The very first thing I need to tell you guys is that this book is a whole lotta fun. The second thing I need to tell you? I have a very screwed up scaThe very first thing I need to tell you guys is that this book is a whole lotta fun. The second thing I need to tell you? I have a very screwed up scary-o-meter, so I can’t tell you if you’re going to be freaked out or scared when you read it, because I don’t get freaked or scared while reading books. I’m not one of those people who get the chills or goosebumps while reading scary books or can;t read them at night. I actually stayed up until after midnight to finish this book and then slept like a baby. The only time I get chills or goosebumps when reading a book is when reading a book with prose so beautiful it feels like I’m reading something bigger and beyond my understanding. This is my way of telling you, before you might even open this book, that you might get freaked out or need to sleep with the lights on afterwards, but I won’t be able to tell you that. I just know I had one heck of a fun time reading this occult horror cum dark fantasy cum philosophical treatise on monsters, despite the issues I ended up having with the book.
I’m not going to synopsize the book for you. The approved marketing blurb actually does a pretty decent job of it, for once. It hits the major plot points without spoiling anything major. This is one book you’ll be extremely grateful to approach with only the major and mostly non-occult plot points in your mind, because it’s so delightful to let the plot unfold page by page as page as you read. But…the book does start just a little slow. I know you need a little build-up in books like this, but about 10% of the first act of the book reads as simply morose, petty, and a bit pathetic on the part of our protagonist, and I tend to dislike that look on anyone.
Truthfully, I never really grew to truly like any of the characters in this book, except for the house. And make no mistake: Malice House is as much a main character in this book as Haven or Kylie or anyone else. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love myself a morally grey character, but I like them to have goals, motivations, and intentions. I’d write you a whole huge paragraph about Haven and her characterization, but there be spoilers, and I’m not one to violate that eternal law of pop culture.
Another issue I have with the book is a plot twist that happens late in the book that I felt was wholly unnecessary and I truly don’t know why the author threw in. For added drama? For sentimentality? For some kind of sense of redemption or purpose for Haven? To have some motivation for Haven? I have no clue. Whatever Shepherd’s intentions, I was really disappointed because that twist was totally out of tune with the entire rest of the book and it almost felt like an afterthought compared with the elegant darkness and gothic solitude the rest of the book had been composed of.
Megan Shepherd does have a lovely gift for prose, especially when the prose leans toward the fantastical, philosophical, metaphysical, and dark. Her descriptions of Malice House, the town of Lundie Bay, and the perpetual soggy atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest, are vivid enough they stick with you. I can’t stop thinking of one passage where she describes Malice House as being clear and distinct enough above the fog that everything and everyone else around it looks like “walking dreams”. That’s a vision I can understand from living in a valley with tule fog: when the fog gets thick like pea soup, everyone and everything more than ten feet from your face looks like they’re shrouded in some sort of soft focus mist or shroud; like they’re something from a dreamscape.
Like I said, the book is a lot of fun, even if it is uneven in some places. For the outstanding prose you have some dialogue issues. For the outstanding themes you have some characterization issues. You can see where I’m going with this. Overall, I still count it as a fun and worthy read for the fall or for whenever you’re craving a story about who are the monsters and who creates them.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This book was a breath of fresh air in a vast sea of dark fantasy novels. I sincerely can’t think of one thing I didn’t like about it.
Oh! I know! It’This book was a breath of fresh air in a vast sea of dark fantasy novels. I sincerely can’t think of one thing I didn’t like about it.
Oh! I know! It’s that I don’t have the second book in my hands right this second.
“One Dark Window'', and Gillig’s writing in general, remind me of Hannah Whitten, Ava Reid, and even a bit of Margaret Rogerson. I’m loving these fantasy writers who aren’t afraid to shy away from the dark side of fantasy, especially when it comes to instilling that dark side in their female protagonists. Shying away from toxic masculinity where they can, giving their females power and agency to make their decisions about what to do with that power–for ill or for good–and not insulting their readers by beating it into our heads that balance is the key, because we all know that by now.
At the same time, Gillig also reminds me of those same writers because of the evocative imagery, the lush prose, the thought and care put into her very intriguing magic system (and can I just say I’m loving it?), and the care she puts into her characterizations.
What does seem to set Gillig apart here is her imagination. Nothing in fantasy is original, but Gillig has found new and unique ways to spin just about every trope, trick, and “way of doing things” to her own tune. I’d give you some examples, but there be spoilers. Let’s stay away from those shoals.
If you’re looking for a great dark fantasy read, I definitely recommend it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for granting me access to this title.
Please note this review is being written as part of a series of backdated ARC reviews that were due earlier in the year but, for one reason or another, I wasn’t able to get to them by the publication date.
File Under: 5 Star Books/Fantasy Series/Dark Fantasy/Fairy Tale/Fantasy Romance ...more
Let’s start with this: Don’t go into this thinking it’s a standalone novel. Neither Amazon or GoodReads list it as being part of a series, but it endsLet’s start with this: Don’t go into this thinking it’s a standalone novel. Neither Amazon or GoodReads list it as being part of a series, but it ends on what I’d call a semi-cliffhanger, with the story long from resolved, so it’s either part of a series or I’ve misread the book entirely and am very embarrassed. I’d rather not be that embarrassed, so I’m going with it being the first book in a series and the rest of the series just hasn’t been announced yet. So, are we all on the same page now? Good.
So, okay. This book really, really, isn’t original. It was pretty clear from very early on in this book that the plot (of this entry at least) is Hunger Games meets Throne of Glass meets The Selection. That’s a whole lot of YA lore to be whipping into a batter and baking a cake out of, but I just couldn’t help but inhale it greedily, my brain and soul loving the empty calories. This kind of book isn’t like reading some of the books I read where I come away full of feels and needing to take time to contemplate the experience. It’s not even like the romance novels I read on the regular, where I giggle and sigh and swoon. No. Books like “Of Cages and Crowns” are like spending the evening watching rom-coms and eating ice cream: just pure comfort and relaxation. Books like these are enjoyable because they ask nothing of you but to lay back and enjoy the fantasy fluff.
That’s not to say Brianna Joy Crump doesn’t have talent. She really does. Her characters aren’t complete cookie cutter cut-outs. They’re multi-faceted and interesting. Have I read books with a “culling” trope that did better with the characterizations of the females involved? Yes. But I enjoyed Crump’s efforts to bring depth and breadth to the sociopolitical and geopolitical situation for the people and the country in the book as well as the central plot in the book.
It’s not a perfect book, but it’s a lot of fun for us people who gobble up fantasy romances like candy.
Thanks to NetGalley and Wattpad Books for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
File Under: Fantasy/Dark Fantasy/YA Fantasy/Paranormal Romance/Fantasy Series/Coming of Age/Steamy Romance/YA Fantasy Romance ...more
I debated my rating of this book for a little while: was it going to be 4 stars or five stars? I really wasn’t sure at first. Half of me said 4 stars I debated my rating of this book for a little while: was it going to be 4 stars or five stars? I really wasn’t sure at first. Half of me said 4 stars because I’m not a patient person and it took me two days to read this book because I had to put it down about halfway through on the first day because I was kind of bored and needed a change of pace. The other half said, yeah, but then you picked it back up and the second half had the same lovely prose and compelling story as the first, but then it started to weave its way into your brain and heart and now it’s tugging on you from all directions, so how could you do anything but rate it five stars?
As you can see, I ended up rating it five stars.
Strangely, one of the reasons I connected with the back half of this book so much is because it brought up the subject of how trauma and other environmental factors can affect DNA. Geneticists have already proven that intergenerational poverty ends up having a lasting effect on those genetic markers, so why not trauma? If an event is huge enough to change something in our genetics, could that genetic change take hold enough to last through generations? It’s one of the most fascinating and terrifying thought experiments I can think of.
In her acknowledgements, Nethercott mentions Libba Bray’s Diviners series and Leigh Bardugo’s “Six of Crows” as influences on crafting her story, especially in her pacing. Well, I’ve never read the Diviners, but I’m a huge fan of “Six of Crows”, and I can definitely see the influence of Leigh Bardugo in the book, though not in the pacing. This book didn’t hook me and drag me along for the ride like “Six of Crows”, though I can see how matching pacing with the introduction of new characters or the changing of settings could be traced back to Bardugo and her Crows. Nethercott also credits Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and, honestly? I really think just about every writer in the urban fantasy genre should be thanking Buffy in their books. Heck! Every fantasy writer who has a strong female protagonist should probably thank Buffy. I don’t know where pop culture or media as a whole would be today if it were not for that show.
So, listen: if you’re looking for a quick read, this book won’t do you any favors. It’s not meant to be a quick read. I really think Nethercott means for you to sit down with this book and pay attention to it. Don’t take it lightly. It’s not some throwaway trend. This is a history lesson, a philosophical essay, and Russian folklore wrapped in dark, urban fantasy and magical realism. It’s not a story about family, but a story about survival. It’s not a story about those who lived, but about those who died. I think, most of all, this story is a warning: those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Worse than that: history erased is history unheard is history primed to happen again without warning.
Thanks to NetGalley and Anchor for granting me access to this title.
Please note this review is being written as part of a series of backdated ARC reviews that were due earlier in the year but, for one reason or another, I wasn’t able to get to them by the publication date.
File Under: 5 Star Books/Dark Fantasy/Ghost Story/Magical Realism/Standalone Fantasy/Folklore/Mythology/Russian History/Historical Fiction/Urban Fantasy ...more
If the first book in this gothic fantasy duology, “Lakesedge”, leaned into the romance and tragedy side of the genre, then “Forestfall” leaned heavilyIf the first book in this gothic fantasy duology, “Lakesedge”, leaned into the romance and tragedy side of the genre, then “Forestfall” leaned heavily into the darker and more violent side of it. The true golden thread between the two books is Lyndall Clipstone’s elegant and elegiac prose that is woven throughout the narrative like a beautiful trail of words between all the action and dialogue. Those lines shine among the most desperate of scenes, even when our characters are at their lowest and their futures seem the bleakest.
What I love so much about this duology is how Clipstone never pulls the punches on the pain and grief. There’s no pretending everything is going to be okay or that these characters aren’t going to be scarred for life. Bargains have been struck for things they can never get back and sacrifices have been made that have left them forever marked. Our main characters, Violeta and Rowan, exist in a liminal state, existentially: parts of their hearts and souls live both Above and Below, and that leaves them in a gray area the other characters don’t exist in. It’s great character development from the start of the first book, and the supporting characters also experience a good deal of growth by the time the book hits the final page.
While I greatly enjoyed the plot development between the two books, with its tinges of both “Beauty and the Beast” and variants on the myth of Hades and Persephone, I do have to pick a bit on some of the rather forced plot elements in this book; namely, the sisters. I felt like this whole subplot was rather shoehorned in, and it caused a little plot hole or two to sneak in. It wasn’t so annoying as to affect my enjoyment of the book too much, but after the rather Romantic touch of “Lakesedge”, if this book wanted to hit hard on the dark fantasy instead of fantasy romance side of the gothic fantasy genre, then it would have been nice for the book to have as tight of a plot as “Lakesedge” did.
Overall, Clipstone has written an outstanding fantasy duology that feels like a dark, gothic fairy tale, and I’m honestly here for it. I’m here for the love and the pain and the grief and the dark beauty of it all.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, and Henry Holt & Co for granting me access to this title. ...more
First line: “Let me state one thing up front: I wasn’t trying to start a cult.”
Right there and then, I remember exactly why Little Thieves captivated First line: “Let me state one thing up front: I wasn’t trying to start a cult.”
Right there and then, I remember exactly why Little Thieves captivated me so much last year and how brilliant of a writer Margaret Owen is. You can almost see Vanja, our protagonist, cringing with slight embarrassment and shrugging in a way that can only convey a feeling of, “Oops?”
Not only is that first sentence one hell of a hook, but later on in the book, Owen manages to sneak in a well-known Backstreet Boys lyric as the start of a poem, and I laughed even as my heart grew three sizes bigger in soppy adoration. Owen knows her audience and knows that even though not all of them may get the joke, the ones who would get the joke would be overjoyed by it.
The second novel in a trilogy is notoriously difficult to get right. There are so many that fail and fail spectacularly (not naming any because that’s just plain rude). Owen knocked this one out of the park, though, and she made it look easy as pie. In some ways, it was better than Little Thieves, and I didn’t even know that was possible. Painted Devils is more cathartic, for sure, and definitely more character-driven. There’s humor a-plenty, and a great deal of expanding on the excellent worldbuilding started in Little Thieves.
Not only does this book deal in false prophets and revealing truths, but it also deals with confronting your inner demons and the negative voices inside you, whispering their nasty filth in your ear and holding you back from being all that you can and should be. It also has a lot to say about the arbitrary scales of justice and sacrifice: How much good do you have to do to outweigh the bad? Is there enough? Is the order of the land so rigid that too many cases of gray injustice fall through the cracks? What do you do about those cases and those people? Just let them suffer? Can two lovers on two sides of the law be together or is that love doomed? Can you ever truly wash away the many ways you feel tainted by time and crime?
Where Margaret Owen shines the brightest is in her dialogue. It’s truly the brightest part of her novels. The witty banter, the heartfelt and intimate conversations, the high voltage arguments, the sly negotiations and scams, the genuine humor, the squirm of shame, the discomfort in navigating romance, the deep scars of fear, the high that comes with triumph, and the deep chill of horror. None of Owen’s dialogue feels contrived or disingenuous. Every conversation feels appropriate and real, relevant and well-written.
Speaking of relevant and well-written: This book is a fierce page-turner. If you pick this up, be prepared to settle down and ignore everything else for however long it takes to read it. It took me around eight hours to finish this, and I could hardly bear to set it down in all that time. I skipped my afternoon nap to keep reading, people, and I love naps. I just wanted to keep reading, because I needed to see how Vanja was going to get out of accidentally starting a cult. Because of course Vanja accidentally started a cult.
Just pick it up and you’ll see. If you haven’t read Little Thieves yet, pick that up first, and then pick this up. And then we’ll all collectively wait with baited breath for the third book and act like patience is our strong suit when we all know it’s not.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Read/Fantasy Series/Book Series/Coming of Age/Dark Fantasy/Epic Fantasy/Fantasy Romance/YA Book Series/YA Fantasy/YA Fantasy Romance/YA Fiction ...more
Imagine: You’re an atheist, but one day the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse show up, essentially take away any and all modern technology in one fell sImagine: You’re an atheist, but one day the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse show up, essentially take away any and all modern technology in one fell swipe (killing an untold number of people in the process), and then disappear into thin air without an explanation. Five years later, the earth stirs, and word carries that Pestilence, the first of the Horsemen, is on his horse, and he carries plague with him as he rides. You’re one of the only four people in your community without a spouse or children of your own and you drew the short straw on being the one to stay behind and try to kill Pestilence while the rest of your community evacuates far into the rural wilderness.
Only, Pestilence doesn’t die. And when he pleads for mercy, you don’t give it. And now you're his prisoner, so he can see you suffer like you made him suffer.
I read Pestilence once before when it was still an independently-published novel. I loved it then and I love it now. It’s enemies-to-lovers, medium burn, medium spice, dark, violent, and has a terrific storyline. The worldbuilding is outstanding, which is necessary with it being the first of a four book series. The first book sets the tone, and Pestilence has a lot of stuff to do and say to set up the series while also building the complicated and fascinating romantic relationship between Pestilence and Sara (our FMC).
My favorite part of the dynamic between Pestilence and Sara is the interplay between her endless human compassion and compulsion to try and save people and/or to soothe people because she’s a first responder and Pestilence’s insistence that he can’t and won’t stop doing his job but admits he doesn’t like having to kill people and doesn’t enjoy watching them die. Neither one of them can help who they are, and for most of the book neither one of them is able to change it. And therein lies the conflict between the two, and that’s where the sparks fly.
You want to know if there’s an HEA? I would call it HFN. After all, there are three more horsemen to come. But the book does end on an up note. It’s a great read!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I have previously read this title when it was independently published. This review is for the 2023 Bloom Books edition.
File Under: Book Series/Dark Fantasy/Dark Romance/Post-Apocalyptic/Romantasy/Kindle Unlimited/Science Fiction/Spice Level 2/Supernatural Fantasy/Urban Fantasy ...more
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