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A review by coralinejones
The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec
2.75
This book is kind of a mess.
I wrote several notes during the duration of this novel which started of fairly positive and got negative by the end. I actually disliked the way The Weaver and the Witch Queen began and considered DNF-ing it after chapter three or four. However, in an attempt to finish everything I read for the rest of the year, I decided to push on and see what Gornichec had to offer... I wish I hadn't.
Truthfully, this isn't that bad. I think this makes for an interesting and atmospheric read. I don't know how culturally accurate some of the set pieces are, if you will, but I know the dialogue was a tad bit modern for my personal taste. I'm not pretentious over historical accuracy, for one this book has LGBT rep that's slid over and not reprimanded in anyway, which I didn't mind and have no complaints over, but the way these characters spoke to one another took me out of the immersion more than once.
Then there's the repetition. I'm personally so over historical fantasy novels unnecessarily mentioning menstruation and using arbitrary ways to describe birthdays, regardless of how accurate that may be. "Haven't bled since 4 moons ago." "She looks about 3 moons old." "I haven't seen them in several moons past." Shut up. Shut up. Please. God. I hate it.
AND the romance ruined the plot for me. I actually wasn't expecting romance this time and it negatively surprised me when it appeared, lol. I can usually assume when an author will force a romance plot and she got me this time!!
The last half of the book is pretty rushed too. This is a huge problem for me because the pacing sucks as is. You're slogging through a little over 500 pages of some interesting scenes and then a bunch of nothing waiting for the big climax and it all comes, very conveniently, and very quickly to wrap up the story. I could've easilyyyy seen this novel turned into 2 or 3 books which, probably, would've eliminated this issue entirely.
Spoilers ahead: Note I copy and pasted this from another review because it explains my sentiments exactly, why I had strong distaste for how this novel was wrapped up at the end. Gunnhild's brothers are introduced, she conveniently uses magic to discover where Signy is, her brothers conveniently go get her, the trans Viking is Eirik's kin and they fight, Oddny argues with Gunnhild and runs off to find Signy on her own, she kills the Viking who led the raid on her village because they beg her to, Oddny conveniently runs into Signy with Gunnhild's brothers in a random town on the way to the place where she's told she'll find her, there's a battle out of nowhere for whatever reason and with no build up, and the big bad turns out to be some side character who meant nothing the whole time.
Hm. I don't know. It's fun. There's an audience for it. This isn't high fantasy or romantasy or anything like that so I think it's enjoyable for the right person, just not me!
I wrote several notes during the duration of this novel which started of fairly positive and got negative by the end. I actually disliked the way The Weaver and the Witch Queen began and considered DNF-ing it after chapter three or four. However, in an attempt to finish everything I read for the rest of the year, I decided to push on and see what Gornichec had to offer... I wish I hadn't.
Truthfully, this isn't that bad. I think this makes for an interesting and atmospheric read. I don't know how culturally accurate some of the set pieces are, if you will, but I know the dialogue was a tad bit modern for my personal taste. I'm not pretentious over historical accuracy, for one this book has LGBT rep that's slid over and not reprimanded in anyway, which I didn't mind and have no complaints over, but the way these characters spoke to one another took me out of the immersion more than once.
Then there's the repetition. I'm personally so over historical fantasy novels unnecessarily mentioning menstruation and using arbitrary ways to describe birthdays, regardless of how accurate that may be. "Haven't bled since 4 moons ago." "She looks about 3 moons old." "I haven't seen them in several moons past." Shut up. Shut up. Please. God. I hate it.
AND the romance ruined the plot for me. I actually wasn't expecting romance this time and it negatively surprised me when it appeared, lol. I can usually assume when an author will force a romance plot and she got me this time!!
The last half of the book is pretty rushed too. This is a huge problem for me because the pacing sucks as is. You're slogging through a little over 500 pages of some interesting scenes and then a bunch of nothing waiting for the big climax and it all comes, very conveniently, and very quickly to wrap up the story. I could've easilyyyy seen this novel turned into 2 or 3 books which, probably, would've eliminated this issue entirely.
Spoilers ahead: Note I copy and pasted this from another review because it explains my sentiments exactly, why I had strong distaste for how this novel was wrapped up at the end.
Hm. I don't know. It's fun. There's an audience for it. This isn't high fantasy or romantasy or anything like that so I think it's enjoyable for the right person, just not me!