Scan barcode
A review by jenbsbooks
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
2.5
I'd heard nothing but good things about this, and thought it would be right up my alley. I can't even really put a finger on why it didn't click with me. Honestly ... some of it was a minor narration issue (in audio). The word "hearth" (floor of a fireplace) was pronounced her-th. I've only ever heard it "har-th" (the hearth is the heart of the home, same word, just with an h at the end). I try to take accents and regional variations into account, but Googling it, I couldn't find any site that listed this pronunciation as acceptable. I asked in a large FB group, and while there were a few admitting to saying it to rhyme with "earth", 99% said "are" was the pronunciation. It was said 25 times throughout the book, and each time it was said, my body would cringe. I couldn't stay in the story.
Another word ... Destriers ... in it's uniqueness (not one I've come across often, even with a lot of historical and fantasy genres in my record), it felt so overused here. 236 times! I also got a little tired (annoyed actually) with the little verse/rhymes at the start of the chapters. Not sure why, but they irritated me.
I struggled to get into the story, to learn and care about the characters.
Names - Remembering names can be a bit of a challenge for me (in books and IRL) ... sometimes I'm just thinking "well, it starts with "E" ...Elspeth, Elm, Emory. Many were just different (even harder to remember for their uniqueness, although this is common in fantasy) and listening to the audio, I didn't even see the distinct spellings ... Jespyr (had to keep reminding myself she was a girl, not a guy, "Jesper" just seemed like a guy's name), Ravyn, Fenir, Morette, Ione, Maylene, Orithe, Nerium, Dimia, Nya, Hauth. Then the last names ... TREES - Spindle, Yew, Birch, Thistle, Pine, Alder, Willow, Rowan. "Trees" was even used as a curse/exclamatory word.
I never quite understood the whole "infection" and the Providence Cards and the magic, the charms, Nightmare/Shepherd King. The "one dark window" was mentioned a few times to tie in the title ... maybe if I'd stopped, gone to the Kindle copy and done some re-reading, I could have gotten a better understanding (even going to the GoodReads Quotes section and seeing what others saved, often that brings out things in a book I might have missed or not remembered, nothing stands out for me). But ... I didn't want to. I just pushed to finish the audio and was glad I was done. Definitely not planning on continuing with the series.
Content - proFanity (x6) and stronger sex scenes than I'd anticipated. Sometimes I wonder if editors/publishers TELL authors to add F-bombs and sex, it felt forced and unnatural to me.
Another word ... Destriers ... in it's uniqueness (not one I've come across often, even with a lot of historical and fantasy genres in my record), it felt so overused here. 236 times! I also got a little tired (annoyed actually) with the little verse/rhymes at the start of the chapters. Not sure why, but they irritated me.
I struggled to get into the story, to learn and care about the characters.
Names - Remembering names can be a bit of a challenge for me (in books and IRL) ... sometimes I'm just thinking "well, it starts with "E" ...Elspeth, Elm, Emory. Many were just different (even harder to remember for their uniqueness, although this is common in fantasy) and listening to the audio, I didn't even see the distinct spellings ... Jespyr (had to keep reminding myself she was a girl, not a guy, "Jesper" just seemed like a guy's name), Ravyn, Fenir, Morette, Ione, Maylene, Orithe, Nerium, Dimia, Nya, Hauth. Then the last names ... TREES - Spindle, Yew, Birch, Thistle, Pine, Alder, Willow, Rowan. "Trees" was even used as a curse/exclamatory word.
I never quite understood the whole "infection" and the Providence Cards and the magic, the charms, Nightmare/Shepherd King. The "one dark window" was mentioned a few times to tie in the title ... maybe if I'd stopped, gone to the Kindle copy and done some re-reading, I could have gotten a better understanding (even going to the GoodReads Quotes section and seeing what others saved, often that brings out things in a book I might have missed or not remembered, nothing stands out for me). But ... I didn't want to. I just pushed to finish the audio and was glad I was done. Definitely not planning on continuing with the series.
Content - proFanity (x6) and stronger sex scenes than I'd anticipated. Sometimes I wonder if editors/publishers TELL authors to add F-bombs and sex, it felt forced and unnatural to me.