A review by ceallaighsbooks
One for My Enemy by Olivie Blake

dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“‘Do you know what happens,’ Ivan posed softly, ‘when you kill something someone else loves?’
The Fedorov said nothing.
‘Do you really believe people are so isolated that when they're gone, nothing grows in their place? To really kill something, you have to kill everything. You have to raze it to the ground.’”

TITLE—One For My Enemy
AUTHOR—Olivie Blake
PUBLISHED—2023 (orig. 2019)
PUBLISHER—Tor (orig. independently)

GENRE—dark urban fantasy romance… thriller?
SETTING—modernday Manhattan, NYC
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—rival mob-like magical families, some mystery/thriller/horror vibes, cishet romance, thoughtful & critical take on the idea of family-first loyalty, choices, second chances, magic potions & drugs, witches, awesome fae lawyer character, intrigues & back-door deals, true love, star-crossed love

WRITING STYLE—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
CHARACTERS—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖
STORY/PLOT—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌚

BONUS ELEMENT/S—Awesome fae side-character (who stole the show, imo).

PHILOSOPHY—🌕🌕🌕🌗🌚
PREMISE—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
EXECUTION—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌚

“Sasha leaned forward, lips against his cheek. ‘Write me a tragedy, Lev Fedorov,’ she whispered to him. ‘Write me a litany of sins. Write me a plague of devastation. Write me lonely, write me wanting, write me shattered and fearful and lost. Then write me finding myself in your arms, if only for a night, and then write it again. Write it over and over, Lev, until we both know the pages by heart. Isn't that a story, too?’ she asked him softly.
He hesitated. ‘This isn't the story I wanted for us.’
‘It never is,’ replied Sasha…”

My thoughts:
This book touches on a lot of different genres (fantasy, romance, horror, thriller) and does so boldly and efficiently. The only drawback is that it took me a while to sort of feel my way into the story since I am largely unfamiliar with most genre fiction (except for fantasy) and really had no idea what to expect and many times my expectations were subverted and I had to reorient myself to the vibes. But in the end everything came together, even the plot! (Which I had mentioned earlier completely lost me with what I thought was a major plot hole about 80 pages left but even that was resolved by the end, so… 👍🏻) And while it definitely had big Romeo & Juliet vibes, there were too many original twists for this to be considered a straight “retelling”, imo, but it was clearly inspired by it so it was fun to see where the author drew the connections.

My favorite part of the book by far however was the character of Brynmor Attaway, the sort of somewhat neutral, somewhat double-agent lawyer fae character who was a kind of middleman between the two families and had the *best* lines and whose own storyline I thought was incredibly interesting. I could definitely see Blake making a spinoff novel or novella for Bryn’s story… maybe even the story of his mother and father? 👀 *That* would be… that’s what I want—I would like that very much please.

And the last thing I’ll say is that while Bryn was my personal favorite thing about the book, I also thought that the writing style was exceptionally strong. The dialogue at times was a bit cliche for my taste (but probably very true to genre) but the descriptions and characterizations especially were extremely well-written. And the love scenes I also thought were surprisingly beautiful. I’m not a huge romance reader and certainly not cishet romance but I was really touched by the way it was handled in this book.

Also the illustrations by Little Chmura (to whom this book was actually dedicated 🥰) were really beautiful.

I would recommend this book to readers who love dark urban fantasy stories about witches with darker—even horror—elements, some thriller vibes, and a strong romance storyline. This book is best read without expectations as much as possible if you can manage it—Blake really does her own thing here while still creating what is undoubtedly a fun piece of genre (but which one? 😉) fiction.

Final note: Really excited to read the rest of her books. Probably going to get to MASTERS OF DEATH this fall!

“Then he met Baba Yaga. Well, not Baba Yaga, exactly her associate of some kind, who simply went by Marya.
‘Like the fairy tale?’ Eric asked, because he wasn't stupid. He read books.
‘Sure,’ said Marya. ‘Like the fairy tale.’”

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Season: Mid-late fall.

CW // death, grief, psychosis, toxic masculinity (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—
  • everything else by Olivie Blake
  • A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness
  • DEATHLESS by Catherynne M. Valente—TBR
  • RUSSIAN FOLKTALES collected by Aleksandr Afanas’ev; translated by Norbert Guterman—TBR
  • more Baba Yaga books!