booksthatburn's Reviews (1.46k)

THE BURIED AND THE BOUND follows three teenagers trying to deal with curses and keep the boundary intact between the magical and the mundane in their town.

Aziza, Leo, and Tristan make a strong trio. Their various strengths, weaknesses, and histories lead to a good balance between narrative tension and general ability to work together to fight the hag. While many things end up working out in their favor, it’s never perfect. This creates an air of them fighting for everything that goes right, but not always winning. They're developed separately and together, with Aziza and Leo feeling more like a duo in the first half, then cohering with Tristan into an actual trio by the end. 

Aziza is a hedgewitch, living with her grandfather and maintaining the magical boundary near the town. Leo has been cursed to forget his true love, unable to even process it if anyone tries to tell him details of the person he's forgotten. Tristan is working for a hag in exchange for getting a curse broken, finding himself more and more horrified by what the hag is asking him to do.

The worldbuilding is very character-focused, giving information as it matters to the characters for specific things that are happening. Part of this is because they are navigating the ways that magic intertwines with the mundane parts of their lives. There’s very little focus on the non-magical aspects, with almost no focus on school despite the ages of the characters. The main way that that comes up is in backstory about missing school or changing schools. Otherwise, most mundane details relate to family life or the challenges of being an unhoused teen. I prefer books which lean into the magic and avoid the daily grind of being a teenager going to school, so this balance was perfect for me. I like how Aziza's background becomes increasingly relevant as the story goes on, moving from minor details into a driving aspect of her decisions going forward. 

The main thing that I didn’t like is that towards the end there’s some language used around changelings which mirrors the real world language used around autistic children when parents think that they have changed or somehow "lost" the non-autistic child they thought they had until that point. I'm aware that the book isn’t trying to be about autism, but culturally and linguistically these ideas are so intertwined that in Western literature anyone writing fantasy and using the concept of changelings ought to at least be aware of the connection. It's important to either write their changelings in a way that doesn’t evoke descriptions of autistic children or or to acknowledge and deal with that situation in some way. This fails to do either, playing the trope straight, slightly marring my enjoyment of the story.

I also didn't like one of the three audiobook narrators at first, but gradually he was less annoying as I got used to his voice. This does mean that anyone sensitive to the vocal tone of audiobook narrators might be better off reading a text version instead. 

As the first book in a planned series, THE BURIED AND THE BOUND only resolves one of the three major issues introduced in the first half of the book. By the time I got to the ending I had forgotten that this was book one in a series and not a standalone, which means I was emotionally unprepared for the technically-not-a-cliffhanger ending which leaves the characters in a better place than they were before the book started, but with a lot of complications that will need to be dealt with as the series continues. 

I like this as the first book in a series, and I plan to read the rest when they're available.

CURSES is a Beauty and the Beast retelling which takes a few specific element of the older story: one person cursed to appear as a Beast, and one person who is generally considered beautiful being required to help them break the curse in exchange for forgiving a parent’s trespasses. Onto this basic premise the author has built a small world by which a larger story is supported. I like the story, I like the dynamic between merit and Tevin, between Merit and her various suitors, and generally with her group of friends and collaborators for them to help break the curse with as little meddling from her mother as possible. 

Merit is far from the only person to be cursed by a godling's capricious whim. Godlings are rich fae who move in monied social circles and back up their whims with magic. Godling curses, even when meant to be kind, often cause trouble for the recipients. One of my favorite little details from early in the book is the story of a pair of step-sisters where one was blessed by a godling to have jewels and flowers tumble from her lips when she speaks. Her stepsister is quick to point out that constantly disgorging something, even something valuable, is a deeply unpleasant way to spend one's time. The jewels sometimes lead to cracked teeth, and she's constantly sneezing due to an allergy to flower pollen. The stepsister who speaks up is cursed to have reptiles and amphibians (sometimes venomous ones) pour from her lips whenever she speaks. This is a fairytale I was already passably familiar with, and putting it in the context of Beauty and the Beast is a very smart move narratively, as it represents a similar level of whim and malice as that in the main story. It means that Merit is far from the only major character with a curse, a situation which continues to develop. As for Merit herself, she was cursed after refusing to marry a man twenty years older than her in favor of hoping that the suitor her own age would marry her. But he took her mother's money to go away, and then Merit was cursed by a Godling to have to marry someone her mother chooses or else find someone who loves her even as a beast.

I appreciate stories with a modern sensibility to finding oneself in a magical world. This shows up in a few places, distinctly, one of the earliest of which is a discussion of how the temporary relief from curses can be at obtained through a tincture made from a magical plant, called bloom. There’s a brief discussion of what basically amounts to this world's version of subsidized healthcare, making sure everyone who needs Bloom can afford it. While I understand that some people might find moments like this a bit jarring, I enjoy them as they make clear that while this is a fairytale setting it’s not trying to be strictly medieval. Those two things don’t have to be intertwined, as the number of popular contemporary fantasy books can attest. I like stories of rogues and tricksters, deceptions and heists, and I thoroughly enjoyed Tevin as a main character. He’s the one forced to help Merit after his mother tries to steal one of the magical flowers. Latimer makes an excellent Gaston, with specific reasons beyond pure ego to pursue Merit and play the villainous role for a long stretch. There's a fairly large cast of secondary characters, but they become more relevant at a manageable pace. The story sticks to three narrators, which is quite manageable.

I'd happily read more books by this author, especially ones set in this world. The pacing is a bit odd at first, but it smooths out quickly. It's a retelling of a story I like, in a modern style I enjoy, casually queer, with heists and roguish main characters. It feels almost perfectly crafted to be a book I'd enjoy, and it pays off well.