I bought this book at a going-out-of-business sale at a used bookstore, which is sad thing #1, and then the book itself was sad thing #2. It is TERRIBLE. It’s one of those urban fantasy series that are all the rage, and it has a nonsensical plot, unlikeable and derivative characters, and the dreadful writing. I had to put it down in December so I could finish it in January, just so I could tell y’all about it. Zoe is a wraith: she can astrally […]
Twas the night before Hogswatch
It’s the night before Hogswatch and the Hogfather is missing. Without him delivering presents the little children will lose their belief and without it the sun will not come up. This calls for the intervention of one man – Death (well… one anthropomorphic personification anyway) – to masquerade as the Hogfather and help restore faith that the light will return. Yes, it’s a Discworld novel, buried midway through the series and featuring everybody’s favourite Grim Reaper. We’re also reunited with his grand-daughter Susan (currently acting […]
I liked this??????
I was already poised to like this book, past feelings about Sarah J. Maas aside. It’s a Beauty and the Beast/Ballad of Tam Lin hybrid retelling, and unless you make some sort of grave mistake, you’ve already got the outline of the story ready to go (tried and true over hundreds of years and variations), and it’s pretty hard to mess that up. And she doesn’t! I thought the story worked well as a combo B&B/Tam-Lin/original elements mish-mash. The first half is mostly Beauty and the […]
If you love fairy tales
I’ve always enjoyed fairy tales and became a bit obsessed once I discovered the darker original Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson collections. This book evokes those tales but the stories have been spun in different and interesting directions, in part because it was created as a volume of fairy tales that the characters in the Grishaverse (the world setting Leigh Bardugo created) would know. In 2012 Leigh’s publisher asked if she would write a prequel story for her first novel Shadow and Bone. But instead […]