This book deserves ALL the hype!

It's not the most universally quotable kind of book (until the last 50 pages or so), but it has a depth of detail and characterization which makes it alive and tangible in a different way. I believed in, and felt for, all the characters. Nobody is a "Chosen One". Nobody suddenly monologues their sob-worthy backstory because "Hey, I know I've only known you for two days, but we've almost died a bunch, and we hit 100 pages into the book, so I guess I ought to spill now?" Nobody is excessively catty or emotional or cagey, to the point of jeopardizing lives. The characters have emotional depth, they are damaged and complicated, but they don't let their emotions overrule strategy, common sense, or good teamwork. And in a very real way, the characters answer personal questions /as/ they feel comfortable, and withhold other answers for a later date; there is no info dump about any one person. Their grounded-ness, combined with the book's meticulous nautical knowledge, made me feel - despite the slight amount of supernatural/fantasy power in this 'verse - that the risks and rewards were /real/ in this book. I cared <3 <3 <3! That is the highest praise I can give a book: When it makes me /feel/ something.

Cannot wait to see what's in store in Namesake! Adrienne Young whittles magnificent story-crafting, revealing a world piece by intricate piece. I cannot wait to read more by Young <3. Mwah! Masterful!

PS - Score one for representation!!! Ah!!! <3 <3 <3

A stunning debut! The fantasy elements alone are both beautiful and sinister, and gain a big 5 stars for /not/ being inspired by Western Europe! Yey diverse representation!
But more than that, this book opens a powerful discussion about Otherness (racial, gender, religious...), the monsters hate can make us see, and the powerful ripple effect a willingness to learn and befriend can have. The book focuses heavily on how, in particular, girls are systemically subjugated, taught to deny what is strong and beautiful and natural about themselves. But girls have a power and a magic greater than any when they are free to live truthfully and are bonded by sisterhood. Girl power!!!

This book is SO "now", it is so important, it ought to be required reading. And I'm excited that Namina Forna has a background in film and screenwriting, because this book SCREAMS to be adapted into a movie! (Give me Ixa. Right now.) And can someone get Namina and Roseanne A. Brown in the same room?! Because a crossover between The Gilded Ones and A Song of Wraiths and Ruin NEEDS to be a thing!!!

I will say one tiny, minor, itsy bitsy thing: The twist ending gets a little rushed, a little campy. Some monologuing. Nothing atypical of a first novel, or a YA book. Nothing that tarred the rest of the book for me. I'm hopeful for sequels; this world is too good not to return to ^_^.

This book played tug-of-war with my heart:
It has tons of courtly intrigue... whiiich is kind of negated by the heroine having mind-reading magic.
It scores major points for diversity... whiiich it then loses for having a bunch of character tropes, too. (The gay guy is an actor. Really. Really?!)
It's an immensely interesting not-quite Earth setting with unique magics and religions... orrr it would be, if the book took the time to BREATHE. Describe a setting. Devote a paragraph or two to explaining the warring religions. Have a map, a glossary, anything! I was swimming in nouns with no descriptions.
Most of the characters weren't likeable. Thank goodness Ren was human; her silent-suffering from being /too/ empathetic is a real struggle a reader can relate to... Buuut she largely doesn't know WHO she is - almost as if she has amnesia - and therefore she doesn't grow from her struggles, only sinking deeper into her martyrdom. And Castian SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER is only likable because a bunch of minor characters /say/ he's likable, up until the last 5 pages of the book. Mendez was complex and his dynamic with Ren was interesting... SPOILER SPOILER and was majorly retconned and watered down by the end of the book :(.
And the book itself sets a frantic pace. Something about its sentence structure, or first-person perspective, combined with its timeline, makes every sentence an action sentence. "I do this. I do this. I do this... etc." This isn't Game of Thrones, with months and years to unravel the mysteries surrounding a character. It's adrenaline-filled days, with little to no chance to stop and describe a setting, a feeling... very little literary craft. Some motifs, but few metaphors or descriptors... Just constant DOING. A story is more than just what the characters /do/.
But for every nagging point that causes me to walk back on this book, I'm ultimately pulled forward, because all the good IS there too <3. Scores for diversity, creativity, mysteries and surprises and dangers aplenty.
A book worth reading, even if it's also a book worth tweaking.

STUNNING!!!! Breath-taking! Intricate, beautiful, haunting, creative - a work worthy of the same ranks as all the classic fairytales which have come before. If she hadn't already become a household name with "Shadow and Bone" or "Six of Crows", she certainly ought to be after "Language of Thorns". A PERFECT book from start to finish.

I love the way these stories mashup or retell-with-a-twist stories we already know, it pairs beautifully with the not-quite-Earth of The Grishaverse. It's familiar, but unique.

I love the way Bardugo uses her tales to tell important, modern morality tales. Not about being demure and living happily ever after as some rando's wife. But about being strong in the face of abuse and grief. I love that the cast of these tales are diverse; that any reader could see themselves in them.

I love the way these tales echo within, or relate to the plot of, the other Grishaverse novels. I wish someone had told me to read this book /before/ King of Scars, because it would have completely changed my perception of KoS! The idea that fairytales each have a grain of truth, and our heroes/villains are either following a history which is doomed to repeat itself, or falling into the footsteps of an archetype who came before them and are becoming the stuff of legends... It's brilliant, and gives me ALL the Princess Tutu vibes. Are our heroes stuck in a story? Or do stories just spring up around real people, and embellish pain into poetry? How much of our lives is choice, how much destiny, how much are we products of unknowable histories that came before us... What are we when someone else tells our story; which version of ourselves is true? (Now I have all the Hamilton vibes! XD)

Beautiful! Beautiful!!! Did I forget to mention the gorgeous illustrations?! There are literal works of art in this book! This book makes you think, makes you feel, makes you fall in love with stories... What more could you possibly want from a book?! Beau-ti-FUL!

Another beautiful tie-in to the Grishaverse; the paintings alone are STUNNING. It was intriguing and creative to see how:
A) There are saint stories across the whole world, implying that magic is universal and the borders which divide our heroes are manmade and arbitrary.
B) Our heroes either get turned into stories themselves, or follow in the footsteps of known stories, ensuring that the legends and the magic remain alive.
C) Some stories even crossover with Language of Thorns, implying that the subjects of fairytales and religious works alike were real people in this universe. Maybe even foreshadowing that we'll get to see them in other Grishaverse novels...

But the book gets a little too "real", a little too like the holy books which inspired it. It becomes a list of silly vinettes. Some have universal messages, not all. And they're not as powerful as the stories in Language of Thorns. It's a book best sipped, not binged, because trying to read all the saint stories at once gives it a sing-songy, we've-heard-this-before, kind of lulling rhythm, despite how well its written.

A B movie of a book. It had... something: Some sympathetic characters, some psychology, some intrigue, some themes...

But mostly, it had a lot of people acting /dumbly/!
Exhibit A) Why, if you are a purveyor of poisons, do you keep a ledger of your victims AND their assailants?! And WHY do you sometimes, wisely, traffic your poisons in discreet vessels, like eggs, and other times in completely traceable and obvious vessels, like bright bottles with bear logos on them? And why do you think your shop is safer hidden behind an empty room, than in plain sight as a NORMAL apothecary, medicines and more dangerous mixtures shelved side-by-side, or one in the front room and one in the back - either way, it's easier to claim client ignorance and overdose if you pretend you intended medicinal help only, than it is to explain why you're fleeing from your little shop of horrors!

Exhibit B) Why, after learning that your husband is having an affair and simultaneously trying to knock you up, do you blame /yourself/ for being too boring?! Why do you decide that the solution to your marital strife is to invent and then solve a 200 year old murder mystery, which - if the conspiracy exists, and you're not just reading too much into finding a bottle in a river - was probably already solved years ago, but the documents relevant to the case aren't digitized (exactly like your librarian friend says!). WHY, when doing your own amateur Google sleuthing, do you take notes, but the WORST, most useless notes possible, like, "How much poison required to murder someone?" and "List of poisons: Arsenic?" OBVIOUSLY, you will get caught and look loopy!

Exhibit C) Why did you jump in a river?! That river is polluted! That river has a bridge over it; cross it! Nobody, in either timeline, should be getting in that river!

Okay, rants about characters' choices aside, I found the book boring at times. It suffered from redundancies. The various characters in both timelines repeat and explain, almost verbatim, events to each other, stalling the pace of the book. Often, discoveries are made in Pride & Prejudice fashion, i.e. letters, newspapers, PRINT of some kind... Don't know if writers know this... But reading about someone else's Google search history is NOT riveting.

Other times, I found the book upsetting because it didn't have a universal message. The great takeaway is that the relationships between women can be profound and immeasurable... But the women in this book, besides discussing the INORDINATE number of cheating husbands, discuss mundane or pretty typical things: Hey, I got my period. Hey, I want a baby. Hey, my arthritis is acting up, can /you/ make the tea? I found the relationships realistic, but I guess... alienating to a reader. What would a male reader get out of this book? What would a woman who has suffered trauma, or felt repressed, or felt /alone/, get out of this book? Who is this book for? Yeah, certainly there are readers who have been through a rough marriage, or the loss of a baby, or a handsy employer, who might identify with one of the characters... but I don't feel like enough catharsis comes from following these characters around. I didn't cry for understanding them, I just sort of sighed and shrugged and said, "That's rough. We've all got our problems." Some emotional punch was missing from this book, despite its adult subject matter.

In the words of another hissy individual, "I confess myself disappointed."

A PHENOMENAL book! It is incomprehensible how much I hated King of Scars, and LOOOOVE Rule of Wolves! I laughed and cried, sometimes both at once. Despite the fantasy world, this book is heart-achingly human. The monsters we become in times of war. The majesty we find when we dare to let love lead. The strength of mercy. The depths of grief, and the path to healing. The desire to be "seen" and accepted for who we truly are at heart. An astounding, sweeping, epic tapestry of universal truths. FEELINGS! ALL OF THE FEELINGS!!!! <3 <3 <3

And from a mechanical standpoint: The character arcs, the callbacks to earlier books, the echoes, the promise of things yet to come... THE QUOTES! And of course, ALL of the diversity love we've grown accustomed to in the Grishaverse. This book rewards you for reading. It rewards you for traversing this series, for staying with these characters... For trusting Leigh Bardugo. Every single character, every single plot beat, is done with finesse and feeling. There is no point where the book peaks and then wraps up in cliches - never - the whole book rides high. An absolute crescendo of a book. Sankta Leigh!

This book is a treasure. A meal I was starving for. I am so tear-spilling-ly proud to have a book I'm in love with again. A series I'm in love with. A world I'm in love with.

What are you waiting for? GO READ!

A darling, dark little book, sort of the mashup of A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Princess Bride. The narrator is a little bit "too cute", a little too distracting with all of the fourth wall breaks. But an excellent mechanic for kids, warning when the more disturbing content is about to drop. And the book did have some great quotes/moral insights for every reader who's ever been disillusioned with the people they trust, and had to find their own strength. The blending of fairytales was fun, insightful, and sinister - all things you want from a good story ^_^.