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eloise_bradbooks 's review for:
The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic
by Leigh Bardugo
3.5 /5 ~ Two sections : 1. Opinion on the collection as a whole.
2. Short review of each story. All without spoiling!! Yay XxX
OPINIONS ON THE COLLECTION :
As a whole, this collection of ‘Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic’ was a great read. Delving back into the Grishaverse felt amazing and dark magical short stories is definitely My Thing.
What was so amazing was how every story felt so empowering, especially for the female characters. They may resemble fairy tales we all know, but these dark tales twist our expectations and give power to the female characters in all their beauty and darkness.
For me personally, I believe I wasn’t presented this collection in the best way. I went in, convinced it would be fairy tales that people from the Grishaverse were told. Maybe it was? I’m not too sure. It mostly felt like short stories set in the Grishaverse, which had fairy-tale-like elements to them – but not carried out well enough?
- Most of the time, I found the stories to be too long, especially the way the story was set. In my mind, a fairy tale setting doesn’t need this much detail, or even this many plot points before we get to the main one (if you wanted to give us great big backstories to every character, fairy tale form wasn’t the best choice).
I felt like I was dragging myself through some parts... Not because it was uninteresting, but because I’m not reading this for fully fleshed out worlds and backstories, Leigh Bardugo does those brilliantly in her novels.
- It also felt to me like the fairy tale writing style was well used in some parts but fell flat in others. Some parts were too novel-like.
- As great as it was to see certain characters evolve in he way they did, I can’t say I was too shocked. They were all meant to be twists but because they happen in each story, an expected unexpected event becomes expected and thus non-surprising. Know what I mean?
I mean, this is me going on about a small aspect that was how I viewed this book personally due to expectations I had. It is still a great collection I would recommend to anyone who loves dark, twisted tales that empower women.
Oh, and the illustrations were beautiful!!!
However this book should come with the warning: ILLUSTRATIONS SPOIL THE STORY SO DON'T LOOK AT THEM BEFORE HAVING FINISHED! (see: The Too-Clever Fox review below)
OPINIONS ON EACH STORY :
Ayama and the Thorn Wood: 4 /5
A great way to open up this collection of stories. It's dark, twisted and empowering. Some parts (the first sub-story) I enjoyed more than others.
The Too-Clever Fox: 2.5 /5
There was once a girl, who flicked through the pages of her book. Of course she did. With illustrations as beautiful as those in the book, how could one resist?
The problem, however, was that by flicking through those pages, her eyes stumbled upon the illustration that revealed the ending of this story, before she had finished reading it.
The girl was ashamed of herself. If only her eyes had not been so impatient, she would not have been spoiled the major plotpoint of the story.
As an obvious punishment, the girl was unable to enjoy the story, cruelly waiting for the revelation to arise.
Luckily, the tale itself was not too long, and what she took out of it, was a lesson well learned
The Witch of Duva 3.5 /5
Aaaah that ending was great! Amazing even. It's a shame the rest of the story didn't grip me enough. I felt pretty "meh" throughout most of it."
Little Knife: 4 /5
YAS! That's how you write a good fairytale. Short, straight forward, kick ass ending.
The Soldier Prince: 5/5.
Clearly I have a thing for non-humans who aren't quite sure what they are. Especially if those non-humans are on fact inanimate objects that humans use and abuse.
When Water Sang Fire: 3/5.
Ulla is probably my favourite character out of all of the characters in this book (Slytherin INTJ girl) and the last paragraph gave me chills. However the story itself didn't work for me. Because it was the last story in this collection, I couldn't forgive it's length - especially when a lot could have been cut out or shortened to keep only the most interesting elements. This is one I dragged myself through the hardest.
2. Short review of each story. All without spoiling!! Yay XxX
OPINIONS ON THE COLLECTION :
As a whole, this collection of ‘Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic’ was a great read. Delving back into the Grishaverse felt amazing and dark magical short stories is definitely My Thing.
What was so amazing was how every story felt so empowering, especially for the female characters. They may resemble fairy tales we all know, but these dark tales twist our expectations and give power to the female characters in all their beauty and darkness.
For me personally, I believe I wasn’t presented this collection in the best way. I went in, convinced it would be fairy tales that people from the Grishaverse were told. Maybe it was? I’m not too sure. It mostly felt like short stories set in the Grishaverse, which had fairy-tale-like elements to them – but not carried out well enough?
- Most of the time, I found the stories to be too long, especially the way the story was set. In my mind, a fairy tale setting doesn’t need this much detail, or even this many plot points before we get to the main one (if you wanted to give us great big backstories to every character, fairy tale form wasn’t the best choice).
I felt like I was dragging myself through some parts... Not because it was uninteresting, but because I’m not reading this for fully fleshed out worlds and backstories, Leigh Bardugo does those brilliantly in her novels.
- It also felt to me like the fairy tale writing style was well used in some parts but fell flat in others. Some parts were too novel-like.
- As great as it was to see certain characters evolve in he way they did, I can’t say I was too shocked. They were all meant to be twists but because they happen in each story, an expected unexpected event becomes expected and thus non-surprising. Know what I mean?
I mean, this is me going on about a small aspect that was how I viewed this book personally due to expectations I had. It is still a great collection I would recommend to anyone who loves dark, twisted tales that empower women.
Oh, and the illustrations were beautiful!!!
However this book should come with the warning: ILLUSTRATIONS SPOIL THE STORY SO DON'T LOOK AT THEM BEFORE HAVING FINISHED! (see: The Too-Clever Fox review below)
OPINIONS ON EACH STORY :
Ayama and the Thorn Wood: 4 /5
A great way to open up this collection of stories. It's dark, twisted and empowering. Some parts (the first sub-story) I enjoyed more than others.
The Too-Clever Fox: 2.5 /5
There was once a girl, who flicked through the pages of her book. Of course she did. With illustrations as beautiful as those in the book, how could one resist?
The problem, however, was that by flicking through those pages, her eyes stumbled upon the illustration that revealed the ending of this story, before she had finished reading it.
The girl was ashamed of herself. If only her eyes had not been so impatient, she would not have been spoiled the major plotpoint of the story.
As an obvious punishment, the girl was unable to enjoy the story, cruelly waiting for the revelation to arise.
Luckily, the tale itself was not too long, and what she took out of it, was a lesson well learned
The Witch of Duva 3.5 /5
Aaaah that ending was great! Amazing even. It's a shame the rest of the story didn't grip me enough. I felt pretty "meh" throughout most of it."
Little Knife: 4 /5
YAS! That's how you write a good fairytale. Short, straight forward, kick ass ending.
The Soldier Prince: 5/5.
Clearly I have a thing for non-humans who aren't quite sure what they are. Especially if those non-humans are on fact inanimate objects that humans use and abuse.
When Water Sang Fire: 3/5.
Ulla is probably my favourite character out of all of the characters in this book (Slytherin INTJ girl) and the last paragraph gave me chills. However the story itself didn't work for me. Because it was the last story in this collection, I couldn't forgive it's length - especially when a lot could have been cut out or shortened to keep only the most interesting elements. This is one I dragged myself through the hardest.