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A review by bookishmillennial
Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial
This was a fun start to this series (unsure if it’ll be a duology or series!), though there are a lot of moving parts and characters to get to know, which if you’re like me, could be disorienting hahaha. However, I really enjoyed getting to know our main character Io, and her fated mate/fate thread sharer, Edei.
Io is a teenage private investigator and an Otherborn, which means she has powers leftover from the Greek gods/Fates who are no longer around. Her powers are related to adjusting folks’ fates, having the power to cut them, while her sisters Thais and Ava weave and draw the threads. She contemplates cutting her own fate thread as well, because “we don’t kiss other people’s boyfriends,” as Io and her sisters say lol! Edei already has a girlfriend when Io learns of him, so she doesn’t seek him out and sort of feels resigned to not ending up with her fate thread.
Io’s sister Thais leaves one day, and now Io is mostly helping disgruntled wives deal with their unfaithful husbands. Then, Io begins investigating a grisly mystery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill. She works with Edei to uncover dark secrets and this close proximity gets them both to question if they should simply give in to their fate threads!
Sometimes, the pacing felt a bit frenetic, especially when it came to explaining Io’s relationship with her sisters. I sort of got whiplash with that; I remember thinking, ‘Wait, when did their relationship turn down this road?! What did I miss?!’ So, sometimes I would have to rewind (listened to the audiobook) to try to grasp what happened, but it was mostly due to pacing and a lack of showing (and more telling/exposition).
Something I really appreciated was the queernormative world, with bisexual, trans, and nonbinary side characters!
Overall, I did enjoy listening to this and appreciated an ownvoices take on Greek mythology YA fantasy, so I will continue the series and I think the author does have a lot of promise!
This was a fun start to this series (unsure if it’ll be a duology or series!), though there are a lot of moving parts and characters to get to know, which if you’re like me, could be disorienting hahaha. However, I really enjoyed getting to know our main character Io, and her fated mate/fate thread sharer, Edei.
Io is a teenage private investigator and an Otherborn, which means she has powers leftover from the Greek gods/Fates who are no longer around. Her powers are related to adjusting folks’ fates, having the power to cut them, while her sisters Thais and Ava weave and draw the threads. She contemplates cutting her own fate thread as well, because “we don’t kiss other people’s boyfriends,” as Io and her sisters say lol! Edei already has a girlfriend when Io learns of him, so she doesn’t seek him out and sort of feels resigned to not ending up with her fate thread.
Io’s sister Thais leaves one day, and now Io is mostly helping disgruntled wives deal with their unfaithful husbands. Then, Io begins investigating a grisly mystery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill. She works with Edei to uncover dark secrets and this close proximity gets them both to question if they should simply give in to their fate threads!
Sometimes, the pacing felt a bit frenetic, especially when it came to explaining Io’s relationship with her sisters. I sort of got whiplash with that; I remember thinking, ‘Wait, when did their relationship turn down this road?! What did I miss?!’ So, sometimes I would have to rewind (listened to the audiobook) to try to grasp what happened, but it was mostly due to pacing and a lack of showing (and more telling/exposition).
Something I really appreciated was the queernormative world, with bisexual, trans, and nonbinary side characters!
Overall, I did enjoy listening to this and appreciated an ownvoices take on Greek mythology YA fantasy, so I will continue the series and I think the author does have a lot of promise!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Abandonment, Cursing, and Violence
Moderate: Genocide, Transphobia, and Death