Scan barcode
A review by will_overthink
Willow Born by Shanna Miles
3.0
I received this e-book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. Willow Born, by Shanna Miles comes out June 1, 2017, from Rochelle and Reed Publishing.
Stumbling through its foreword and first few chapters, Willow Born hits its stride once our leading lady, Colette, starts attending high school. With that structure, however minute, suddenly the storytelling shifts from barreling to merely rushing, and the reader’s confusion is paralleled and assuaged at the same rate as Colette’s.
The story follows a young black girl as she wakes up in a lake, having been recently resurrected, is rescued from near-death by a young man, is possibly kidnapped by her imaginary friend who is possessing the body of an ill-clad co-ed, and then meets with her lawyer. Colette knows something’s up (read: she probably shouldn’t be alive) and when an inconceivable school Mega Project combining her Forensics class and her Journalism class (two subjects I never took in public high school) require her to dig up a cold case that just happens to be her own, she starts to learn about her past, and her self. On top of that, young girls keep disappearing, and some of them are lucky enough to be found dead. Oh, and also, there’s been some angel-sightings.
It’s confusing, yes. There are a ton of different elements, yes. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief. But I was only seven pages in when I first said, “Okay, I love this,” aloud. Miles has done something that absolutely fascinates me. She has created a network of women, the Willows, who have effortlessly combined two seemingly irreconcilable belief systems: the Gospel, and old magic. Old as in lets you see kitchen fairies keeping your floors scrubbed and trolls helping your garden protect you, old. And, in fact, Willow philosophy folds in the modern sciences as well. Trolls and fairies are God’s creatures, and magic is just energy obeying the laws of physics in ways most of us plebeians don’t understand.
I swear, this book feels like someone took all those tumblr prompts that don’t seem like they should go together but they JUST DO and made something lovely.
Along with the beauty of Willow philosophy, this book does something else that I love and deeply respect and that I, personally, haven’t seen a lot in the YA Paranormal or Fantasy genres. Willow Born operates with Black As Default. Unless otherwise specified, all characters are black as default, and that’s wonderful.
The main factors contributing to my rating are how confusing the beginning was, and how forced the ending felt. Miles seems to be gearing up for a sequel that I don’t feel she earned. Several story points were introduced and never followed up with (i.e. THE GUN), and while Colette is very interesting, Matt’s story really needed some filling out (WHY did he feel compelled to protect her, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT?), and all the side characters seemed to blend together. In a movie remake, Summer, Qutey, and Brianna would probably be recast as one character and there would be next to no story alterations. Carlos is fantastic, though. Keep Carlos. Protect him.
Now, I know that the book-to-e-book transition often exacerbates the typo issue, and that ARCs are not finished copies, but this version had way more than it’s far share of misspellings, misquotations, and missed punctuation. It’s not affecting my rating, but it was super distracting!
So overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating. Incredible premise, but the execution could use some love.
~dustmotesandvellichor
Stumbling through its foreword and first few chapters, Willow Born hits its stride once our leading lady, Colette, starts attending high school. With that structure, however minute, suddenly the storytelling shifts from barreling to merely rushing, and the reader’s confusion is paralleled and assuaged at the same rate as Colette’s.
The story follows a young black girl as she wakes up in a lake, having been recently resurrected, is rescued from near-death by a young man, is possibly kidnapped by her imaginary friend who is possessing the body of an ill-clad co-ed, and then meets with her lawyer. Colette knows something’s up (read: she probably shouldn’t be alive) and when an inconceivable school Mega Project combining her Forensics class and her Journalism class (two subjects I never took in public high school) require her to dig up a cold case that just happens to be her own, she starts to learn about her past, and her self. On top of that, young girls keep disappearing, and some of them are lucky enough to be found dead. Oh, and also, there’s been some angel-sightings.
It’s confusing, yes. There are a ton of different elements, yes. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief. But I was only seven pages in when I first said, “Okay, I love this,” aloud. Miles has done something that absolutely fascinates me. She has created a network of women, the Willows, who have effortlessly combined two seemingly irreconcilable belief systems: the Gospel, and old magic. Old as in lets you see kitchen fairies keeping your floors scrubbed and trolls helping your garden protect you, old. And, in fact, Willow philosophy folds in the modern sciences as well. Trolls and fairies are God’s creatures, and magic is just energy obeying the laws of physics in ways most of us plebeians don’t understand.
I swear, this book feels like someone took all those tumblr prompts that don’t seem like they should go together but they JUST DO and made something lovely.
Along with the beauty of Willow philosophy, this book does something else that I love and deeply respect and that I, personally, haven’t seen a lot in the YA Paranormal or Fantasy genres. Willow Born operates with Black As Default. Unless otherwise specified, all characters are black as default, and that’s wonderful.
The main factors contributing to my rating are how confusing the beginning was, and how forced the ending felt. Miles seems to be gearing up for a sequel that I don’t feel she earned. Several story points were introduced and never followed up with (i.e. THE GUN), and while Colette is very interesting, Matt’s story really needed some filling out (WHY did he feel compelled to protect her, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT?), and all the side characters seemed to blend together. In a movie remake, Summer, Qutey, and Brianna would probably be recast as one character and there would be next to no story alterations. Carlos is fantastic, though. Keep Carlos. Protect him.
Now, I know that the book-to-e-book transition often exacerbates the typo issue, and that ARCs are not finished copies, but this version had way more than it’s far share of misspellings, misquotations, and missed punctuation. It’s not affecting my rating, but it was super distracting!
So overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating. Incredible premise, but the execution could use some love.
~dustmotesandvellichor