Adam Shields
Summary: A continued exploration of coming to find out that everything you thought you know is wrong.
I have been looking forward to reading To Clutch a Razor since this spring when I read the first book of the series. I jumped at a chance to get an advance copy of the audiobook through Netgalley. While I have read Dresden Files and a few other urban fantasy books, this is not really my genre. But the themes of family curses and generational trauma and responsibility for repair are really what draw me to the book.
Dymitr is a knight of an old order centered on killing monsters. His family is the center of the leadership of the Polish arm of the order. Dymitr is different because while he has killed and he is highly capable, from a young age he thought that what they were doing was wrong. The last book he attempted to put a stop to his role, but through the work of others, he was given a new task.
This is a book that is basically impossible to discuss without spoilers. From here on out, there are spoilers. If you have not read the first book, then stop reading here. This is the link to the post about the first book, which also has marked spoilers. But you need to read that post and book first.
When Dymitr became a knight the process splits his soul and his body and his spine becomes a bone sword that he literally has to rip out of his body each time he uses it. It is a painful process but as is discussed more in this book, the Knigth's magic is rooted in pain and it is a perfect symbol of what it means to be a knight. When Baba Jaga agrees to change him to break the curse against his friend Ala, she takes his sword in payment. The sword is the physical manifestation of half of his soul and it creates a longing that, if he can't win it back, will eventually cause him to go mad. Baba Jaga places a series of tasks on him to get the sword back and those tasks start with killing his own grandmother, the head of his order.
Ala has taken Dymitr in because he saved her. She has nursed him back to health and given him a place to stay, and along the way she has taught him how to be "a monster" since he is no longer human as a result of the magic. But he is also still a knight. There is a real tension between them because as much as Dymitr has shown his desire to change, he did kill her cousin in his past. Her family was cursed because of his grandmother. His work to break the curse against her, as much as it cost him, does not fully overcome the reality that she still suffers memories of the curse.
This is a straight forward book and while a bit longer than the first, it still more long novella than full length novel. The main story follows Dymitr and Ala going to his home to try to figure out how to get his bone sword back without killing anyone. Dymitr has changed, not just physically (he is no longer human), but he also sees more about the reality of his family. There is both shame and horror at how he participated in the the mistreatment of others and how much he didn't see before.
This is a book that has more violence than I really wanted. That is often present in urban fantasy, but I still don't really want that much violence, even as I liked the book as a whole. There is a romance element to the story. Dymitr and Niko have an attraction. But neither of them is quite willing to give into the attraction. So at this point in the series, there is little more to it than longing and a couple of kisses.
Veronica Roth is exploring Polish folk tales in these books. I don't have enough familiarity to know how much is based on older stories and how much is new. These two books are definitely in the adult oriented fantasy and not the YA fantasy bucket. Not the books are inappropriate to older teens, but that the themes are just of interest to people who are older. YA is often coming of age stories of some sort. But this series is more world weary grappling with our own complicity in wrong. There is also light gay romance and very real violence. But that isn't something that would be inappropriate in more YA focused books if the themes were different. Roth is mostly known for her Divergent series and that is more YA. So the reader should not assume that just because she is the author that the books will also be YA.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/to-clutch-a-razor-by-veronica-roth-curse-bearer-2/
Originally posted at bookwi.se.
Summary: A continued exploration of coming to find out that everything you thought you know is wrong.
I have been looking forward to reading To Clutch a Razor since this spring when I read the first book of the series. I jumped at a chance to get an advance copy of the audiobook through Netgalley. While I have read Dresden Files and a few other urban fantasy books, this is not really my genre. But the themes of family curses and generational trauma and responsibility for repair are really what draw me to the book.
Dymitr is a knight of an old order centered on killing monsters. His family is the center of the leadership of the Polish arm of the order. Dymitr is different because while he has killed and he is highly capable, from a young age he thought that what they were doing was wrong. The last book he attempted to put a stop to his role, but through the work of others, he was given a new task.
This is a book that is basically impossible to discuss without spoilers. From here on out, there are spoilers. If you have not read the first book, then stop reading here. This is the link to the post about the first book, which also has marked spoilers. But you need to read that post and book first.
When Dymitr became a knight the process splits his soul and his body and his spine becomes a bone sword that he literally has to rip out of his body each time he uses it. It is a painful process but as is discussed more in this book, the Knigth's magic is rooted in pain and it is a perfect symbol of what it means to be a knight. When Baba Jaga agrees to change him to break the curse against his friend Ala, she takes his sword in payment. The sword is the physical manifestation of half of his soul and it creates a longing that, if he can't win it back, will eventually cause him to go mad. Baba Jaga places a series of tasks on him to get the sword back and those tasks start with killing his own grandmother, the head of his order.
Ala has taken Dymitr in because he saved her. She has nursed him back to health and given him a place to stay, and along the way she has taught him how to be "a monster" since he is no longer human as a result of the magic. But he is also still a knight. There is a real tension between them because as much as Dymitr has shown his desire to change, he did kill her cousin in his past. Her family was cursed because of his grandmother. His work to break the curse against her, as much as it cost him, does not fully overcome the reality that she still suffers memories of the curse.
This is a straight forward book and while a bit longer than the first, it still more long novella than full length novel. The main story follows Dymitr and Ala going to his home to try to figure out how to get his bone sword back without killing anyone. Dymitr has changed, not just physically (he is no longer human), but he also sees more about the reality of his family. There is both shame and horror at how he participated in the the mistreatment of others and how much he didn't see before.
This is a book that has more violence than I really wanted. That is often present in urban fantasy, but I still don't really want that much violence, even as I liked the book as a whole. There is a romance element to the story. Dymitr and Niko have an attraction. But neither of them is quite willing to give into the attraction. So at this point in the series, there is little more to it than longing and a couple of kisses.
Veronica Roth is exploring Polish folk tales in these books. I don't have enough familiarity to know how much is based on older stories and how much is new. These two books are definitely in the adult oriented fantasy and not the YA fantasy bucket. Not the books are inappropriate to older teens, but that the themes are just of interest to people who are older. YA is often coming of age stories of some sort. But this series is more world weary grappling with our own complicity in wrong. There is also light gay romance and very real violence. But that isn't something that would be inappropriate in more YA focused books if the themes were different. Roth is mostly known for her Divergent series and that is more YA. So the reader should not assume that just because she is the author that the books will also be YA.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/to-clutch-a-razor-by-veronica-roth-curse-bearer-2/
Originally posted at bookwi.se.