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verypeculiarpages 's review for:
Thorn
by Intisar Khanani
Reread 12/23:
Rereading this so I can FINALLY read the sequel! I love this book very much, enjoyed it even more the second time!
—
”Dangerous is walking too close behind a skittish horse. Dangerous is going anywhere in this city at night. Dangerous is not helping someone stay safe.”
4.5 stars!! I really loved this one. It reminded me a lot of Stain by AG Howard, another retelling that I recently enjoyed. The writing, characters and world building all have a sort of magical charm to them that makes me really happy. I had no prior knowledge of the Goose Girl fairytale, but that definitely didn’t affect my enjoyment!
I loved Alyrra SO MUCH. Her personality is just a delight to read about and you can tell that her heart is pure and good. She has a tough go of it throughout this book but you always know that whatever she does, it’ll be inspiring and well-intentioned. I really loved how the darkness of her story was handled; there’s some great messages throughout about abuse and the victim’s relationship to it, and I thought it was perfectly interwoven into the fairytale-esque world.
The other characters were great as well! Krestin was an AMAZING love interest and I adored how his and Alyrra’s relationship was written. It was really a struggle to get there, and full of twists and turns but it felt really deserved at the end and I’m very happy with how they ended up. The found family aspect of the other workers at the stables was GREAAAAAAT! LOVE THAT JOURNEY FOR ME. It was so nice to see Alyrra in a familial, caring group of people. I also really loved her relationship with Red Hawk and his gang! Would 100% read a sequel about all of them making the kingdom a better place. Also, FALADA!!! LOVED HIM!
The only pitfalls I had with this was that some of the magical worldbuilding confused me a bit. I don’t really understand magic’s place within the world and the introduction of the Fae seemed less fleshed out. But otherwise, I totally loved this book!
TW: abuse, rape, murder, animal death
Rereading this so I can FINALLY read the sequel! I love this book very much, enjoyed it even more the second time!
—
”Dangerous is walking too close behind a skittish horse. Dangerous is going anywhere in this city at night. Dangerous is not helping someone stay safe.”
4.5 stars!! I really loved this one. It reminded me a lot of Stain by AG Howard, another retelling that I recently enjoyed. The writing, characters and world building all have a sort of magical charm to them that makes me really happy. I had no prior knowledge of the Goose Girl fairytale, but that definitely didn’t affect my enjoyment!
I loved Alyrra SO MUCH. Her personality is just a delight to read about and you can tell that her heart is pure and good. She has a tough go of it throughout this book but you always know that whatever she does, it’ll be inspiring and well-intentioned. I really loved how the darkness of her story was handled; there’s some great messages throughout about abuse and the victim’s relationship to it, and I thought it was perfectly interwoven into the fairytale-esque world.
The other characters were great as well! Krestin was an AMAZING love interest and I adored how his and Alyrra’s relationship was written. It was really a struggle to get there, and full of twists and turns but it felt really deserved at the end and I’m very happy with how they ended up. The found family aspect of the other workers at the stables was GREAAAAAAT! LOVE THAT JOURNEY FOR ME. It was so nice to see Alyrra in a familial, caring group of people. I also really loved her relationship with Red Hawk and his gang! Would 100% read a sequel about all of them making the kingdom a better place. Also, FALADA!!! LOVED HIM!
The only pitfalls I had with this was that some of the magical worldbuilding confused me a bit. I don’t really understand magic’s place within the world and the introduction of the Fae seemed less fleshed out. But otherwise, I totally loved this book!
TW: abuse, rape, murder, animal death