Scan barcode
A review by leafblade
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
4.0
Second read: july 2023
The spanish translation sucks ass as usual but it was nice meeting these characters again :)
-----------------------------------------------------
First read: december 2018
I got this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
4.5/5 stars (I hope 2019 is the year we get half star ratings)
To be honest, I went into this book without knowing much about it. I'd read a synopsis long before I started it, and basically the only thing that had stuck with me was that this book was by Roshani Chokshi (haven't read anything else by her, but I know she's quite loved in the YA community) and that it was a fantasy. Had I remembered this was a heist book, I don't know if I would've read it, since the heist part of Six of crows was kind of disappointing for me (comparing books with similar themes is awful but that's honestly the only other heist YA story I've read). But The gilded wolves surprised me.
First, it makes you fall in love with its main characters slowly, but surely. You get to know them in the beginning of the story, maybe a bit slowly compared to the rest of the book. You get a glimpse of what they like, their powers, who they are within the group and their goals. And then you jump head first into the heist and oh. my. god. This had some of the best heist tropes ever. Like, I'm talking about "kissing to pass an object from mouth to mouth" level.
I don't think I have the words to describe some aspects of this book, tbh. How it kept me at the edge of my seat with every single sentence, even though my brain was tired and didn't feel like reading anything in English. How it weaved together the plot and the characters, and it ended up feeling like there couldn't be any other characters telling this story, and there couldn't be any other story meant for these characters. The sense of family, squad, support group that these characters had with each other, and the unmistakable feel of emptiness where each of them longed for something. Hypnos slowly getting to be a part of the group!!! Not only through his love interest (my OTP honestly), but through everyone else, too.
This said, I don't think the worldbuilding was explained enough. I wouldn't have minded the info dump if it told me what all these excerpts at the beginning of each "part" were, and who the people writing them were, and why there's houses but also Russia is mentioned as importante but the patriarch + matriarch of the two houses are in France like ???? I needed some footnotes there.
Anyway, read this book if you want a good AND cool heist story.
The spanish translation sucks ass as usual but it was nice meeting these characters again :)
-----------------------------------------------------
First read: december 2018
I got this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
4.5/5 stars (I hope 2019 is the year we get half star ratings)
To be honest, I went into this book without knowing much about it. I'd read a synopsis long before I started it, and basically the only thing that had stuck with me was that this book was by Roshani Chokshi (haven't read anything else by her, but I know she's quite loved in the YA community) and that it was a fantasy. Had I remembered this was a heist book, I don't know if I would've read it, since the heist part of Six of crows was kind of disappointing for me (comparing books with similar themes is awful but that's honestly the only other heist YA story I've read). But The gilded wolves surprised me.
First, it makes you fall in love with its main characters slowly, but surely. You get to know them in the beginning of the story, maybe a bit slowly compared to the rest of the book. You get a glimpse of what they like, their powers, who they are within the group and their goals. And then you jump head first into the heist and oh. my. god. This had some of the best heist tropes ever. Like, I'm talking about "kissing to pass an object from mouth to mouth" level.
I don't think I have the words to describe some aspects of this book, tbh. How it kept me at the edge of my seat with every single sentence, even though my brain was tired and didn't feel like reading anything in English. How it weaved together the plot and the characters, and it ended up feeling like there couldn't be any other characters telling this story, and there couldn't be any other story meant for these characters. The sense of family, squad, support group that these characters had with each other, and the unmistakable feel of emptiness where each of them longed for something. Hypnos slowly getting to be a part of the group!!! Not only through his love interest (my OTP honestly), but through everyone else, too.
This said, I don't think the worldbuilding was explained enough. I wouldn't have minded the info dump if it told me what all these excerpts at the beginning of each "part" were, and who the people writing them were, and why there's houses but also Russia is mentioned as importante but the patriarch + matriarch of the two houses are in France like ???? I needed some footnotes there.
Anyway, read this book if you want a good AND cool heist story.