A review by levesc17
That Self-Same Metal by Brittany N. Williams

adventurous emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This book had a lot to love, first and foremost, you can really feel the author’s love of Shakespeare shine through. There’s also: a girl with a sword, a bisexual love triangle, and magic! The plot had all the puzzle pieces that grab me.  I felt that pace moved too briskly for me to really settle with the main characters internal dilemmas and the plot twists a bit predictable (because honestly teenagers are predictable, why don’t they communicate with their parents?!) HOWEVER, I am an adult reader and I am not the intended audience. I will happily gift this book to any middle school or high school reader in my life.  I read an arc of this from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Racial slurs, Violence, and Sexism

one thing that I didn’t understand was once they figured out the uncle was in the Tower of London, why didn’t Mama sands just use her portal power to get in there? Also, I got sort of frustrated we never found out WHAT the ritual Baba Ben was supposed to do? Last thing. How does Joan a girl of 16 in 1604 get to be so much a good sword fighter? Is that ability part of the magic? It was unclear to me how a young girl could be a expert fighter and I wanted a little more backstory!