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A review by greeniezona
Night Ivy by E.D.E. Bell
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
I wouldn't exactly? call this cozy? But it is cozy-adjacent. There is a central quest, but there is time spent shopping for niblings and relaxing in taverns and making friends with dragons. All the best cozy stories are queer, and this story has Neo-pronouns and a complex gender system that it never makes a big point to try to explain — just trusts you to accept that you know as much as you need to know.
I would also not exactly say cozy as we spend our time in the head of Xelle, and I don't know if in fiction I've ever spent as much time in such a highly anxious, deeply introverted over-thinker. And WOW, did I identify with her a majority of the time.
There are hidden depths in this novel. Descriptions and place names that seem simplistic at first slowly turn out to have a complex system underneath them. A political system that seems simple and stable at first, that is revealed to have hidden cracks.
Mostly this book is very soft. Xelle knows and uses magic, yes, but mostly her superpowers are responsibility and her sense of justice.
This is the first book in what will be a series, so not every thread is neatly tied off at the end of this volume, but a mystery is solved, our Xelle has grown, and there was enough resolution to feel satisfying as a stand-alone.
I would also not exactly say cozy as we spend our time in the head of Xelle, and I don't know if in fiction I've ever spent as much time in such a highly anxious, deeply introverted over-thinker. And WOW, did I identify with her a majority of the time.
There are hidden depths in this novel. Descriptions and place names that seem simplistic at first slowly turn out to have a complex system underneath them. A political system that seems simple and stable at first, that is revealed to have hidden cracks.
Mostly this book is very soft. Xelle knows and uses magic, yes, but mostly her superpowers are responsibility and her sense of justice.
This is the first book in what will be a series, so not every thread is neatly tied off at the end of this volume, but a mystery is solved, our Xelle has grown, and there was enough resolution to feel satisfying as a stand-alone.