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A review by thepurplegiraffe
Wolfskin by W.R. Gingell
3.5
I say that if you want adventure, you have to march right up to it and kick it in the shins. It makes life more interesting.
Let me start by saying that I love the way Gingell writes a story, I really do. Reading this right after a City Between binge was great, I needed the help through the hangover, lol!
I adored Rose as a protagonist. She's sassy and stubborn and really fun to follow; she reminded me (in the best ways) of Pet from City Between and Flavia de Luce, precocious and capable and ready for anything. In general the beginning of this story reminded me of Flavia de Luce meets Septimus Heap meets Have Sword, Will Travel meets the works of Anne Ursu. It was quick and witty and loveable all at once. The magic system was perfectly fantastical, and described just enough to be understandable, but with enough kept back to keep it mysterious. I love magic forest stories. The supporting cast of Akiva and Rose's family were lovely, and I almost wanted to spend more time with them.
Unfortunately, the book started to lose me in the second half. The love triangle developed, and I'll be honest, I didn't like the romance at all, and I probably would have enjoyed this more if it hadn't been involved. There was a super interesting magical political intrigue story going on, and Rose was spending most of her time being oblivious to the flirtation of the men in her life. (all of whom take a lot of liberties with Rose's personal space, but that's a different conversation) Bastian gave me the ick so bad, y'all, I did not like him at all. (like, bro, she's just not into you, stop being possessive and get over yourself) I wasn't rooting for that relationship by the end, which is disappointing, but totally on me, not necessarily the book.
But yeah, overall, I'm still excited to check out more of this story world and read more from Gingell. And I did really love the first half of this book! I just kinda wish it had kept up that momentum. So it gets 3.5 stars from me. (Oh, and the audiobook narration was fantastic. So that's good.)
Let me start by saying that I love the way Gingell writes a story, I really do. Reading this right after a City Between binge was great, I needed the help through the hangover, lol!
I adored Rose as a protagonist. She's sassy and stubborn and really fun to follow; she reminded me (in the best ways) of Pet from City Between and Flavia de Luce, precocious and capable and ready for anything. In general the beginning of this story reminded me of Flavia de Luce meets Septimus Heap meets Have Sword, Will Travel meets the works of Anne Ursu. It was quick and witty and loveable all at once. The magic system was perfectly fantastical, and described just enough to be understandable, but with enough kept back to keep it mysterious. I love magic forest stories. The supporting cast of Akiva and Rose's family were lovely, and I almost wanted to spend more time with them.
Unfortunately, the book started to lose me in the second half. The love triangle developed, and I'll be honest, I didn't like the romance at all, and I probably would have enjoyed this more if it hadn't been involved. There was a super interesting magical political intrigue story going on, and Rose was spending most of her time being oblivious to the flirtation of the men in her life. (all of whom take a lot of liberties with Rose's personal space, but that's a different conversation) Bastian gave me the ick so bad, y'all, I did not like him at all. (like, bro, she's just not into you, stop being possessive and get over yourself) I wasn't rooting for that relationship by the end, which is disappointing, but totally on me, not necessarily the book.
But yeah, overall, I'm still excited to check out more of this story world and read more from Gingell. And I did really love the first half of this book! I just kinda wish it had kept up that momentum. So it gets 3.5 stars from me. (Oh, and the audiobook narration was fantastic. So that's good.)