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A review by crackedspines_
Of Silver and Shadow by Jennifer Gruenke
4.0
OVERALL RATING: 4 stars! The plot of this book was absolutely packed with action. There was not a boring moment. I was constantly on the edge of my seat, scared for the characters and waiting to see what would happen next. And the characters themselves were amazing! I loved seeing their growth and learning more about them. Of Silver and Shadow is a deeply interesting book based on a very unique concept. I highly recommend this book and can't wait for it to come out in February!
PLOT: 4 stars. Again, everything was fast-paced action and there were several really good plot twists. There were points where I truly didn't know what was going to happen to the main characters; Jennifer Gruenke did an amazing job of writing that ambiguity. I never had the feeling of "Oh, I know what's going to happen because the main character has to make it out alive". Instead I was forced to keep reading to actually find out what would happen.
STRUCTURE: 3 stars. This book has four POV characters, and I loved that! It's unique and adds a lot of mystery and interest to the story. It was helpful to see certain events from multiple characters' perspectives, and it wouldn't have felt complete if we only got one or two POVs. However, this was also a bit of a con for me. There was a lot of very sharp back-and-forth in terms of tone and mood; one chapter would be looking at a heated romantic scene, and the very next one would switch POVs to a gruesome fight or death. Then the next one would go back to that same romance from before. There was no transition between chapters like these, and the drastic change made it difficult for me to get myself in the proper mood or headspace for the chapter I was reading at times.
WORLD-BUILDING: 5 stars. Denfell felt dimensional and very real; I was transported there from the very first page. The climate and political happenings felt familiar and realistic despite the book taking place in a world with magic. There was enough information about Denfell's history and geographic location that I could properly imagine it, but not so much that it felt like an info dump or too hard to manage.
THEME: 5 stars. Of Silver and Shadow is based on a unique, special idea. The messages conveyed in this book are powerful and woven into the story very well. A lot of the characters grew and changed throughout the book in important and believable ways.
CHARACTERS: 3 stars. I loved all of the characters! Each character was distinct, something that is hard to achieve with such a large cast of characters and four POVs. Gruenke made me love all of them, even though many of them are morally grey or even flat-out bad, because every character had personality and different layers to their personality. And of course I loved the representation! There was casual POC and queer rep. White characters were also described with their skintone, which helps to deconstruct white as the default. And there were queer forbidden lovers, but they were not forbidden because they were queer. There were two main things about the characters I did NOT like though: one, there were some characters who I would've wanted to see more of. Markus, for example, seemed like an interesting character. I would've loved to see more of what he was up to and maybe even one or two chapters of his point of view. And two, I did not like one of the main romances (there are two) at all. It was very well written, but I honestly didn't want one of the characters to fall in love at all. I think it would've made much more sense for them to end the book as friends rather than lovers.
DIALOGUE: 5 stars. The main characters were argumentative and at times aggressive with one another, and it made for captivating dialogue. The characters all had distinct voices, so the dialogue was well-defined. Gruenke also used body language to convey messages alongside the actual words the characters were speaking.
PLOT: 4 stars. Again, everything was fast-paced action and there were several really good plot twists. There were points where I truly didn't know what was going to happen to the main characters; Jennifer Gruenke did an amazing job of writing that ambiguity. I never had the feeling of "Oh, I know what's going to happen because the main character has to make it out alive". Instead I was forced to keep reading to actually find out what would happen.
STRUCTURE: 3 stars. This book has four POV characters, and I loved that! It's unique and adds a lot of mystery and interest to the story. It was helpful to see certain events from multiple characters' perspectives, and it wouldn't have felt complete if we only got one or two POVs. However, this was also a bit of a con for me. There was a lot of very sharp back-and-forth in terms of tone and mood; one chapter would be looking at a heated romantic scene, and the very next one would switch POVs to a gruesome fight or death. Then the next one would go back to that same romance from before. There was no transition between chapters like these, and the drastic change made it difficult for me to get myself in the proper mood or headspace for the chapter I was reading at times.
WORLD-BUILDING: 5 stars. Denfell felt dimensional and very real; I was transported there from the very first page. The climate and political happenings felt familiar and realistic despite the book taking place in a world with magic. There was enough information about Denfell's history and geographic location that I could properly imagine it, but not so much that it felt like an info dump or too hard to manage.
THEME: 5 stars. Of Silver and Shadow is based on a unique, special idea. The messages conveyed in this book are powerful and woven into the story very well. A lot of the characters grew and changed throughout the book in important and believable ways.
CHARACTERS: 3 stars. I loved all of the characters! Each character was distinct, something that is hard to achieve with such a large cast of characters and four POVs. Gruenke made me love all of them, even though many of them are morally grey or even flat-out bad, because every character had personality and different layers to their personality. And of course I loved the representation! There was casual POC and queer rep. White characters were also described with their skintone, which helps to deconstruct white as the default. And there were queer forbidden lovers, but they were not forbidden because they were queer. There were two main things about the characters I did NOT like though: one, there were some characters who I would've wanted to see more of. Markus, for example, seemed like an interesting character. I would've loved to see more of what he was up to and maybe even one or two chapters of his point of view. And two, I did not like one of the main romances (there are two) at all. It was very well written, but I honestly didn't want one of the characters to fall in love at all. I think it would've made much more sense for them to end the book as friends rather than lovers.
DIALOGUE: 5 stars. The main characters were argumentative and at times aggressive with one another, and it made for captivating dialogue. The characters all had distinct voices, so the dialogue was well-defined. Gruenke also used body language to convey messages alongside the actual words the characters were speaking.