A review by wildflowercrypt
Menewood by Nicola Griffith

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

i was really looking forward to the sequel to Hild but so much of this book was just unnecessary; i find most plots by Griffith to be slow moving but this story had little to no momentum for ~75% of it. the middle is bloated and overlong and honestly, a mess, plot-wise. it felt like an endless stream of minor characters who were introduced only to never to be mentioned again because they weren’t actually important to progressing the plot, while little to no time was ever spent with the characters i would’ve actually liked to know better (Bryhtsige, Leofdæg, Dudda, Wulf, any of the other Fiercesomes???). whenever something did happen, its impact would almost be immediately negated and almost always dealt with off-page. and much of it replete with so much brooding from Hild about how she needs to delegate more, only for her to… never delegate. 😭

i like slow reads. i like dense plots. and i do love Nicola Griffith as a writer. but this… was not it. i have many re-reads of Hild ahead me, not so much Menewood.