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A review by kalira
The Crack at the Heart of Everything by Fiona Fenn
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
(I received a free ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.)
It took me a while to read this book, not because it was dense/difficult or frustrating, but in the long breaks I took between. Because sometimes I needed them, emotionally.
Fiona Fenn wrought an excellent - and harrowing - exploration of trauma, a wide variety of types but most especially perhaps the trauma that winds inside so deeply it feels - or perhaps is - not only part of oneself but an inextricable fact of one's being. The story hurts, in many places, like weight on an old injury - something healed over but never forgotten.
It isn't all ache and intensity - there's breathing room, there's softer sorrows, there's laughter and new feelings and confusion because of them; there's friendship and hope and finding a pathway forwards because what else do you do?
Achates'death made me cry , and Orpheus' rage in his grief was cathartic but still ached. And then the final quarter or so of the book. . .
Orpheus himself thinks many times, fuck, he's not a hero, he's nothing like, but- He has a path ahead. He knows the shape of things. He's terrified and bitter and crying out for another way and wants to run away, but at every turn he doesn't, in the end.
And as for the end of the book . . . I read the last ~3/10 in one go because I had to follow it to the conclusion, on the verge of tears.I was prepared for the end to have me sobbing but accepted it would be a good one; and then Fiona Fenn rescued it and gave me a hopeful ending rather than a dying happily ever after one and much as I love the latter I am so glad of it.
I'd even love to see some of how things will go after the end,for Orpheus and Fenrir but also Red and the rebuilding and the shreds of the empire, and- But it was a good ending and I'm also happy there and don't feel anything was left out. I just want to see that, because it was fascinating and because I love the characters. (And I thought the epilogue, when I found there was one, would be that; the flashback epilogue was . . . interesting, but I didn't really like it there, admittedly.)
The worldbuilding was fascinating and beautifully balanced - showing us important things relating to their happening or being revealed on the page, slowly weaving the connections so that the reader can put together more and more of the history as well as the world as it is now. (Sidenote: fantastic title and weaving of its meaning.)
The characters are wonderful; I wasn't sure I would but I loved Orpheus, in all his fractured, terrified glory; Fenrir was a curiosity and fascinatingly full of depth that wasn't necessarily initially apparent (though looking through Orpheus' eyes, I also wondered what he wasn't seeing); Red and so many small, fleeting characters were great and truly felt like pieces of their own world weaving into Orpheus - no one felt like a background character even if that's what they were in this focus. The characters I disliked . . . well, they were well done as well, with their own universe.
The romance was also beautifully done, with a nice pace and both uncertainty and commitment, and while there were one or few places that made me wince and frustrated, it was . . . well, relationships and interpersonal dynamics are like that. It was very much because people are like that.
The surprises and turns in the plot were either foreshadowed well or, when truly surprising, never felt cheap or unfitting - they fell into place with an oh OH of course once they settled.
(The description reminds me this is book 1 of a new series; I'll be intrigued to see where it goes!)
It took me a while to read this book, not because it was dense/difficult or frustrating, but in the long breaks I took between. Because sometimes I needed them, emotionally.
Fiona Fenn wrought an excellent - and harrowing - exploration of trauma, a wide variety of types but most especially perhaps the trauma that winds inside so deeply it feels - or perhaps is - not only part of oneself but an inextricable fact of one's being. The story hurts, in many places, like weight on an old injury - something healed over but never forgotten.
It isn't all ache and intensity - there's breathing room, there's softer sorrows, there's laughter and new feelings and confusion because of them; there's friendship and hope and finding a pathway forwards because what else do you do?
Achates'
Orpheus himself thinks many times, fuck, he's not a hero, he's nothing like, but- He has a path ahead. He knows the shape of things. He's terrified and bitter and crying out for another way and wants to run away, but at every turn he doesn't, in the end.
And as for the end of the book . . . I read the last ~3/10 in one go because I had to follow it to the conclusion, on the verge of tears.
I'd even love to see some of how things will go after the end,
The worldbuilding was fascinating and beautifully balanced - showing us important things relating to their happening or being revealed on the page, slowly weaving the connections so that the reader can put together more and more of the history as well as the world as it is now. (Sidenote: fantastic title and weaving of its meaning.)
The characters are wonderful; I wasn't sure I would but I loved Orpheus, in all his fractured, terrified glory; Fenrir was a curiosity and fascinatingly full of depth that wasn't necessarily initially apparent (though looking through Orpheus' eyes, I also wondered what he wasn't seeing); Red and so many small, fleeting characters were great and truly felt like pieces of their own world weaving into Orpheus - no one felt like a background character even if that's what they were in this focus. The characters I disliked . . . well, they were well done as well, with their own universe.
The romance was also beautifully done, with a nice pace and both uncertainty and commitment, and while there were one or few places that made me wince and frustrated, it was . . . well, relationships and interpersonal dynamics are like that. It was very much because people are like that.
The surprises and turns in the plot were either foreshadowed well or, when truly surprising, never felt cheap or unfitting - they fell into place with an oh OH of course once they settled.
(The description reminds me this is book 1 of a new series; I'll be intrigued to see where it goes!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Body horror and Blood