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ravensandpages 's review for:
A Warning About Swans
by R.M. Romero
ARC given by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Peachtree Teen!
A WARNING ABOUT SWANS is a fairytale in verse that follows Hilde, a swan girl, who runs from the death magic gifted to her by the All-Father to follow a new path alongside a human boy named Richter, who has promised her normalcy in court life in exchange for Hilde using her magic to pull riches from his dreams. As she becomes drawn to a court artist who seems to see her true self, Richter becomes all the more controlling, and Hilde has to find what she left behind in order to escape the cage closing around her.
One regret I have about being an ARC reader is that sometimes I come across a book that I know is creative and original and honors its comp titles, but I just know I'm destined to not enjoy it, which was, unfortunately, the case for me with this book. I liked it enough to not DNF, but I don't enjoy reading poetry or verse on ebooks because it's hard for me to tell where a line starts or ends without making the font too small for me to read it, so I often found myself wishing the book wasn't written in verse at all and might have even been better served that way. Furthermore, I found Hilde's head frustrating to be inside, and I don't usually care for fiction that draws in real people. There were a couple more reasons, but overall, this book was an amalgamation of my few unreasonable preferences when it comes to books. If Hilde had been a dancer, I would have been done for, so lucky for her that she wasn't.
However, I did find the plot very interesting and creative (although I think far too much of it was given away in the summary-- some plot points given happen 60-70% of the way through, which left me wishing I'd gone in blind instead of constantly waiting for those shoes to drop), and I think fans of The Last Unicorn will adore this book. I was truly gagged by the plot twist about Richter's family, and I liked what the book had to say about magic, control, and power. If you are a fan of historical fantasy, I would recommend you give this a chance!
A WARNING ABOUT SWANS is a fairytale in verse that follows Hilde, a swan girl, who runs from the death magic gifted to her by the All-Father to follow a new path alongside a human boy named Richter, who has promised her normalcy in court life in exchange for Hilde using her magic to pull riches from his dreams. As she becomes drawn to a court artist who seems to see her true self, Richter becomes all the more controlling, and Hilde has to find what she left behind in order to escape the cage closing around her.
One regret I have about being an ARC reader is that sometimes I come across a book that I know is creative and original and honors its comp titles, but I just know I'm destined to not enjoy it, which was, unfortunately, the case for me with this book. I liked it enough to not DNF, but I don't enjoy reading poetry or verse on ebooks because it's hard for me to tell where a line starts or ends without making the font too small for me to read it, so I often found myself wishing the book wasn't written in verse at all and might have even been better served that way. Furthermore, I found Hilde's head frustrating to be inside, and I don't usually care for fiction that draws in real people. There were a couple more reasons, but overall, this book was an amalgamation of my few unreasonable preferences when it comes to books. If Hilde had been a dancer, I would have been done for, so lucky for her that she wasn't.
However, I did find the plot very interesting and creative (although I think far too much of it was given away in the summary-- some plot points given happen 60-70% of the way through, which left me wishing I'd gone in blind instead of constantly waiting for those shoes to drop), and I think fans of The Last Unicorn will adore this book. I was truly gagged by the plot twist about Richter's family, and I liked what the book had to say about magic, control, and power. If you are a fan of historical fantasy, I would recommend you give this a chance!