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A review by the_chaotic_witch
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
2.0
2/5** spoiler-filled!!
This 2019 YA high fantasy novel written by Magaret Rogerson follows young Elizabeth Scrivener who after living in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries is unjustly accused of conspiracy against her very home. Being brought to the capital for questioning by the dangerously evil sorcerers whose knowledge was is stored in the Great Libraries she meets Nathaniel Thorn – the arrogant murderous sorcerer behind the attacks. Or so she thought –
This is a spoiler-filled review continue at your own risk!
After arriving in Brassbrigde Elli and Nate (how I will from here on be calling them) are attacked by a random man – who for some reason everyone believes to be/work with the actual saboteur of the Libraries. Defending her life from his demonly helpers clears her name somehow and she is sent to live with Counsellor Ashcroft before returning home to the Great Library of Summershall. The Counsellor is high(est?) ranked in the Magisterium the “government” of the sorcerers. But this golden boy-ed hero-personification is our villain and after having her thoroughly interrogated (or so at least we are told) he declares her mad and discards her to a mental institution that mistreats its patients.
Escaping from there we meet Nate and demon butler Silas again and have a little bit of character exploration and relationship building. Realizing (finally) what Ashcroft’s end-goal is we try to save the last Great Library from this attack – being unable to do that we have to fight the Big Bad and meet our happy ending in the Epilogue.
So much for the actual plot.
I usually try to find the underlying themes of the stories I read early on but here I can only find the classic ones for a Main who life changes completely: Not everything is what it seems to be and not everything you’ve been taught has to be true. One-sided knowledge is dangerous and purely relying on another’s statements is wrong. Think for yourself.
Other than that all I could find was around the lines of Books have power, Nothing is purely evil, Golden boys are most certainly our villain? , heritance isn’t everything/necessarily true.
I would like to add Money/a family name isn’t everything but sadly that’s not the case with this story since we are of course all super rich and loved because of our names.
As to character development… it wasn’t overwhelming let me say this much. Yes, I like how Elli’s worldview shifted and that Nate isn’t so annoyingly miserable anymore. The little interactions between Nate and Silas were cute but ill-fitting they felt forced sometimes for characterization sometimes for comic relief but neither of these worked. The plot-related everyday bickering and talking and working together of these two worked so much better than the little commentaries here and there which interrupted the flow of the plot.
And talking of Silas. Someone please protect this precious bean and hug him because he was the only character I cared about! He had depth, he had the motivation, he had a character, an interesting background, future, shadow and I really love what she did with him in the epilogue. That was actually a “plot twist” that I liked no matter how obvious. He was the best developed and only interesting character in this book. Sorry.
Also, someone please tell me why Katrien was there because even though she seemed to help a lot I don’t feel like she was important at all.
For the world-building and its magic system I, sadly, only have to say that it was weak. The world-building was clumsy, to say the least.
Well, we only have a world of one forest, one town and five other towns we speak about a lot. Considering how often Austenmeer was mentioned I’d have guessed we also explore other countries, hear of them – how they deal with sorcerer’s and magic, with demons, are they affected by what is/was happening in the plot/history of the world?
Except for Brassbrigde, House Thorn and the Summershall/Royal Library, we hardly get any world-building. (Why “Royal” Library? There is no information on any royal rulers?)
Being part of the world-building too, I feel like I have to mention that the whole sensationalism/journalists/gossip thing didn’t sit right with me. It didn’t click, didn’t feel real within the story.
But I actually have to say something good about this: the demon aspect (where they come from, what kinds of demons there are) was well established when even if it felt incomplete. (How did we first come to sorcery, why is this so so much hated and not just very restricted? Why do they exist when their life somewhat depends on the life-force of another dimension they didn’t know anything about until one fine day some rando was suddenly summoned away?)
As well as the Collegium/Magisterium thingy. Can’t really tell you what they actually do but they were a natural part of the world, well established in the background.
As to the magic system, I would have liked more exploration into that. Our whole plot is built on magical books. So, I would have liked to see more explanation on how this magic works other than It is the demons. And also, why is Elli effected in that way??
Her reveal – why she is the way she is – was very very disappointing I thought (and hoped that she wouldn’t) be Prendergast’s descendant but then I would have preferred that over the actual reason.
The characters/their strength was super inconsistent especially within Nate and Silas was just their Get-out-of-Jail-free-Card apparently.
For the overall concept:
The idea was very good I think! A girl who has grown up surrounded by books seeped up some of their magic and is because of that able to see what’s actually going on in a literal sense. Being thus forced out of the world she knows she has to accept that the world isn’t what she thought it to be and of course saves the world, while the Silas thing happens (can’t really put it into words).
The writing was good, it was fluent, picturesque, and colourful, didn’t annoy me but nothing exceptional.
Now. To the execution. Which I think very lacking – very weak. At first, I didn’t have an issue with it up until maybe page 60 or 70 when Elli mentioned once too often how evil he was!!
Smaller plot holes appeared, there was too little focus on the important parts of the story, information was dumped on our main characters without this very useful information ever being used again and the same thing happened with characters. There were rather a lot of them in this story, but really relevant were our main three and the villain. Too many people who appeared shortly being completely forgotten after that and then pulled out of nowhere at the end again to make a well-rounded sum up.
For the society: except those very little explored four days in which Elli was lost we have no commentary on poverty and the extreme richness which our main people are indulging and the gender roles are very much defined and just because the warden and bosses of libraries can be female and wield a sword does not make this a more feminist story.
Before we talk about the representation I have to get something off my chest: Elli and Nate had neither ANY chemistry whatsoever not did they have any relationship building at all!
Elli had even more connection with Silas and Ashcroft than with Nate. Their love for each other came totally out of nowhere and their relationship felt not at all as if they were in love.
It was obvious that he’s the love interest and still, I wondered if she’d actually end up with Silas for some part of the story - which would have been quite refreshing. But then on the note of refreshing: on page 431 of my edition I actually wrote down Is everyone going to die? Because that’d be refreshing…
Also, we get that one line about I hadn’t found it possible at first but “You love him Silas” without any objection which was the point where I suspected a romance or a broken heart between Silas and Nate but we never heard of that again…
As to the representation: If I haven’t missed anything with got LGBTQA+ and blindness rep in here.
The LGBTQA+ is Nate who’s bisexual which might have been very interesting (even more so since I longed to see him ending up with Silas) if it were discussed at all. But he drops that at a party explains what it means and not one more word is uttered about that.
The blindness rep is in my opinion so far not that good that we have one of these characters who are blind but it doesn’t mean anything for their day-to-day life, later the letters are mention but that’s also the only word about it.
And one last important thing in a story is always the timeframe. We are at some time told that this takes place in the 16th (?) century but not only was that not memorable or to be gathered from the world; but also the seasonal frame. At one point Nate makes it snow. Then the rushed ending happens during which it still snows apparently and then it’s suddenly already winter in the epilogue.
On another note, the end-goal revelation came far too late. 74% into the story it was still unclear. Because of that everything afterwards was super-duper rushed and confusing and our Big Bad had no depth and hardly any scare factor. (Plus, the end fight with all those books didn’t feel dramatic but ridiculous, sorry. And how the quack was Silas able to defeat this basically god of his realm and survive that??)
Oh, and one very last thing that I really really disliked in the epilogue: That thing with Mercy. So Elli meets this girl her age who works in this terrible workplace and saves her life. And then she decides to make that girl her servant? Doesn’t sit right with me.
As to my enjoyment rating I gave it a 3/5 because around 50-60% in it really had me hooked and I love Silas but most of the times I was annoyed at the characters or could not overlook the execution issues.
For neutral rating, I gave it a 1.5/5 because all in all, it was just too weak an execution while the idea was really good.
Finally, I settle on 2/5 stars.
Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!
xx, Me
This 2019 YA high fantasy novel written by Magaret Rogerson follows young Elizabeth Scrivener who after living in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries is unjustly accused of conspiracy against her very home. Being brought to the capital for questioning by the dangerously evil sorcerers whose knowledge was is stored in the Great Libraries she meets Nathaniel Thorn – the arrogant murderous sorcerer behind the attacks. Or so she thought –
This is a spoiler-filled review continue at your own risk!
After arriving in Brassbrigde Elli and Nate (how I will from here on be calling them) are attacked by a random man – who for some reason everyone believes to be/work with the actual saboteur of the Libraries. Defending her life from his demonly helpers clears her name somehow and she is sent to live with Counsellor Ashcroft before returning home to the Great Library of Summershall. The Counsellor is high(est?) ranked in the Magisterium the “government” of the sorcerers. But this golden boy-ed hero-personification is our villain and after having her thoroughly interrogated (or so at least we are told) he declares her mad and discards her to a mental institution that mistreats its patients.
Escaping from there we meet Nate and demon butler Silas again and have a little bit of character exploration and relationship building. Realizing (finally) what Ashcroft’s end-goal is we try to save the last Great Library from this attack – being unable to do that we have to fight the Big Bad and meet our happy ending in the Epilogue.
So much for the actual plot.
I usually try to find the underlying themes of the stories I read early on but here I can only find the classic ones for a Main who life changes completely: Not everything is what it seems to be and not everything you’ve been taught has to be true. One-sided knowledge is dangerous and purely relying on another’s statements is wrong. Think for yourself.
Other than that all I could find was around the lines of Books have power, Nothing is purely evil, Golden boys are most certainly our villain? , heritance isn’t everything/necessarily true.
I would like to add Money/a family name isn’t everything but sadly that’s not the case with this story since we are of course all super rich and loved because of our names.
As to character development… it wasn’t overwhelming let me say this much. Yes, I like how Elli’s worldview shifted and that Nate isn’t so annoyingly miserable anymore. The little interactions between Nate and Silas were cute but ill-fitting they felt forced sometimes for characterization sometimes for comic relief but neither of these worked. The plot-related everyday bickering and talking and working together of these two worked so much better than the little commentaries here and there which interrupted the flow of the plot.
And talking of Silas. Someone please protect this precious bean and hug him because he was the only character I cared about! He had depth, he had the motivation, he had a character, an interesting background, future, shadow and I really love what she did with him in the epilogue. That was actually a “plot twist” that I liked no matter how obvious. He was the best developed and only interesting character in this book. Sorry.
Also, someone please tell me why Katrien was there because even though she seemed to help a lot I don’t feel like she was important at all.
For the world-building and its magic system I, sadly, only have to say that it was weak. The world-building was clumsy, to say the least.
Well, we only have a world of one forest, one town and five other towns we speak about a lot. Considering how often Austenmeer was mentioned I’d have guessed we also explore other countries, hear of them – how they deal with sorcerer’s and magic, with demons, are they affected by what is/was happening in the plot/history of the world?
Except for Brassbrigde, House Thorn and the Summershall/Royal Library, we hardly get any world-building. (Why “Royal” Library? There is no information on any royal rulers?)
Being part of the world-building too, I feel like I have to mention that the whole sensationalism/journalists/gossip thing didn’t sit right with me. It didn’t click, didn’t feel real within the story.
But I actually have to say something good about this: the demon aspect (where they come from, what kinds of demons there are) was well established when even if it felt incomplete. (How did we first come to sorcery, why is this so so much hated and not just very restricted? Why do they exist when their life somewhat depends on the life-force of another dimension they didn’t know anything about until one fine day some rando was suddenly summoned away?)
As well as the Collegium/Magisterium thingy. Can’t really tell you what they actually do but they were a natural part of the world, well established in the background.
As to the magic system, I would have liked more exploration into that. Our whole plot is built on magical books. So, I would have liked to see more explanation on how this magic works other than It is the demons. And also, why is Elli effected in that way??
Her reveal – why she is the way she is – was very very disappointing I thought (and hoped that she wouldn’t) be Prendergast’s descendant but then I would have preferred that over the actual reason.
The characters/their strength was super inconsistent especially within Nate and Silas was just their Get-out-of-Jail-free-Card apparently.
For the overall concept:
The idea was very good I think! A girl who has grown up surrounded by books seeped up some of their magic and is because of that able to see what’s actually going on in a literal sense. Being thus forced out of the world she knows she has to accept that the world isn’t what she thought it to be and of course saves the world, while the Silas thing happens (can’t really put it into words).
The writing was good, it was fluent, picturesque, and colourful, didn’t annoy me but nothing exceptional.
Now. To the execution. Which I think very lacking – very weak. At first, I didn’t have an issue with it up until maybe page 60 or 70 when Elli mentioned once too often how evil he was!!
Smaller plot holes appeared, there was too little focus on the important parts of the story, information was dumped on our main characters without this very useful information ever being used again and the same thing happened with characters. There were rather a lot of them in this story, but really relevant were our main three and the villain. Too many people who appeared shortly being completely forgotten after that and then pulled out of nowhere at the end again to make a well-rounded sum up.
For the society: except those very little explored four days in which Elli was lost we have no commentary on poverty and the extreme richness which our main people are indulging and the gender roles are very much defined and just because the warden and bosses of libraries can be female and wield a sword does not make this a more feminist story.
Before we talk about the representation I have to get something off my chest: Elli and Nate had neither ANY chemistry whatsoever not did they have any relationship building at all!
Elli had even more connection with Silas and Ashcroft than with Nate. Their love for each other came totally out of nowhere and their relationship felt not at all as if they were in love.
It was obvious that he’s the love interest and still, I wondered if she’d actually end up with Silas for some part of the story - which would have been quite refreshing. But then on the note of refreshing: on page 431 of my edition I actually wrote down Is everyone going to die? Because that’d be refreshing…
Also, we get that one line about I hadn’t found it possible at first but “You love him Silas” without any objection which was the point where I suspected a romance or a broken heart between Silas and Nate but we never heard of that again…
As to the representation: If I haven’t missed anything with got LGBTQA+ and blindness rep in here.
The LGBTQA+ is Nate who’s bisexual which might have been very interesting (even more so since I longed to see him ending up with Silas) if it were discussed at all. But he drops that at a party explains what it means and not one more word is uttered about that.
The blindness rep is in my opinion so far not that good that we have one of these characters who are blind but it doesn’t mean anything for their day-to-day life, later the letters are mention but that’s also the only word about it.
And one last important thing in a story is always the timeframe. We are at some time told that this takes place in the 16th (?) century but not only was that not memorable or to be gathered from the world; but also the seasonal frame. At one point Nate makes it snow. Then the rushed ending happens during which it still snows apparently and then it’s suddenly already winter in the epilogue.
On another note, the end-goal revelation came far too late. 74% into the story it was still unclear. Because of that everything afterwards was super-duper rushed and confusing and our Big Bad had no depth and hardly any scare factor. (Plus, the end fight with all those books didn’t feel dramatic but ridiculous, sorry. And how the quack was Silas able to defeat this basically god of his realm and survive that??)
Oh, and one very last thing that I really really disliked in the epilogue: That thing with Mercy. So Elli meets this girl her age who works in this terrible workplace and saves her life. And then she decides to make that girl her servant? Doesn’t sit right with me.
As to my enjoyment rating I gave it a 3/5 because around 50-60% in it really had me hooked and I love Silas but most of the times I was annoyed at the characters or could not overlook the execution issues.
For neutral rating, I gave it a 1.5/5 because all in all, it was just too weak an execution while the idea was really good.
Finally, I settle on 2/5 stars.
Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!
xx, Me