Kait
I may have gone into this with too-high expectations, because everything I’ve heard about this book has been people raving about how great it is, but I thought this was just okay.
The magic system is certainly unique, but the fact that we’re told that infected are all killed and there’s none around, and we meet three of them in this book before it’s halfway over makes it seem a little dramatic. I wish we got more information. Where are these cards from? Why are they scattered around? Degeneration also seemed pretty inconsistent. Why isn’t Ravyn degenerating so much? He says he can’t use the cards, but that doesn’t seem equivalent to what Elspeth or Emery went through.
I find that the biggest flaw with this book is that it’s underdeveloped. The world seems thought-through, developed, and intricate, but actually all that we know is that there’s a wood and mist, which is readily available information in the summary. How big is the wood? What’s in it besides the mist? Getting away from the wood, what does the town look like? I didn’t really have a picture, except maybe a vague British medieval town, but the name “Ravyn” kind of ruins that idea. Also, how big is this place? It seems like the only place around, but it can’t be. There are so many families there have to be other villages nearby. The book is fine as it is, if a little empty-feeling, but it could’ve been really immersive and interesting if a little more effort was put in. Also, for a world that has an illness that apparently grants people magical power and probably leads to them getting killed, why is there no name for this besides "the infection"? This started to feel silly the longer it went on. Gillig really should've slapped some kind of name onto this.
I didn’t really like Ravyn. I thought I would, at first, because he had an outside motivation–saving his brother–and was being tricky and manipulative. I didn’t think his magic ability made a lot of sense. He had a line that was like “don’t trust me, I’m dangerous” and I found it to be really cringey. Characters should never say this unless they’re going through some kind of manic episode or trying to scare someone else. Played straight this is a weird thing to say for almost any reason. I wanted to see more of him being a brother and a leader on page, as a love interest I really wasn’t that interested in him.
Elspeth was okay as a protagonist. She wasn’t useless or stupid, but I did feel that she didn’t do much to propel the plot. I think Gillig tends to write more plot-centered stories than character-focused ones, but she’s deceptive about it because her characters deliberate and plot and talk so much that it seems character focused.
There were a lot of characters there in the background, and honestly now that I've finished the book I'd be hard-pressed to tell you much about almost any of them. They were there to either help a little or be antagonistic. I didn't really feel like I got to know anything about them. I don't even think Ravyn or Elspeth really evolved as people during the story at all. They started out with certain goals and needs and at the end of the book they have really the same goals and needs, just more intensely. (I guess Elspeth did evolve as a person but in a way more literal sense than I would've hoped for.)
There was kind of a lot going on in this book. I thought at first that this was going to be a court intrigue/heist plot, but that only lasted for a short while and then it became about Elspeth continually getting herself out of trouble with the monster. This did make the whole theft plot feel a little unsatisfying and rushed. All this stuff together left me feeling like nothing really got its due payoff, we just closed one little plot loop and moved right o to the next thing.
I do think Gillig did a good job building tension. The scene where Elspeth was in the woods hiding, holding a hand over her mouth to keep quiet was really interesting. I actually really liked that whole sequence, with Jespyr in danger and the monster taking over. I did think that the subsequent scenes where she asks the monster for help felt kind of repetitive. I was really kind of let down that the monster Elspeth had been talking to was the Shepherd King. I thought maybe it would be a person who was forced to go into the mist. I also feel like I don’t really understand the consequences of this. I guess he’ll come back, but there has been a bunch of spooky shit happening already so what is his return really going to predicate? (Other than Elspeth getting body snatched or whatever, but I mean what does it mean for the universe.)
I think the end dragged a bit. I didn’t feel any tension at the end because I think once we got to the point that Elspeth’s body was being taken over, it was pretty apparent what was going to happen. I don't even find myself that invested in the solution to all these problems, because I'm sure they'll figure it out.
Overall I wasn’t that impressed with the book, but I will continue. I put the next book on hold on libby and it’s a super long wait so I’ll read it at some point. I’m fine with a wait, I’m not really chomping at the bit to get to the next one. I am a little perplexed about what everyone else really loved about this book, because it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever read but I think it was run-of-the-mill quality, with a unique magic-system and world that I don’t find myself appreciating much because it’s not done with enough care, and with below average attention to theming. As a debut book, this is pretty good, and I already see evidence with The Knight and the Moth that Gillig has improved her skills. 3 stars, and I feel like I’m rounding up a little bit.
I may have gone into this with too-high expectations, because everything I’ve heard about this book has been people raving about how great it is, but I thought this was just okay.
The magic system is certainly unique, but the fact that we’re told that infected are all killed and there’s none around, and we meet three of them in this book before it’s halfway over makes it seem a little dramatic. I wish we got more information. Where are these cards from? Why are they scattered around? Degeneration also seemed pretty inconsistent. Why isn’t Ravyn degenerating so much? He says he can’t use the cards, but that doesn’t seem equivalent to what Elspeth or Emery went through.
I find that the biggest flaw with this book is that it’s underdeveloped. The world seems thought-through, developed, and intricate, but actually all that we know is that there’s a wood and mist, which is readily available information in the summary. How big is the wood? What’s in it besides the mist? Getting away from the wood, what does the town look like? I didn’t really have a picture, except maybe a vague British medieval town, but the name “Ravyn” kind of ruins that idea. Also, how big is this place? It seems like the only place around, but it can’t be. There are so many families there have to be other villages nearby. The book is fine as it is, if a little empty-feeling, but it could’ve been really immersive and interesting if a little more effort was put in. Also, for a world that has an illness that apparently grants people magical power and probably leads to them getting killed, why is there no name for this besides "the infection"? This started to feel silly the longer it went on. Gillig really should've slapped some kind of name onto this.
I didn’t really like Ravyn. I thought I would, at first, because he had an outside motivation–saving his brother–and was being tricky and manipulative. I didn’t think his magic ability made a lot of sense. He had a line that was like “don’t trust me, I’m dangerous” and I found it to be really cringey. Characters should never say this unless they’re going through some kind of manic episode or trying to scare someone else. Played straight this is a weird thing to say for almost any reason. I wanted to see more of him being a brother and a leader on page, as a love interest I really wasn’t that interested in him.
Elspeth was okay as a protagonist. She wasn’t useless or stupid, but I did feel that she didn’t do much to propel the plot. I think Gillig tends to write more plot-centered stories than character-focused ones, but she’s deceptive about it because her characters deliberate and plot and talk so much that it seems character focused.
There were a lot of characters there in the background, and honestly now that I've finished the book I'd be hard-pressed to tell you much about almost any of them. They were there to either help a little or be antagonistic. I didn't really feel like I got to know anything about them. I don't even think Ravyn or Elspeth really evolved as people during the story at all. They started out with certain goals and needs and at the end of the book they have really the same goals and needs, just more intensely. (I guess Elspeth did evolve as a person but in a way more literal sense than I would've hoped for.)
There was kind of a lot going on in this book. I thought at first that this was going to be a court intrigue/heist plot, but that only lasted for a short while and then it became about Elspeth continually getting herself out of trouble with the monster. This did make the whole theft plot feel a little unsatisfying and rushed. All this stuff together left me feeling like nothing really got its due payoff, we just closed one little plot loop and moved right o to the next thing.
I do think Gillig did a good job building tension. The scene where Elspeth was in the woods hiding, holding a hand over her mouth to keep quiet was really interesting. I actually really liked that whole sequence, with Jespyr in danger and the monster taking over. I did think that the subsequent scenes where she asks the monster for help felt kind of repetitive. I was really kind of let down that the monster Elspeth had been talking to was the Shepherd King. I thought maybe it would be a person who was forced to go into the mist. I also feel like I don’t really understand the consequences of this. I guess he’ll come back, but there has been a bunch of spooky shit happening already so what is his return really going to predicate? (Other than Elspeth getting body snatched or whatever, but I mean what does it mean for the universe.)
I think the end dragged a bit. I didn’t feel any tension at the end because I think once we got to the point that Elspeth’s body was being taken over, it was pretty apparent what was going to happen. I don't even find myself that invested in the solution to all these problems, because I'm sure they'll figure it out.
Overall I wasn’t that impressed with the book, but I will continue. I put the next book on hold on libby and it’s a super long wait so I’ll read it at some point. I’m fine with a wait, I’m not really chomping at the bit to get to the next one. I am a little perplexed about what everyone else really loved about this book, because it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever read but I think it was run-of-the-mill quality, with a unique magic-system and world that I don’t find myself appreciating much because it’s not done with enough care, and with below average attention to theming. As a debut book, this is pretty good, and I already see evidence with The Knight and the Moth that Gillig has improved her skills. 3 stars, and I feel like I’m rounding up a little bit.