Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > The Path of Thorns

Even the most unassuming of covers can contain a gem of a book. Something I love about fantasy novels is that since the author is building the world, the “world” is essentially their oyster. You can take a little from this time period, some from that folklore, some from that mythology, a smidge from this culture, a splash from that religion… you get my meaning. This is how we build fantasy worlds. All genre authors stand on the shoulders of giants going all the way back to the most epic of stories such as Gilgamesh.

A.G. Slatter is unembarrassed to admit she has plucked from quite a few different plants and bushes to form the bouquet that creates the world “The Path of Thorns” is set in. She took great care in her planning, research, selection, and execution, because the result of this meticulous worldbuilding is indeed a fantastic story mashup that is the love child of two Romantic authors: Charlotte Bronte and Mary Shelley. Indeed, Slatter’s storyline is summed up by the author herself as “Jane Eyre meets Frankenstein”. The result is an absolutely brilliant and engaging storyline of a young cunning woman who impersonates a dead woman in order to infiltrate her mother’s ancestral home as a governess in order to destabilize the power structure and avenge her mother’s death. There’s a lot more to the plot than that, but oh! The spoilers! Knowing less going in is definitely for the best when reading this book. I went in after only reading the blurb and loved that.

My favorite part of the book, aside from the morally gray and chaotic neutral main character who is, in turns, completely in her element one moment and in way over her head the next, are the stories and fairy tales that are told from time to time within the book. They are beautifully written in a unique and dark manner, truer to the form of classic oral tradition tales than the ones that eventually got sanitized and written down. They are cautionary tales, meant to warn people about the dangers of the world and to make themselves more self-aware. Sometimes they run directly into a territory I like to call, “You need to check yourself.”

The cast is colorful, unique, and deeply flawed. Even the children have their flaws, though they are the flaws of children and can be easily forgiven.

It’s truly a diverting and entertaining read. I wished it had gotten darker, but maybe that’s because I always want things to get darker when it comes to magic and gothic fantasies.

Thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.