A review by thebooklovingpanda
Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

As the saying goes: every future is earned and no destiny is without blood.

[All quotes are from the ARC, subject to change in the final version]

I enjoyed this one so much, it was utterly bingeable, unexpectedly funny, and I had plenty of fun discussions with my buddy read partner. Most importantly, I didn't ever have that (unfortunately increasingly common) feeling of slight disappointment that tends to accompany reading new releases these days. (The hype power of social media is a beast a half!)

My reading experience here definitely benefitted from having my expectations tempered. 'Violet Made of Thorns' was all over my social media before its release and sounded AMAZING, but a few lukewarm reviews made me go into this with less emotional pre-investment. As you can tell from the last paragraph, this resulted in a Great Time™.

Kings and curses, girls and gods - these are makings of tales. All I did was bleed and ask.

'Violet Made of Thorns' is very atmospheric, heightened by some lovely prose (many a highlight!), and perfect to read in autumn/spooky season. With strange visions, unsettling prophecies and witchiness afoot, the nods to fairy tale elements only elevated the darkly magical and dangerously beautiful (or beautifully dangerous?) vibes. Atmosphere: check...however the setting could have been boosted by the map depicting Auveny' neighbouring countries, rather than just the capital city.


I've always hated how people speak of destiny as if they had no part in it. How they stow their guilt in the stars instead of their hearts, blaming the Fates for their decisions.

The titular Violet is very engaging (as a main character ought to be!), Cyrus was...fine (lol), and some of the side characters stood out as well. Dante (Cyrus and Violet's mutual friend) and Camilla (Cyrus' sister) were particularly striking - Camilla needs more development yet still won me over almost immediately. There is also another who would be a spoiler to name... (Annoyingly, at the time of writing this review, I've actually forgotten who this is, because past me apparently thought that the spoiler warning applied to me too and didn't bother writing down this mystery character's name in my notes...) I hope to see them in Book 2!!

We know right off the bat that this is going to have an enemies-to-lovers plotline, yet I was both surprised and not by the trajectory of the romance. I had a theory that I was really hoping for...but the series isn't over yet! (I am furious at my past self for not writing down this theory in my notes, because by now I've forgotten.) I will say that I did get confused by how Cyrus and another character seemed to be falling and then that thread was just suddenly dropped. (Teenage hormones?)

"Sometimes you hate someone so much, you fall in love."
And maybe if I start a hot enough fire, it'll start shitting ice cubes. "You've had too much to drink, Lady Ziza."

The plot was full of surprises and I loved that while my veteran YA Fantasy experience could predict general points, they didn't unfold the way I expected. I was also impressed with how seamlessly the messages about imperialism and propaganda (that are unfortunately still all too relevant today) were woven into this fantasy world. That said, the story did annoyingly leave some apparently key things unexplained, like the significance of fairies and fayflowers. There also seemed to be this throwaway but essential thing about fairies and hope? I'm hoping these get expanded on in Book 2.

My immediate thought after closing the book was that I NEED Book 2. NOW. What an absolute rollercoaster of a finale...so much was happening that I kept turning the page thinking, 'Surely now it'll be the end/epilogue?'. I loved the fairytale-esque closer - very in keeping with the 'spin' propaganda theme - and I'm really looking forward to the sequel!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an eARC for an honest review.

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Initial thoughts:
I can't wait for Book 2. Wow. So much was happening at the end that I kept turning the page thinking, 'Surely now it'll be the end/Epilogue'... I'm glad my expectations were tempered before I went into this, because I ended up enjoying it a lot without feeling let down by inflated hype. Full RTC!

Buddy read with Vivian!
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