Katherine
This one was interesting. I quite liked the premise of the book- there are lots of plot points and world choices that make the story intriguing, especially in the middle to latter half of the book. But, unfortunately, the book is majorly hindered by some very clunky writing at times. Especially at the beginning of the book, there is a lot of repetition between the 3 POVs to establish worldbuilding or to get certain characters up to speed with what’s going on. It also told me lots of things that I likely could’ve figured out with subtext, or I would’ve liked to figure out the connection between these plot threads myself, instead of being informed in two back to back chapters.
Sometimes the characters come to a conclusion that is completely correct in the story, but I have NO idea how they got there. The assumption seems to come out of nowhere. Lastly, sometimes it’s a little hard to follow if something happened to a character. There’s a particularly egregious example at the end of the book, where a character is injured, then seems to not be injured without an explanation. I do not know if these issues are present in the original text or are an artifact of the translation- the prose in English is simple and not varied in word choice or sentence structure which adds to my suspicion that part of the issue may be translation.
The majority of these problems occur at the beginning of the book. It struggles to set up its world without a lot of repetition, as each character has to “learn”. Once it gets past the rough start, I quite liked the story. It has more complexity to it than I expected from the beginning of the book, which was genuinely surprising to read. It’s still a *relatively* straightforward plot, but there are details that made it so much more interesting. The world is pretty generic at first, but there are again some aspects that are very different from things I’ve seen before. The characters are all written very differently, to the point that I could likely tell what POV it is with names removed. However, the characters are also a bit flat, without a TON of development, and at times felt like the luckiest people in the world (one of them especially). There are some FASCINATING scenes involving the magic in the world and that really hooked me once the plot got moving.
I was tempted to give this 4 stars because of the marked improvement once the worldbuilding and getting everyone up to speed was out of the way. Unfortunately, that last really egregious (to me) error in continuity at the very end knocked it back down. If I have to go back and reread because I’m really confused about something, ESPECIALLY if I have to do so multiple times and still can’t find an answer, that’s extremely frustrating.
Overall, I liked it. It starts off generic, but it moves into its own thing fairly quickly, has interesting plot beats once it gets into the actual story, and an interesting world.
This one was interesting. I quite liked the premise of the book- there are lots of plot points and world choices that make the story intriguing, especially in the middle to latter half of the book. But, unfortunately, the book is majorly hindered by some very clunky writing at times. Especially at the beginning of the book, there is a lot of repetition between the 3 POVs to establish worldbuilding or to get certain characters up to speed with what’s going on. It also told me lots of things that I likely could’ve figured out with subtext, or I would’ve liked to figure out the connection between these plot threads myself, instead of being informed in two back to back chapters.
Sometimes the characters come to a conclusion that is completely correct in the story, but I have NO idea how they got there. The assumption seems to come out of nowhere. Lastly, sometimes it’s a little hard to follow if something happened to a character. There’s a particularly egregious example at the end of the book, where a character is injured, then seems to not be injured without an explanation. I do not know if these issues are present in the original text or are an artifact of the translation- the prose in English is simple and not varied in word choice or sentence structure which adds to my suspicion that part of the issue may be translation.
The majority of these problems occur at the beginning of the book. It struggles to set up its world without a lot of repetition, as each character has to “learn”. Once it gets past the rough start, I quite liked the story. It has more complexity to it than I expected from the beginning of the book, which was genuinely surprising to read. It’s still a *relatively* straightforward plot, but there are details that made it so much more interesting. The world is pretty generic at first, but there are again some aspects that are very different from things I’ve seen before. The characters are all written very differently, to the point that I could likely tell what POV it is with names removed. However, the characters are also a bit flat, without a TON of development, and at times felt like the luckiest people in the world (one of them especially). There are some FASCINATING scenes involving the magic in the world and that really hooked me once the plot got moving.
I was tempted to give this 4 stars because of the marked improvement once the worldbuilding and getting everyone up to speed was out of the way. Unfortunately, that last really egregious (to me) error in continuity at the very end knocked it back down. If I have to go back and reread because I’m really confused about something, ESPECIALLY if I have to do so multiple times and still can’t find an answer, that’s extremely frustrating.
Overall, I liked it. It starts off generic, but it moves into its own thing fairly quickly, has interesting plot beats once it gets into the actual story, and an interesting world.
I’ll start with stating very bluntly that this IS a horror book, and there are MANY scenes that are extremely creepy, gross, or both at the same time. There are many threats of SA, and mention of it happening, so be warned. The book is brutal with its descriptions- I am not a person that normally reacts that much to horror in books, but this one was very effective. I would be remiss to not mention that this IS a book based on the Biblical book of Revelations- Christian religion is the basis of the plot and subplots of the story.
Now that you’ve been forewarned, I need to talk about how good this book is. I never in a million years thought a book advertised as “medieval horror” would end up with me staying up late and sobbing for the last few chapters, but it did. It’s so much more than “just” a horror book. The journey our protagonists go on is long, awful, and difficult both spiritually and physically. By the end, they really couldn’t have gone through much more. The bonds they share with one another keep them going and are so, so well done. You’re invested in their journey, going through ups and downs with them, with the darkest moments often bookended by lighter, more humorous events. These breaks between the horrors let you get to really know the knight, the priest, and the girl- and it really makes the book special.
I can’t believe this book was only self-published until it’s recently been picked up by Tor Nightfire. It deserves so much more recognition than it gets. If you can stomach the horrors these characters endure, I highly recommend reading this. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a WHILE- truly a hidden gem.
I’ll start with stating very bluntly that this IS a horror book, and there are MANY scenes that are extremely creepy, gross, or both at the same time. There are many threats of SA, and mention of it happening, so be warned. The book is brutal with its descriptions- I am not a person that normally reacts that much to horror in books, but this one was very effective. I would be remiss to not mention that this IS a book based on the Biblical book of Revelations- Christian religion is the basis of the plot and subplots of the story.
Now that you’ve been forewarned, I need to talk about how good this book is. I never in a million years thought a book advertised as “medieval horror” would end up with me staying up late and sobbing for the last few chapters, but it did. It’s so much more than “just” a horror book. The journey our protagonists go on is long, awful, and difficult both spiritually and physically. By the end, they really couldn’t have gone through much more. The bonds they share with one another keep them going and are so, so well done. You’re invested in their journey, going through ups and downs with them, with the darkest moments often bookended by lighter, more humorous events. These breaks between the horrors let you get to really know the knight, the priest, and the girl- and it really makes the book special.
I can’t believe this book was only self-published until it’s recently been picked up by Tor Nightfire. It deserves so much more recognition than it gets. If you can stomach the horrors these characters endure, I highly recommend reading this. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a WHILE- truly a hidden gem.
