche to be desired it’s to have a malevolent spirit take up real estate inside your body and give you your daily/hourly health checkpoints.
rogerson is a wonderful fantasy author, but there’s always something missing for me to warrant giving a book an above average rating. this time i the world building felt… suffocating, larger than what is expected/needed for a less than 400 page standalone. although provided with the context that this was intended to be a series, it does, in fact, read as a first installment. forgiving that flaw, a second grievance: the prose was, as expected, atmospheric (very gothic, dreary!), yet it often strayed away from getting to the Point like where is the plot? the development of the characters? it was fluffed with descriptions and repetitive at times, so the transitions between settings and events muddled together.
points of interest: pitch… perfect for a specific audience (me) who had a special interest in joan of arc at 11 and unironically enjoys the nun films. no romance—usually prefer fantasy with a small romance element/portion. the small, but running theme in her catalog being the significance of names. liked the friendship and trust between characters, and what that entails when someone is highly regarded (i.e., vespertine)
2.75
rogerson is a wonderful fantasy author, but there’s always something missing for me to warrant giving a book an above average rating. this time i the world building felt… suffocating, larger than what is expected/needed for a less than 400 page standalone. although provided with the context that this was intended to be a series, it does, in fact, read as a first installment. forgiving that flaw, a second grievance: the prose was, as expected, atmospheric (very gothic, dreary!), yet it often strayed away from getting to the Point like where is the plot? the development of the characters? it was fluffed with descriptions and repetitive at times, so the transitions between settings and events muddled together.
points of interest: pitch… perfect for a specific audience (me) who had a special interest in joan of arc at 11 and unironically enjoys the nun films. no romance—usually prefer fantasy with a small romance element/portion. the small, but running theme in her catalog being the significance of names. liked the friendship and trust between characters, and what that entails when someone is highly regarded (i.e., vespertine)
2.75