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A review by kaa
The House of Binding Thorns by Aliette de Bodard
5.0
Reread: Completely worth a second read. Gripping, intense, and beautiful.
Original review: I loved this book so much! The House of Binding Thorns takes all of the things I really enjoyed in The House of Shattered Wings and intensifies them. I like Aliette de Bodard's writing style a lot, and I adore how queer her books are - this one even more than the previous. I think the biggest difference between the two (and probably the thing that raised this above the first for me) was that the plot shifted from murder mystery to really truly focus on politics. I loved all the plotting and double-crossing and general twisty-ness going on.
I continue to be a big fan of the characters. Madeline grew on me a lot in this book - she was probably my least favorite of the narrators in the first book, but I really appreciated her role in this one. Although the plot isn't directly related to the first book, I do think this book is likely to be far better when read after at least that novel, and ideally the short stories set in this world as well.
Original review: I loved this book so much! The House of Binding Thorns takes all of the things I really enjoyed in The House of Shattered Wings and intensifies them. I like Aliette de Bodard's writing style a lot, and I adore how queer her books are - this one even more than the previous. I think the biggest difference between the two (and probably the thing that raised this above the first for me) was that the plot shifted from murder mystery to really truly focus on politics. I loved all the plotting and double-crossing and general twisty-ness going on.
I continue to be a big fan of the characters. Madeline grew on me a lot in this book - she was probably my least favorite of the narrators in the first book, but I really appreciated her role in this one. Although the plot isn't directly related to the first book, I do think this book is likely to be far better when read after at least that novel, and ideally the short stories set in this world as well.