The Priory of the Orange Tree

Book Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree

Author: Samantha Shannon

Series: The Roots of Chaos #1

Date Started: December 15th  2024

Date Completed: January 5th 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Action

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

King Arthur, Theseus and Gilgamesh eat your heart out, this is a great epic of women in par with Le Guin and Zimmer Bradley. There is no explanation why women stand at the prow of so many intrinsic roles, they simply do - how liberating it is to experience a story like that.

Unsurprisingly, the worldbuilding is marvellous. Drawing inspiration from our world and mixing it with a generous helping of fantasy creates an entirely absorbing universe brimming with politics and magic, culture and conflict. The build-up to the final battle is what makes the ending truly impressive - I haven't been transfixed by a climax like that for ages.

Did it need to be that long? No, of course it didn't. But I have to admit, I enjoyed almost every page. You've got to give credit to Shannon for fully realising such a complex story in only one novel rather than cashing in on a trilogy (as this could easily have been). While you definitely feel the 800+ pages, the momentum is so consistent that you're more than satisfied letting it take its time.

The Priory of the Orange Tree is a complex story, but thoughtful too. It never passes omnipotent judgment on its characters or their part in its events. So much of the narrative explores the diametrically opposed beliefs and motivations of the different regions and nations, all tangled up in each other's lives and trying to make peace with what they want within it. Shannon lets the reader learn and fall in love as they wish, victories and defeats washing over them like real life. If you weren't sure of Samantha Shannon's storytelling prowess before this book, there's no denying it now.

The Ersatz Elevator

Book Title: The Ersatz Elevator

Author: Lemony Snicket

Series: A Series of Unfortunate Events #6

Date Started: December 12th  2024

Date Completed: December 15th 2024

Genres: Adventure, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

A Series of Unfortunate Events were such classics in my childhood - everyone read them and loved them. I only got halfway through them (despite having the box set) because they started to get repetitive, but the Netflix adaptation has given me confidence that things get shaken up. So, as I continue my mission to finish the various incomplete series from my childhood and early teens, now is the time.

I really appreciate how fun and clever these stories are as an adult, as well as how fantastic it is to see children's protagonists celebrated as clever and brave and inventive - while the adults around them are largely unwilling to commit to facing the unfortunate events that befall the Baudelaire orphans. It's reminded me that most of my most beloved childhood books similarly celebrated kids who were clever and curious, who tried hard even when no one else would, and who knew that the relationships with those around them was the most precious thing they had. There should be more children's fiction that tackles dark and scary things like that.

Plot-wise, I vaguely remember all the mysteries from the Netflix series (though I'd have to look up V.F.D. again), but it's fun to see them in original form. I definitely feel like Lemony Snicket is partially to blame for the modern idea of click-baiting though. The bizarre elements - while still truly bizarre even now - do work impressively well with the quirks of the narrator. This was a very special type of series, and I'm looking forward to finishing it.

Thorn

Book Title: Thorn

Author: Intisar Khanani

Series: The Dauntless Path #1

Date Started: November 26th  2024

Date Completed: December 12th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I really enjoyed Thorn, though it did lose its momentum towards the end. Because I loved a lot of the creative choices, I've given it four stars but I would say the last section was probably three for me. With that being said, Khanani has put together a beautiful retelling of the Goose Girl fairy tale, and I adored the new elements and world-building she's added.

The complex morality is really the heart of the story, and its strength is clear. This book is about much more than just the exciting romantasy and tricksy politics, and it feels fresh because of it. Khanani went back to the heart of fairy tales that were always supposed to help their audiences cope with situations they felt powerless in. Thorn as a character goes through that cycle herself and the resolution really came out as a nuanced and meaningful finale.

Overall, I found this to be a fun story overall with some really moving set pieces. It felt well-balanced and grounded for a YA fantasy adventure - though I will say, for a book supposedly under 300 pages (I was reading an ARC so approximately), it felt significantly longer. I think there are more retellings in this world but in self-contained stories - which I love! I'm all for stand-alone novels that finish their stories, but continue to explore a promising story world with lots more to offer than a single book offers.

A Dance with Fate

Book Title: A Dance with Fate

Author: Juliet Marillier

Series: Warrior Bards #2

Date Started: November 23rd 2024

Date Completed: November 26th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Historical, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I was in the mood for a quick read that was fun and just the right amount of dramatic in between what's sort of a reading sprint to finish a ton of books before the end of the year - and Juliet Marillier delivered.

The Warrior Bards series didn't start off as one of my favourites of Marillier's but now that the characters are on their paths there's more time for actual plot rather than just herding people into their places. I always love Marillier's balance of mystery and adventure (and the light touch romance that's always embedded within strong friendships). Her books do tend to be pretty plot-driven but with the characters becoming a very recognisable cast, it stays rooted in something special. This series leans more into the fae sub-plots than her others, which sometimes feel unnecessarily squeezed in to keep something relevant for later down the line, but it does always weave back into the central story eventually.

I'm always impressed how somewhat similar events across all of Marillier's books always feel new and exciting. The importance of setting and place for her stories is one of my favourite things to experience each time - especially as the characters tend to move around a lot, it really delivers on the fantastical journey storytelling tradition that informs so much of the stories. Always familiar, but always with something new around the next corner.

Marigold Mind Laundry

Book Title: Marigold Mind Laundry

Author: Jungeun Yun

Date Started: November 19th 2024

Date Completed: November 23rd 2024

Genres: Contemporary, Magicial Realism

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I honestly found the Marigold Mind Laungry a bit disappointing. I made it 53% of the way through before deciding it just wasn't for me. The sprinklings of magical realism could've elevated the story beyond its domestic setting, and the cast of characters could have been structured to build towards a resolution for the burnout everyone was feeling, but it decided to keep its cards pretty isolated for each person.

It feels quite reminiscent of the sub-genre I've seen a lot in Japanese literature where bookstores/libraries solve everyone's Capitalist twenty-first-century fatigue with life, right down the cyclical short-story structure. These sorts of stories always feel repetitive to me, and vary a lot in how emotionally intertwined the cast of characters are. Such nuance is needed for these books to pay off for me, and it just didn't quite catch it anywhere.

The translation does feel quite awkward, so might be the source of the challenge. I speak some Korean and can tell this is a very faithful translation, but creative license is so important to transpose stories into another language, literally and in spirit.

Ten Thousand Stitches

Book Title: Ten Thousand Stitches

Author: Olivia Atwater

Series: Regency Faerie Tales  #2

Date Started: November 17th  2024

Date Completed: November 19th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I usually hate the 'X meets X' style taglines, but I have to say on this occasion that Bridgerton meets Howl's Moving Castle (original Dianna Wynne Jones version) is the perfect description for Olivia Atwater's book - just add a sprinkling of Cinderella and you know exactly what you're getting in for.

Ten Thousand Stitches was cute and fun, with enough of its own quirks to take seriously. Of course the logic of the class justice is half there for the commentary and half just to be convenient for the plot, but it works hard enough to characterise our heroine and ensemble to keep the suspension of disbelief. When you mix in a generous helping of faerie - and clearly a love of embroidery, which I massively enjoyed - it becomes really quite entertaining.

I do feel like the novel felt very short, more like a long fairy tale, which was a bit of a shame as you knew every beat before it really had a chance to happen. We move at such a pace through the whole story that suddenly it's over - and I could have happily read another 100 pages at least!

Nettle

Book Title: Nettle

Author: Bex Hogan

Date Started: November 16th 2024

Date Completed: November 17th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I'm on a bit of a readathon-style mission to review a bunch of NetGalley ARCs before the end of the year, and I'm pleasantly surprised to say it's made finding books like this one really enjoyable. Nettle took a couple of chapters for me to buy into the narration style, but once it got going I found it really fun.

This novel takes all those classic fragments of faerie stories and combines them into an exciting and alluring adventure. It does justice to those elements with the prose heightening everything to their full, magical potential, exploring the human side to being enchanted to dance forever, being tricked into eating faerie food, and finding the loopholes to solve impossible tasks.

While I spotted the twist right from the beginning (it's not particularly subtle), the way the plot threads were tied up was massively satisfying even if you've seen it coming for 200 pages. I would call this a children's book above YA honestly, and I would've adored it as a pre-teen as an introduction to this sub-genre.