I wish authors would stop putting Slavic on titles if they're just going to do East Slavic information specifically. West and South Slavs exist! I'm right here!

This title is generally misleading. I wanted to use this as reference for Slavic witchcraft as a whole but this is more of a family memoir/list of personal family traditions. 

Big yikes on quoting the slur for Romani people in a negative context with no critique, as well as weird gender essentialism.

It's also covering the Christian-Pagan intersection only, which although interesting, isn't really what I was hoping for. I just wanted to learn about pre-Christian Slavic witchcraft. I suppose my search will continue.

I gotta think on this one. I already ranted about it to my friends on discord and the ending now has me...I can't tell if it made things slightly better or horrifically worse? I will ruminate

If you can get me to root for straight romance, that's always points in my book.

I love everything Silvia does, this included. I want more Mayan fantasy now. Ugh this was so fun. I loved seeing Casiopeia become her own person. I loved that she never sacrificed who she was either. She never became cold. 

Also women have to sacrifice EVERYTHING!!! So she deserves those e pensive black pearls for the rest of her life if I do say so myself

Beautiful wrap up to this series. Will always be one of my favorites, and as someone who rarely rereads, it's surely on my list :')

Fyodor...you silly goofy guy...

This is a tough one, because I loved the first half. The concept and the buildup of this mysterious afaugh and the warrior that keeps it at bay is right up my alley. The second half went up and down for me. There were parts where I grew to like it again and then grew to hate it a bit.

Some of the dialogue and characterization didn't make sense to me (especially the female characters). 

The way the afaugh acted when it was possessing people felt a bit goofy to me tbh. Trying to be offputting and funny at the same time didn't work with how serious of an idea this was, and with how ancient the being itself is.

Their solution at the end didn't make any sense to me at all.

Overall, I REALLY loved the first half, the concept itself, the mystery. I think it suffers from what a lot of horror novels suffer from - once you start to explain too much, it loses its luster.

 

Also fuck Bran you weasely little son of a bitch

 

"I couldn't bear to wage war with this awful world without you"

I really liked this book for what it was, a dark fairytale about a young woman escaping an incredibly abusive parent. Her naivety and slow recognition of her own power felt genuine, even if it was grating on the nerves at times. There were times her insecurity in herself wore on me a bit too much, it was said a bit too many times, but it's a small critique. 

I really like the worldbuilding and the weaving of eastern european folklore throughout. Altogether a solid read.

Hard to get any point from me when you have an entire chapter dedicated to Europe and then one for the rest of the world.

It is clear a lot of research went into this book, but there's nothing being said here. There's a lot of information being thrown around, but no points being made about where any of this leads us. Also didn't really care for the fact that cosplay was talked about in the Sex, Gender, and Identity section. It felt a bit invalidating.

I did learn some new folklore creatures to research, but not much else gained from this. 

I feel I've changed my review on this 5 times in the few minutes since I finished (maybe I shouldn't rate books right away lol).

At times I really loved her prose, at times I felt it was so flowery it got in the way of comprehending what was happening. I love dark, gritty prose, but you have to know when to tighten it and when to let it seep in.

The characters were VERY stereotypical horror movie fodder, which seemed to perhaps be the point? But the book flip flopped on whether it was critiquing horror tropes or just flat out being horror. It couldn't decide. 

"Nothing made sense to me anymore. I knew I was young, I knew I was small. But I was worried that I might already be ruined."

I always say that I prefer books that resonate with me rather than ones I find relatable. 

This is a childhood so very unlike mine but I resonate so deeply with it that it hurts all the same. I know what it is to have a father you cannot trust, and a home that never quite feels right. 

I recognize OCD anytime I see it, and I empathize with those urges. I never prayed to a god or wore crosses but I sure as hell worried I would be like my dad somehow, and did everything in my power to be unlike him. The organizing of his things for some semblance of control feels like a mirror image. 

I always appreciate when people share their hardest stories. I need them too.