A Deadly Education (Naomi Novik)

The Scholomance is a school for the magically gifted. There are no teachers, no holidays. You graduate by surviving until your final year, battling monsters, your classmates, and the school itself. El is determined to make it through alive without allies, all without calling on the destructive dark power within her that could kill everyone around her. But then the school hero, Orion, saves her life, disrupting the carefully maintained balance of her life…

I was looking forward to Naomi Novik’s new book so much, and am happy to say that it has surpassed my highest expectations. This book is absolutely brilliant: funny, fast-paced, with a unique and interesting concept at its very heart.

El is a fabulous main character: snarky and sarcastic, she maintains an iron facade of wanting to be left alone (spoiler alert: it starts to crack), and following her story through this book is absolutely wonderful. She is multi-faceted and incredibly likeable, and I found myself rooting for her so much.

I am completely in love with the world this book is set in. Naomi Novik manages to describe the magic system and the school itself in such a perfect way that it feels real–everything is completely believable, most characters are given brilliant backstories that never interrupt the flow of the story itself. I cannot wait to find out how El’s story continues!!

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V.E. Schwab)

France, 1714. In a moment of desperation, Addie LaRue makes a deal with the devil so she will live forever. The price: She will be forgotten by everyone she meets, unable to leave even the smallest mark on the world. Until, almost 300 years later, she meets a young man in a bookstore. And he remembers her.

This book touched my heart in ways that I truly did not expect. It is a gorgeously written story that flows along like a smooth river, the language effortlessly beautiful and the pace completely perfect. Jumping between 300 years of Addies life and the present, and told from both hers and Henry’s perspective, the narrative never falters. This book is almost impossible to put down!

The Seventh Perfection (Daniel Polanski)

A woman with a perfect memory. A series of conversations. A mystery at the heart of an ancient city, that could bring the central Spire and the God King on its top crumbling down. Manet remembers everything that happens to her, ever since she has achieved the seventh perfection–perfect memory. As she tries to unravel the true story of the God King’s ascent, she finds out more and more hidden secrets about her past, secrets that could drive her mad…

All the Stars and Teeth (Adalyn Grace)

Amora Montara is the heir to Visidian throne, training to become the High Animancer — the master of souls. Only her family can wield the dangerous and powerful soul magic. When a demonstration of her power goes horribly wrong, Amora is forced to flee. With the help of her fiancée and a handsome but shady pirate she embarks on a journey to prove herself. But with time she discovers that dark forces are at work in her kingdom, and it will take all the power she has to defeat them.

Burning Roses (S.L.Huang)

This gorgeously written sapphic novella re-imagines the well-loved fairy tales we all know. And just look at that absolutely beautiful cover!!

Rosa has left her Red Hood and gun behind, promising to never kill again. But when sunbirds start ravaging the countryside she has to team up with the Archer Hou Yi to save the people of her land. But shadows from their past haunt both women, and it soon becomes clear that they will have to confront them if they mean to complete their mission…

Over the Woodward Wall (A. Deborah Baker)

Orderly, reliable Avery and carefree, unpredictable Zib are two children living in the same town, but they have never met. Until they find an impossible wall on their way to school, and climb it to find the Up-And-Under, where owls can talk and roads appear from nowhere, and you can always expect the least unlikely thing to happen. Thrown into an unwanted adventure, Avery and Zib team up with a girl who is also a murder of crows and a drowned girl trying to get back to her home, and find themselves pulled deeper and deeper into the fate of the Up-And-Under itself…

This is such a beautifully written book!! Almost reminiscent of a fairy-tale, deeper meanings are hiding behind the characters’ words, without the moral jumping straight off the page. The language used is so beautiful, and the descriptions are so vivid that you start to see the Up-And-Under clearly in your mind. The plot flows along gently and perfectly paced, the atmosphere of the story reminding me a lot of the WIZARD OF OZ, and not only because of the (although not yellow) brick road the children are following. The writing makes this book feel like an old classic, or a book that you loved as a child and are re-reading now.

The characters were absolutely wonderful. Avery and Zib are complete opposites in so many ways, and struggle a lot with putting themselves in the other’s shoes in the beginning, convinced that their opinion is the right one. But over the course of the book, they start to realize that they will only get out of this if they work together, and start to fully appreciate each other.

All in all, I can definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a magical, fairy-tale-esque adventure story set in a brilliantly written world, with interesting characters and sentences that you’ll want to quote immediately!

I received an earc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn (Melissa Bashardoust)

Girl, Serpent, Thorn asks: What if? in a lot of different ways. 
What if the girl is the monster?
What if accepting yourself is more important than slaying the bad guy?
What if the enemy isn’t the enemy? But what if he should be?

Soraya is poison: everyone who touches her bare skin will die. Hidden away by her family, she lives in the palace’s shadows as her twin brother and her mother rule the kingdom, scared of her own power. But when she meets Azad, a royal soldier, he is not afraid of her–he admires her strength, and makes her see herself in a different light. Together, they search for a way to lift Soraya’s curse, But when that search leads to horrifying consequences, Soraya needs to decide what she wants–and where her loyalties lie.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn is such an interesting book! It completely flips your expectations upside down, looks at YA and fantasy clicheès and asks: what would happen if we did the exact opposite?
Initially, the plot feels familiar, almost Sleeping-Beauty-like: “Who could learn to love a beast?” But as the plot moves on, the focus shifts from Soraya’s search of approval from others, and towards her own acceptance of herself. It was such a fantastic plot point, and such a great spin on the familiar story. I could talk about the finer plot points for a long time, but as this book is full of twists and turns, it is very hard to talk about them without spoiling some of the plot twists. So I will just say: This book almost never does what you expect it to, and manages to catch you by surprise a lot!

I really liked the characters in this book: all of them many-layered and three-dimensional, and develop so much over the course of the book! Especially Soraya had such an interesting character ark, and I really felt along with her, wanting her to succeed!

This book is perfect for fans of Wicked Saints or A Curse So Dark and Lonely, or for anyone who would like to see a different spin on the traditional fantasy and fairy tale tropes!

Thank you to netgalley for the earc! 

Drowned Country (Emily Tesh)

When I first picked up Emily Tesh’s SILVER IN THE WOODS I did not expect it to blow me away like it did. I fell completely in love with her writing, with the beautifully crafted lore and the hesitant and gentle relationship between Silver and Tobias. When I heard that there was going to be a sequel I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t wait to return to the world of the Hallow Wood.

In contrast to SILVER IN THE WOODS, DROWNED COUNTRY is told from Silver’s perspective. He struggles with the responsibilities of his new life, as the house and grounds are swallowed by the Wood. Meanwhile, Tobias has moved to a small seaside town to work for Mrs Silver. Tobias and SIlver haven’t spoken for two years, but then a century-old vampire kidnaps a young woman. And suddenly Mrs Silver and Tobias need someone to play bait for their trap…

I would not have thought it possible, but I loved this book even MORE than the first one. Silver is such a wonderful narrator, and the narrative voice is full of the endearing, flutter-brained aloofness that we got second-hand in the first book. Emily Tesh’s descriptions remain absolutely stunning as we move away from Greenhollow to Rothport, and the drowned forest beyond the shore. This book manages to not only capture the perfect feeling and atmosphere of the first book, but at the same time manages to be something completely different and new. A perfect second book in this duology!

Thank you to Tor and Netgalley for the earc of this book! 

 

Burn (Patrick Ness)

Patrick Ness is one of my favourite authors.

Every single time he publishes a book, I enter with the highest expectations, and every single time he does not only manage to write something completely original and different, but completely surpass my expectations, too. If you’ve enjoyed Patrick Ness’s previous books, I would recommend you stop reading this review right now and just buy the book, because I can guarantee that you’ll love this one too.

If you need further convincing, keep reading:

The year is 1957. In a world where dragons peacefully coexist with humans, Sarah Dewhurst lives on a farm in a small, backwater town with her father, facing harassment from the town’s deputy due to the colour of her skin. When her father hires a dragon to help work their farm Sarah expects trouble, but she does not expect the dragon to have a secret own agenda for being at that precise spot. Meanwhile, a teenage assassin leaves the Canadian dragon wastes to travel south, heading for Sarah Dewhurst’s little farm…

I have to admit, it took me a little while to get into this book. The world, while very well introduced and described, just didn’t catch my interest immediately, The grim, cold, cold-war winter of 1957 just didn’t feel very inviting, which, I suppose, isn’t a big surprise in retrospect. Another thing that threw me off initially were the multiple viewpoints that change quite frequently and felt a little overwhelming in the beginning. But after a couple of chapters I started to feel comfortable in the story, and it was a steady increase from there.

From the beginning, there is such a fantastic rise in tension, conflict growing and growing until you keep flipping the pages frantically, needing to know what happens next. The plot is incredible, and has a couple of plot-twists and reveals that had me sitting in front of the book with my mouth open (think “More Than This”). Even though the perspectives in this book change so frequently you root for every single character, and all of them are so well-written, complex and understandable. The writing is, of course, absolutely fantastic, and the book finishes with a wonderful, hopeful message.

Every single time I enter a new Patrick Ness book with such high expectations, setting myself up for disappointment, and every time he surpasses them again. I absolutely loved this book!

Truthwitch (Susan Dennard)

I haven’t been this excited about a new series in AGES! I’ve started this book with high expectations (mostly because Robin Hobb said she loves it), and without knowing what it is about. As it is often with new fantasy series, I was struggling the first couple of chapters, trying to get a feeling for the world and remembering the characters’ names and connections, but as soon as I was in the story  I was completely blown away!