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jashanac 's review for:
Shield Maiden
by Sharon Emmerichs
TL;DR:
I quite enjoyed this... mostly. It was a fun enough time, but also not something that is going to stick with me long-term, I don't think. Interested for more from this author, though.
Re-Readability:
While I did have an enjoyable time reading this, I don't see myself ever re-reading it.
Writing:
I thought the writing was solid overall and I'd be interested to read more from this author in the future. We're following a 20 year old main character and it's quite easy for that to become juvenile-sounding, at the very least in the dialogue. But that wasn't the case here in my opinion. There were some nice lines of prose, too.
Characters:
Freyda was a fun main character to follow -- I liked her spirit and compassion, despite the fact that she was incredibly naive and privileged. Much of that was due to everyone around her trying to "protect" her from the less-fun parts of life and hiding the truth of certain things.
The side characters were also enjoyable over all -- Hild was my favorite. But Bryce was lovely as well, and I liked Theow as a love interest. However, I do think that their romance felt a bit "out of nowhere" since we didn't really see anything of it prior to the start of the story where they were already pining after each other. We were being told that they had this long-running angsty, forbidden thing going, but it was incredibly unspoken and didn't have any kind of actual foundation to it, it seemed.
Wiglaf is now on my list of most-hated characters ever. What a sniveling little creep ass punk ass.
Plot:
I didn't necessarily love the addition of the (very short) dragon pov chapters. I get what the author was going for, adding to the lore and what-not, but I honestly don't think it was needed. All we needed to know about the dragon is that it was trapped there by that cup and had to have that cup . I think that information could have easily been relayed to us with another song/poem/story told by a human character. We got several of those, so just popping in one quick one talking about the mysterious cup & the dragon that was defeated, blah blah blah, would have done that.
I think the reader could have deduced all the other stuff with more subtle hints -- the connection between Fryda & the dragon & all of that.
The final scenes with the battle and all of that didn't do much for me, either.
Themes:
Loss. Grief. Family bonds. Found family. Inner strength and bravery. Good v. evil.
Memorable Quotes:
"His pain was so great, so open, she could step right into it. She'd known, then, that he would somehow be her undoing."
"Theow stood there, feeling like a star thrown from its seat in the sky, having stepped over the edge of a moment that would change his life forever."
I quite enjoyed this... mostly. It was a fun enough time, but also not something that is going to stick with me long-term, I don't think. Interested for more from this author, though.
Re-Readability:
While I did have an enjoyable time reading this, I don't see myself ever re-reading it.
Writing:
I thought the writing was solid overall and I'd be interested to read more from this author in the future. We're following a 20 year old main character and it's quite easy for that to become juvenile-sounding, at the very least in the dialogue. But that wasn't the case here in my opinion. There were some nice lines of prose, too.
Characters:
Freyda was a fun main character to follow -- I liked her spirit and compassion, despite the fact that she was incredibly naive and privileged. Much of that was due to everyone around her trying to "protect" her from the less-fun parts of life and hiding the truth of certain things.
The side characters were also enjoyable over all -- Hild was my favorite. But Bryce was lovely as well, and I liked Theow as a love interest. However, I do think that their romance felt a bit "out of nowhere" since we didn't really see anything of it prior to the start of the story where they were already pining after each other. We were being told that they had this long-running angsty, forbidden thing going, but it was incredibly unspoken and didn't have any kind of actual foundation to it, it seemed.
Wiglaf is now on my list of most-hated characters ever. What a sniveling little creep ass punk ass.
Plot:
I didn't necessarily love the addition of the (very short) dragon pov chapters. I get what the author was going for, adding to the lore and what-not, but I honestly don't think it was needed. All we needed to know about the dragon is that
I think the reader could have deduced all the other stuff with more subtle hints -- the connection between Fryda & the dragon & all of that.
The final scenes with the battle and all of that didn't do much for me, either.
Themes:
Loss. Grief. Family bonds. Found family. Inner strength and bravery. Good v. evil.
Memorable Quotes:
"His pain was so great, so open, she could step right into it. She'd known, then, that he would somehow be her undoing."
"Theow stood there, feeling like a star thrown from its seat in the sky, having stepped over the edge of a moment that would change his life forever."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Sexual assault, Slavery
Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation