Darkdawn

Book Title: Darkdawn

Author: Jay Kristoff

Series: The Nevernight Chronicles #3

Date Started: May 19th 2021

Date Completed: May 31st 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Action, Thriller,  Romance

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

The final chapter in The Nevernight Chronicles ties up pretty much everything surprisingly neatly, and just as satisfyingly as expected. Kristoff's players on his chessboard press forward with calculated, organic moves, all towards the Queen waiting at the very end.

I'd forgotten just how intense these books were. They just don't stop, from start to finish. And it doesn't get old: somehow each action scene feels new, the revelations are just as revelatory, and the things we knew were always going to happen still feel like twists. I actually find it a little funny that the final finale was actually probably the least exciting bit, I suppose because we all knew how it was going to end.

Mia's great, as always. And it's been nice having this big cast of characters the whole way through the series, even if they do step on and off the stage; without taking away from Mia as the protagonist, Kristoff can balance different sub-plots and people so that we become attached to things from all directions. It's one of the reasons his twists and turns land so well; because we care about the whole picture. (Also, just to note, this is how you can write women sexily, and use smut and cursing and crude jokes, without objectifying and shaming women and other groups.)

I also really respect the 'screw destiny' vibe, while still having that prophecy-driven force in the storytelling. The chosen one has always been a problematic trope, but (as with so many things) Kristoff manages to adapt it to complete the story with due justice to Mia and all the other n0n-chosen ones who are just as key to the victory.

I don't know just how much Kristoff did plan ahead, but nothing in Darkdawn felt conveniently moved in the plot just to pull off a twist or a climax, as happens so often. Things fell into place like they were divinely planned - in the way all great fantasy epics are, by nature, constructed, but seamlessly.

Witch Child

Book Title: Witch Child

Author: Celia Rees

Date Started: May 16th 2021

Date Completed: May 19th 2021

Genres: Historical

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review,

celebrating the 20th anniversary of Witch Child's publication ◆

Witch Child was one of those famous books everyone had read when I was a kid and one that I never felt particularly inclined to get around to for whatever reason. That being said, having read it as an adult I think I probably would've enjoyed it when I was younger - the set-of of a fictional historian discovering a quilt with diary pages of a girl accused of witchcraft was a stroke of genius, and my imagination would've totally latched onto that and run wild as a preteen.

Rees deals with the subject matter with surprising maturity and complexity for a book accessible for younger audiences. Of course, there isn't as much violence and horror as would likely have been the reality, but there's still a chilling realism to the attitudes and stupidity of the town and how far they'll take their beliefs. As with much fiction about the 'New World', you spend most of it despairing that literally anything can and was twisted to be incriminating if someone felt like it. Although, even with that, the climax was a little sudden and abrupt, presumably because it cut out all the really dark bits - not a problem for me, personally, if it makes the material more accessible.

Mary herself was a great protagonist. Her prose was articulate but didn't feel constructed; she had everyday worries as much as her overarching obstacles, and I really liked the fact that she was aware she would be considered a witch - and she possibly considered herself one too. It added a layer of conflict between self-preservation and self-acceptance. I enjoyed the general ambiguity over whether there was more afoot than hysteria, racism and misogyny.

Twenty (one) years on, and Witch Child seems to remain as interesting and celebrated a novel it was when I was a kid. It's well-suited to the 12-15 range (is that what it's aimed at?) but enjoyable for older readers too. A mature but accessible door into a very recognisable and important piece of American (and British) history.

Six Crimson Cranes

Book Title: Six Crimson Cranes

Author: Elizabeth Lim

Series: Six Crimson Cranes #1

Date Started: May 13th 2021

Date Completed: May 16th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

While it took a bit of time to win me over, I utterly loved Six Crimson Cranes. The fact that it's based on my favourite fairytale (though I'm familiar with the Irish version, traditionally known as 'The Children of Lir' and some other European variations) always helps, but this time Lim is retelling the beautiful Japanese version. I'm not well informed about what differs between the traditional versions of the two tales, but there was plenty familiar and plenty new to explore.

My initial reservations about this book came from Shiori being written with the intelligence of a twelve-year-old when she was apparently sixteen - there were several points in the first half of the book where her internal dialogue didn't make sense, was incorrect about information that Shiori had clearly been given, and just plain cliched or not thought through (phrases like 'don't say I didn't warn you,' 'why won't anyone believe me,' 'I must have imagined it' were scattered through needlessly). By the halfway point, there's a noticeable shift in Shiori's persona but I still don't think it was really necessary and I'm still not convinced it was a deliberate choice to paint her as so naïve to begin with.

That being said, the fact that from around 32%, I read the rest of the book in one sitting tells you all you need to know. It's not often I'll stay in bed late into the day reading, but Six Crimson Cranes had my full attention and I didn't want to put it down. Some of the twists were a little obvious, but the final one, while predictable, was still very satisfying. The slow-burn romance was engaging (and In liked that it doesn't weigh Shiori or her story down), the magic gradually becomes more layered without being too overly complex, and I loved how Lim weaved the tale into a much bigger epic at the end, with potential for more to come.

Lovers of fairytale retellings, of Asian folklore, and especially those in love with this particular tale in its various iterations like myself, will adore this book. It's full of lush Asian mythology and culture, compelling world-building and magic, and an entertaining cast of characters. Lim's finale strongly suggests there're more adventures for Shiori on the way, but she doesn't need to leave this one half-finished in order to make you want it immediately.

The Ones We're Meant to Find

Book Title: The Ones We're Meant to Find

Author: Joan He

Date Started: May 11th 2021

Date Completed: May 13th 2021

Genres: Sci-Fi, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I was so unexpectedly impressed by Descendant of the Crane when I got it from NetGalley a few years ago that I was so excited to see what Joan He put out next. And she’s provided a wonderful testament to her versatility by coming from a sprawling epic mystery set in historical China to a futuristic sci-if thriller with a deserted island, A.I. and humans with in-built technology monitoring them night and day.

The Ones We’re Meant to Find was very clever, well paced and meticulously structured. Like Descendant of the Crane, the story winds itself very deliberately and twists in several different directions as it progress that you wouldn’t expect at the start - and all perfectly convincingly.

It’s characters are grey and complex, explored in a thoughtful, well-planned way. This book, at its heart, is a character study that isn’t over-indulgent in the time it gives to expanding each character, but necessary to letting the story play out in a way that immerses the reader to fully understand the reality of what their choices mean in this world. He also doesn’t enforce complete sympathy; many individuals are deeply morally conflicted, and everyone acts in fear or spite at some point, and we as the audience are allowed to doubt them and their motives. Which makes choosing to root for them all the more personal.

My one reservation is that I was left feeling... strange. I admire the grey characters and open ends but it leaves me feeling strange. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it uprooted my expectations and assumptions in many ways, and challenged me to look at the situations differently - how many book actually leave you thinking when you put them down?

Sci-fi novels have never been my thing, but there was still a lot for me to enjoy in this book. I think Joan He is one of the most intelligent and imaginative young writers on offer at the moment, and I, again, can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Ninth House

Book Title: Ninth House

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Series: Alex Stern #1

Date Started: April 4th 2021

Date Completed: May 11th 2021

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

Ninth House ended up being more gothic-occult horror than mysterious detective adventure - what made me think it was going to be the latter I'm not sure, but it was a bit of change in direction at first. That's not any real problem with the book, but it definitely contributed to what made me move at a snail's pace (it took me more than a month to read this): it's just a bit more convoluted than it needs to be. While the voice of Jake Peralta kept saying 'cool motive, still murder' in my head throughout, it felt morphed a bit into 'cool story, still slow'.

There's a lot of information piled on you in the whole book, but especially at the start. I honestly still don't really understand the magic system and I couldn't name the different houses, let alone match what discipline is from which house, or what person is in what house; I just about got on top of the classical codenames by the end (Alex is Virgil right... right?). Ultimately, if you latch onto the brilliant cast of characters, nothing else matters too much, but I think it's worth saying that I'd hope later books in the series continue to make distinctions because I need a handbook.

I really like the themes Bardugo chooses, but they are slightly lost amongst the genre pieces in this. The classism and casual sexism, the gaslighting and prejudice against addicts, is interesting and nice to actually see tackled amongst fantasy, but it fades into the background when it isn't used as the main issue of the scene (where it knocks you over the head a bit).

Ultimately, Ninth House did not need to be anywhere near as long as it is. The last third was great and I blasted through the end of the story, but the first 200/300 pages was a lot of extra stuff that wasn't necessary for it. I will say that I'm a big fan of books that finish their own story arcs satisfyingly but leave questions unanswered and strings left untied so there's somewhere to go. Whether I'll read the next instalment, I'm still unsure. More because Ninth House just wasn't really my thing and it taking so long to get to the point made it less enjoyable for me.