CW: gore, suicide, mental instability

I was skeptical going into this novel, as it’s another Shakespeare retelling and Bill and I don’t get along. Let’s just say that I had good reason to be skeptical.

My main problem is that I absolutely don’t see why this book is nearly 600 pages. I think it’s too long, honestly. The story started slowly, but after about 75 pages I was intrigued. A lot of things had happened by the 200 page mark, and after that I started to lose interest. I contemplated dnfing this multiple times, but I didn’t because I was curious. That’s not something I think I’ve experienced prior; I was unbelievably bored for at least half the book, if not more, yet I was interested enough to want to continue. I’m confused too.

At about page 410, I started skimming. I skipped many perspectives, skimmed Gaela’s and Regan’s, and only truly read Elia’s. I truly stopped caring at that point and just wanted to be done with the book.

The only character I really liked was Elia, and even she wasn’t amazing, in my opinion. I liked how she gradually grew fiercer as the story progressed. Her sisters, Gaela and Regan, were monsters in their own way, and I didn’t like any of the male characters. Kayo and Morimaros had potential, but I thought they were too self-centered. I liked Ban for a time, but that changed once he let the idea of revenge get to his head. Aefa was okay, as was Brona, but unfortunately they were side characters without a lot of page time.

The writing was very dense and felt a bit as if I was reading something for school. It was a damper while I read; I’d be reading, thinking I was making decent progress, but I’d only read a page. That’s not to say that the writing was bad, because it wasn’t. It was only difficult, if you will.

Needless to say, my experience with this novel was quite the conundrum. If I remember correctly, it’s my first time delving into adult fantasy outside of V.E. Schwab and the trashfire I thought Uprooted was, but I’m not discouraged. Surely other books will be better; I just have to find them.

ETA: I almost forgot to mention that this book has a multitude of characters of color. It’s a fairly important part of the story. The only reason I didn’t mention it is being tired. Don’t mind me.

If you like adult fantasy, Shakespeare, and extremely slow stories, maybe this will sprinkle your donut. In my case, though, there were no sprinkles and my donut fell to the pits of hell. (Don’t mind my comparisons, it’s almost 1 am and I’m not proofreading this review, lol oops.)