Lauren
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow explores the story of a scholar and reluctant war Veteran, Owen Mallory, and a prolific knight, Sir Una Everlasting as they become bound to revive the same story time and time again to allegedly secure a better, healthier future for their country.
“I will wait for you. Beneath the yew.”
Honestly, it’s so rude to start the year with a five star read. I have no notes. Over the last two years, Harrow as secured a spot as one of my favorite authors and I think this might be her best work yet (though, if this book didn’t work for you I highly suggest her novella that inspired this book, The Six Deaths of the Saint).
This book is slow moving, and therefore are events you will see more than once, but while the plot is obviously important, it’s not really what the book is about. It’s about personhood and free will. It discusses the role of women and womanhood through history and how even when women were able to find successes and power, they had to be painted to fit a certain expectation and risked losing it all with every second. It looks at how people edit history to fit their own agendas and how the strong will always grapple for more strength and power, even when they’ve gained more than their fair share. It looks at how we treat the people we love and the way people can end up hurting those very things for fear of losing them. Surprisingly, it also explores the role of parents and what parents do for their children, what makes someone a parent (including what makes them a good or bad parent). It looks at how children react to their parents within the context of their own knowledge and experiences.
Not only are the messages of this book subtle and well done, but the yearning was incredible. If you’re hoping for a quick romance, this isn’t it, but if you can have patience it’s a beautiful and heartbreaking story.
The writing itself is wonderful. Harrow does a great job at making her writing flow and have the feeling of being flower without ever feeling bogged down or tiring.
I feel conflicted when it comes to the best way to read this book. I really liked the audiobook narration. The narrators were pretty good, but the story is really and back and forth conversation, so having the different voices was nice. However, without spoiling anything, around the mid-point of the book a cipher is mentioned. At the end of the book if you can see the text, the cipher is usable and it was a fun (though unnecessary) added detail that you wouldn’t know about and couldn’t solve if you didn’t have the text in front of you.
Something else to note is there some graphic depictions of sexual acts. They’re skippable if that’s something you don’t want to read, and aren’t present throughout most of the story. I will say, as someone who can take it or leave it, they were well done and added to the relationship, especially considering how sparsely they were used.
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow explores the story of a scholar and reluctant war Veteran, Owen Mallory, and a prolific knight, Sir Una Everlasting as they become bound to revive the same story time and time again to allegedly secure a better, healthier future for their country.
“I will wait for you. Beneath the yew.”
Honestly, it’s so rude to start the year with a five star read. I have no notes. Over the last two years, Harrow as secured a spot as one of my favorite authors and I think this might be her best work yet (though, if this book didn’t work for you I highly suggest her novella that inspired this book, The Six Deaths of the Saint).
This book is slow moving, and therefore are events you will see more than once, but while the plot is obviously important, it’s not really what the book is about. It’s about personhood and free will. It discusses the role of women and womanhood through history and how even when women were able to find successes and power, they had to be painted to fit a certain expectation and risked losing it all with every second. It looks at how people edit history to fit their own agendas and how the strong will always grapple for more strength and power, even when they’ve gained more than their fair share. It looks at how we treat the people we love and the way people can end up hurting those very things for fear of losing them. Surprisingly, it also explores the role of parents and what parents do for their children, what makes someone a parent (including what makes them a good or bad parent). It looks at how children react to their parents within the context of their own knowledge and experiences.
Not only are the messages of this book subtle and well done, but the yearning was incredible. If you’re hoping for a quick romance, this isn’t it, but if you can have patience it’s a beautiful and heartbreaking story.
The writing itself is wonderful. Harrow does a great job at making her writing flow and have the feeling of being flower without ever feeling bogged down or tiring.
I feel conflicted when it comes to the best way to read this book. I really liked the audiobook narration. The narrators were pretty good, but the story is really and back and forth conversation, so having the different voices was nice. However, without spoiling anything, around the mid-point of the book a cipher is mentioned. At the end of the book if you can see the text, the cipher is usable and it was a fun (though unnecessary) added detail that you wouldn’t know about and couldn’t solve if you didn’t have the text in front of you.
Something else to note is there some graphic depictions of sexual acts. They’re skippable if that’s something you don’t want to read, and aren’t present throughout most of the story. I will say, as someone who can take it or leave it, they were well done and added to the relationship, especially considering how sparsely they were used.