A review by displacedcactus
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
After three books of seeing Cleric Chih out in the world, this book finally takes us to the Singing Hills monastery, so we can learn more about the order and Chih's youth, their friends, and the people who are like family to them. We also get to learn a lot more about the neixin. In fact, despite being very short, this book did a beautiful job of answering some questions I had about the world, while also dropping tempting breadcrumbs about other parts of the world we haven't seen yet.

While this is technically a stand-alone, I think it will have more emotional impact if you've read at least one of the other books first, so that you already know Chih and Almost Brilliant.

Speaking of emotional impact, I'd definitely say this was the most emotional of the four books so far, at least for me. It's pretty focused on grief and mourning.
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