This one is a struggle to parse for me. On the one hand, it’s an ambitious swirl of folklore, urban fantasy, mystery, and romance. On the other, it’s a disjointed and often difficult to navigate fever dream. I love a non-linear, complex tale, but something in the actual crafting of this one is lacking. Often it felt like the book itself was standing between me and knowing what happens in a way that wasn’t super productive. I felt like finishing was an obstacle to overcome, not a discovery to make. 

Some of this I think is down to pacing and editing. I don’t mind a slow book, but the A plot meandered without direction so much that the interjected stories didn’t stand out in the way I think they hoped to. If it was TENSION QUESTIONS PUSH then a window to folklore, different times, context,  this would have absolutely sung. 

I can’t speak on representation here, but I think a First Nations perspective on this book would be helpful for me to hear. The plot is attempting to grapple with appropriation and destruction of First Nations culture and spirituality, but it doesn’t fully resolve that thread. 

The secondary characters are interesting and have the building blocks of complexity, but don’t quite fully break out of being one-dimensional supports for the protagonist. Jack is maybe the MOST compelling of them, and I wish he’d had more time and development. 

The audiobook is, for no fault of the narrator’s, tough to follow. The jumps in and out of the primary narrative are hard to differentiate, but that’s just the writing. I thought Jen Zhao’s narration was strong and nuanced despite this. I love the way Janet’s voice is performed. 

Wow. Just wow. What a stunning conclusion to one of my favourite YA Fantasy series! It’s rare for me to feel like every book in a series is a five star read, and this truly is a trilogy of absolute bangers. 

There’s such clear intention here in terms of the story’s internal and external conflicts, so SO MUCH deep character work being done, and an incredible action plot that keeps everything rolling. I am astonished at how effectively the stakes were escalated, and how vital elements from previous books were incorporated to make this feel like a reckoning we’ve been building to from the start. Pacing was solid, LOVED the way the interludes drew it all in together

Owen’s humorous prose is some of the best in the YA business. She’s just genuinely funny and it makes the novel absolutely shine. Vanja’s POV is always a delight, and this book is no different, despite the amount of serious business happening! There’s such a good balance struck. 

Of course I’d still go to war for this motley assortment of idiots and tricksters. The old gang learns and grows, and the new gang settles into their ranks. The bad guys are awful, the gods are PHENOMENAL, I just. It’s all so good. 

Saskia’s audiobook narration is, as usual, pitch-perfect. Equally dry and heartfelt, delivering humour and heartbreak with precision. A few editing errors still exist—some pauses and restarts got missed in cutting here and there. Could use one more pass. 

Will recommend till I’m dead. Just read this series. 

This book is incredibly ambitious, and I have a lot of respect for what it is trying to do. I’m just not sure that it is successful in achieving it. 

I’m very pro-criticising capitalism and for profit government and climate inaction and objectifying children and spectator detachment and—

However, I think a lot of these were ideas  thrown at a wall to see what would stick, and there’s not a lot of robust worldbuilding underpinning them. How your reality was created shouldn’t be revealed 84% of the way through the book as a part of a twist (??). If the whole crux of the novel is that the televised death of a person is worth 500,000 credits to a corporation, why are those deaths not of the people we spend tons of time villainizing for being ‘weak’ for being trapped in the debt-ridden hellscape, not their innocent children? Where is the supposed viewer buy-in to see dead kids? What satisfaction do they get from that? It just doesn’t make any SENSE. Especially once we see that there is actual viewer SYMPATHY for the victims. Also I can’t get over the lack of collectivism, the lack of community or solidarity present. This tries to be hunger games without the philosophical heart that Collins put in that book. 

The characters are interesting, the romance and pacing feels off, the vicious trained killers…fail to kill anyone successfully. Idk man. The big scary corporation pulls a lot of punches for something supposedly all powerful and ruthless. There’s no actual consequences for failing to carry out the will of said corporation. 

And at the end…what has truly changed? 

I’m sure there are people out there that will love this one, but it wasn’t for me. 

*Arc provided by netgalley, opinions are my own

This is a tough one for me to review, because I have so many mixed feelings about it. I think, in the end, my take is that it could have been successful if it knew what it was. 

First, I don’t think this is a cozy romantasy. Its advertised comps are Howl’s Moving Castle and Cerulean Sea, and I think a more accurate comp is actually Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. It has ELEMENTS that cozy fantasies have: a domestic focus, talking animal companions, a potentially twee magic system, but then it has put these in a universe where they are a very dark sign of a very dark magic. The stakes are sky high, the magic system is quite visceral and gory, and the implications of what happens in this book stretch to multiple countries! Not cozy. In the acknowledgements Eames mentions two things that might explain the book’s sort of disconnect from itself: first, that it was originally a novella, and second, that it had two editors from two different publishers. I wonder about that original novella, and can’t help but wonder if maybe that was the form this book should have had if cozy was her goal. 

All this to say, I didn’t have a BAD time reading it, and a lot of that I believe was due to Jessie Elland’s astonishing narration. I’d listen to her read a shampoo bottle. Her sense of humour, pacing, and characterisation were all truly lovely, and her actual voice is so listenable and engaging. For her work alone, it’d be a five star. The rest of the book, however… 

I’ll try to make sure it finds its way to the people who it’s for, even if that isn’t me. 

CAITLIN STOP BREAKING MY HEART 
(Please never stop)