Reliquary by Hannah Whitten
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Public service announcement: Reliquary is very firmly in the horror genre. If you have read Hannah Whitten before and come here for Reliquary please be forewarned that there is a good helping of gore, Lovecraftian elements, torture, cannibalism (minor), panic, terror, dread, and more. The overall feeling of the story will possibly create a continued dread in your mind that may affect you during and after reading.
Whitten has really surprised me here. I expected some excellent writing (of course) from her, a slight bump up on some gore from her gothic romance stories, and maybe a creature or two that was slightly scary. Instead I got sooo much more! I had a couple of ick moments, my usual aversion to cannibalism, some genuine shock at the deaths, and a whole lot of Lovecraft Cthulhu vibes. I’m very pleased to report that Reliquary delivers across the board in ways I did not expect. Not every author can make the jump to horror and have it feel genuine. Building an atmosphere is one thing, but delivering one that also has a complex plot, engaging characters, and creates a sense of dread is quite impressive.
I really don’t want to say much else as part of the tension that builds is not knowing what the heck is going on. Hang in there on this one if you can because it’s so much more fun if you don’t know what is coming.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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The Iron Hex by Victoria S. Walsh
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This should have been a YA/Teen novel. Then it might have stood a chance or at least the prose feeling juvenile could be explained.
The overall plot, for me, felt is all a bit too parallel to major moments in our history. Something I rarely complain about; but on reflection maybe it’s just because it’s written in an obvious vernacular(?). Walsh combines a princess everyone thinks is dead (Russia’sAnastasia) during a take-over from a charismatic leader who (seemingly) speaks for the people by putting all their woes on one group of people, the witches. (Nazi Germany). None of these ideas are unique and many have been reused dozens of times; but here it just felt less cohesive and more like the plot points were stolen and dropped into a story just to be there.
For me,it’s a sad reality, that Walsh shows she is a debut writer. All you’d need to do to make this a YA book is take out 6 pages of awkward, poorly written sex. It was like someone told Walsh ‘thou shalt add a sex scene’ and so she did. The scene lacks any true tension, passion, and desire. It also lacked genuine check-ins or moments of concern for one another. Walsh tried to hit these but somehow they felt manufactured and not fluid for me. Thus, The Iron Hex fell flat for me and by the end I realized I just didn’t care about the cliffhanger or any of the characters.
It doesn’t help that I predicted every single one of the reveals. The first two, we get midway through the story, are very obvious, so I barely consider them reveals. A novel is a bit of a locked room mystery; you only have as many possible outcomes or people to blame as you have introduced (unless you have a cheap ending which is worse!). Therefore your reveals need to be clever, and I think one of them could have been if there had been a bit more backstory on a couple of characters. What is important is, in the end, everything has to come together in a good fantasy novel and it just doesn’t here.
When you are writing and being shelved next to the likes of Sanderson, Yarros, Stewart, Gwynne, and more the bar is high and so your quality needs to be at a higher level as well. Maybe that’s not totally fair, but the reality is that to be classified in the Romantasy adult genre these days, there’s competition abound. Whereas, over in teen, you can survive a few juvenile moments because it’s understood that your story needs to remain ‘cleaner’ (if you will) and maybe your prose can be at a level that doesn’t require the polish and lyricism I love in a good fantasy novel. That’s not to say YA can’t be amazing, as it can; it’s just to say that the genre affords a couple of compromises that could have benefited Walsh.
I’m stepping away from The Iron Hex knowing I won’t carry forward in this series. The characters became flatter (when they should get bulkier) as time went by for me and the plot is just not that unique enough. I highly recommend passing this one by and instead picking up Andrea Stewart’s Bone Shard Daughter trilogy. It feels somewhat similar, but in that series the romance is taut, the magic is costly, and the politics don’t feel borrowed from my junior high textbook.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Thank goodness for a great narrator! I might never have made it to the end without the brilliant narrator in this audiobook. I had both a print copy and an audiobook I was swapping between. In the end I probably listened to more than half on the audio (which is unusual for me). Here’s the thing, this is young adult. Now I don’t mean teen, or the kind of YA that appeals to adults in many ways (myself included). This is clearly a, I have a moral purpose and reason to exist YA, and only those who need me at the right point in their life are going to want me.
I’m glad books like this exist. Ones that conceptualize evil and monsters for kids and teens and make something that can be fought back against. Even the most intangible of traumas, once made into ‘real’ things, can be healed or overcome in some way. What the Woods Took is about a number of different traumas, but at its core for me, it was really about fighting back the despair and loss of suicide. While each of our teens has drastically different circumstances, some more horrific than others, all of them have considered if life is worth living. Or what a worthwhile life might look like in the future. And thus at the core of this novel I believe Courtney Gould is having a conversation with teens about how it gets better. Something I tell every single teen I ever meet. It truly does get better. Not perfect, not even easy, but things do improve in ways you maybe can’t even really understand until you leave high school, leave home, create your own life and narrative to walk along.
Therefore, much as I felt this was a slog for me I get why it should exist. And I hope it lands in the hands of the children or teens, or even adults, that need it. The horror here is monster-like, but it’s also intangible in that living is hard, for everyone. We all fight our own internal battles and each of us has to choose to get up in the morning and carry forward because there are even better things to experience that come our way and those things are well worth the agony that can come from past experiences.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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A Botanist's Guide to Rituals and Revenge
by Kate Khavari
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this one a lot more than the previous instalment, thankfully. It is always a nice break to visit a series in which you know the cast of characters and what to (mostly) expect.
We get a lot of the family dynamics that have been alluded to in previous books in this one. Head-on, daily encounters with Saffron's mother, grandmother, and others in the family household. There are schemes and opinions abound, but of course none of that really matters to Alexander and Saffron.
I did feel that Saffron was a bit too sneaky at times and certainly undervalued Alexander in this one. She takes advantage of him in a way that doesn't sit quite right for me given their committed relationship. That said, he has excuses for why; it's just too bad that she wasn't upfront with him. The final question will come down to whether he can forgive her or not, which I will not spoil for you; but I will confirm is resolved by the end one way or another.
The actual mysteries to solve here are interesting. I was a bit meh on the ghost medium at first. Eventually I did start to appreciate how clever she seems. Her partner and others involved are all just side pieces, but each plays a key part of the overall story and each brings something different to the table. I wouldn't say these are 'well' developed characters, but they were enough for me given their throw away nature.
This fourth installment of the series is a bit more melancholy than the others. None of it really takes place at the school. It's surrounded by lies, awful family, and those who are no longer with them (many of them because of the war). So be prepared that 'cozy' here has some real undertones of sadness.
Overall, this is a much better installment than the last, and the ending (of course) has a cliffhanger that will have me grabbing book five when I need a cozy break again in the future. I do appreciate that, by and large, Kate Khavari delivers on exactly what I expect from these books. Nothing more, but nothing less, and that works just fine for me.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me
by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This rating is causing a huge conundrum for me.
On one hand I LOVED all the supporting characters, possible love interests, friends, etc. I barely tolerated the MC at first, but she grew on me as things went on. I also think it’s grim yet politically manic fantasy world. Well put together, with elaborate magic and a lot going on. 5/5
On the other side, I HATED the ad nauseam overwritten descriptions, telling not showing, long internal monologues about in the book this happens and these people are related this way but in this portal version of the world it’s difficult because of XYZ, and blah, blah, blah. It’s like the writing team that is Ilona Andrews decided they were going to write epic fantasy and therefore that meant they got to be verbose and boring just because they could. 2/5
It gets more complex when you also learn that I’m dying at the cliffhanger!! And adore the complicated, but not too ridiculous love interests and circumstances. At times they ring a bit too romanc-y for me but I expect that from paranormal romance writers delving into Romantasy (aka: more fantasy but still a lot of yearning and such). Most important is the possible romantic interests here are all sooo engaging. Even side characters like the random kid of a soldier and the disowned lady’s maid managed to capture my heart to some degree.
Who is this for?
Fourth Wing readers who liked book 3 (aka, less sex, more politics). To be clear there is NO sex in this book. Just a lot of yearning, jealousy, and can they be trusted issues. I suspect the nasty will come soon however. I’m suspecting it could play out like Laurel K. Hamilton and Anita Blake’s first three books; lacking the smut, but then later books seemingly only had smut.
A Court of Thorn and Roses readers might be okay with this. But I doubt it. It’s too overwritten and probably too gory for them.
Grimdark fantasy readers (aka: Abercombie, Lawrence, Lynch, etc). I don’t think so. There are aspects you will love (grotesque serial killer) but it’s not the core of the story and I think the female MC will annoy you to the point you hope her name ‘Maggie the Undying’ isn’t as literal as it seems to be in the opening chapter.
See what I mean by conundrum?
Maybe this is a book written for the verbose fantasy reader out there. Someone (like myself?) who has spent time (and enjoyed it depending on mood) in: the paranormal romance world (pre-Romantasy existing), the cozy fantasy of Baldree, highly political fantasy of GRRM, the descriptive fantasy of Tolkien, the grimdark of Lawrence, and the complexity of Sanderson; and finds merits to all of it at any given moment.
Does that make any sense at all? (lol)
I think This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is one of those you have to try it to see if it’s for you. I’d encourage you to hang in until at least the 30% mark (as I was a bit bored up until then) and then see how you feel about it. I can say it went from meh to an absolute banger (twists abound) at the end. Hence why rating it is so darn difficult!
I think I’ll stick to 3.5 if I could half it. I’m rounding up here to 4 because I do want to read the next one.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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