laurnoble's Reviews (180)

Goddamn this book is so beautiful. Reading Tolkien is like entering a dreamworld.

Parts of this book really shone — half the stories were deft retellings of old fairy tales, familiar and in conversation with contemporary media, and had a surprising element of the grotesque that took the book beyond just reframing old stories. But overall it lacked cohesion, and I found the women's stories inconsistent in both narrative tension and adherence to their source texts. The interludes where the characters spoke to each other, too, felt forced, like they were more focused on social commentary than telling a compelling story. 

Some frustrating forced conflict between Violet and Xaden slowed down an otherwise propulsive plot, but the key action sequences were just as riveting and satisfying as they were in book 1.