Category: reviews

Uprooted

Review by Knicky L. Abbott

Author name: Naomi Novik

Book Title: Uprooted

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: He may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every 10 years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.” 

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for 10 years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. 

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows – everyone knows – that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Publication date: 1st March, 2016

Available formats: Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook and Kindle

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Uprooted-Novel-Naomi-Novik/dp/0804179050/

I’ve been meaning to write this review since summer 2021, when I first read this book, and I’m afraid I’ve waited too late. But I can’t shake the fact that I must sing the praises of the most wonderful fantasy story I’ve read since my childhood days, no matter how much time has passed since reading it. Perfectly named, and filled with characters I will never forget, Uprooted is the story of a natural village witch, Agnieszka, sacrificed to a beautiful but cold wizard, Sarkan the Dragon, and used for her magic to keep the malevolent, corrupted darkness of the Woods from consuming not only her village, and nearby villages, but all the world.

This book fed me for days, alternating between a languid, poetic, nature-infused read and an exciting, page-turning, moreish binge. No matter where I took my breaks, I couldn’t shake its satisfying hold on my imagination, called and called again by the small adventures and sweeping epic in which Agnieszka found herself entangled, from living with and learning from Sarkan, to the historical intrigue of a taken Queen, lost all these years to the Wood, and the political strongarm of her prince-son demanding that they find his mother. When I read the last line on the last page, I mourned for days the absence of the characters I had come to adore.

It is those characters, their chemistry and their finer details, that is the backbone of this book. I particularly enjoyed the character of Kasia, Agnieszka’s dearest friend, who was not at all who or how I thought she would be at the end of their journey; Her character so quietly strong, resolute and masterful, echoed the skill of novelist Novik in a manner that felt perfectly true to form. Yet it was the character of and behind the Wood itself, that left its mark on my mind as simply fantastic, and one of the most originally-rendered antagonists I have read in a fantasy story to date.

The feeling of time and things in this story are unmatched in their fantastical elements, unmatched and utterly delightful, leaving me greedy and deeply enthralled. It didn’t just feel set in the village of Dvernik in the kingdom of Polnya, it felt set in the very heart of me, and there is nothing more I love than a good story that makes me feel like I’ve come home to myself. A beautiful tale written in beautiful prose, Uprooted will remain a favourite of mine close to forever, and I cannot wait to get into other books of similar ilk to feed the near-hunger it left behind.

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For the Wolf (Wilderwood Book 1)

Review by Knicky L. Abbott

Author name: Hannah Whitten

Book Title: Wilderwood Book 1 For the Wolf

The first daughter is for the Throne.
The second daughter is for the Wolf.

For fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale comes a dark, sweeping debut fantasy novel about a young woman who must be sacrificed to the legendary Wolf of the Wood to save her kingdom. But not all legends are true, and the Wolf isn’t the only danger lurking in the Wilderwood.

As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose—to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he’ll return the world’s captured gods.

Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can’t control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can’t hurt those she loves. Again.

But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn’t learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood—and her world—whole.

Publication date: 1st June, 2021

Available formats: Paperback, Audiobook and Audio CD

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Wilderwood-1-Hannah-Whitten/dp/0316592781/

For the Wolf is the story of the Second Daughter, Redarys and the Wolf of the Wilderwood, Eammon. It is the story of a sentient, prison wood and its binding forest magic, as it leeches the life from all Second Daughters and all Wolves, in order to hold its shadow monsters and mad kings at bay, and protect the rest of realm. And it is the story of how voluntary sacrifice makes the only difference that matters in the quest for meaning, self-knowledge and the place where you belong.

I gobbled this book down in two days, finding every opportunity to return to its pages, inexorably pulled over and again by the chemistry between its characters, the dark, dreamy telling of their story, and how true it rang in my heart. It’s really special that way. Like a letter to myself written by someone else’s hand.

Red is stalwart about her fate; Eammon stoic about his. She is filled with a dangerous magic – Wilderwood magic – and is willing to be sacrificed to protect those she loves, particularly her twin, Neverah. Eammon is willing to sacrifice himself wholly to protect those lives beyond the woods, because of the fate passed onto him through his parents, the original Wolf and Second Daughter. And as the story is told, they’re both willing to face that fate without cowering, despite their doubts, dread, and misgivings, for love of each other.

The scrumptious, slow-burn romance aside, my favourite part of the story was the curse itself. In almost every dark fairytale I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, a curse is just a thing made mention of, for the hero or heroes to inevitably overcome. Yet in For the Wolf the curse lives and breathes on every page, between the surrounding trees and the very bones of our main characters, and while it was transmuted and understood deeper by both those characters and I in the end, it never left or was broken in the traditional sense of the word.

In For the Wolf, the magic and worldbuilding, though wonderfully complex, is not too complicated to follow or understand. And the romantic love between Redarys and Eammon, while Red Riding Hood-coded, has a delightful Beauty and the Beast aesthetic, down to the crumbling castle keep in an atmospheric, twilit wood. Much like a Wilderwood Sentinel, it glows brightly on the pages, roots set deep in this first installment of the Wilderwood duology. And much like the Wilderwood itself, is one of the reasons why I can hardly wait for Book 2.

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This is Our Undoing

Review by Knicky L. Abbott

Author name: Lorraine Wilson

Book Title: This Is Our Undoing

Could you condemn one child to save another?

In a near-future Europe fracturing under climate change and far-right politics, biologist Lina Stephenson works in the remote Rila Mountains, safely away from London State. When an old enemy dies, Lina’s dangerous past resurfaces, putting her family’s lives at risk.

Trapped with her vulnerable sister alongside the dead man’s family, Lina is facing pressure from all sides: her enemy’s eldest son is determined to destroy her in his search for vengeance, whilst his youngest carries a sinister secret…

…But the forest is hiding its own threats and as a catastrophic storm closes in, Lina realises that if she is to save her family, she must become a monster.

Publication date: 3rd August, 2021

Available formats: Paperback, Hardcover and Kindle from Amazon

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/This-Our-Undoing-Lorraine-Wilson-ebook/dp/B0942QJHMB

This is Our Undoing is a near-future dystopian novel set in Bulgaria amidst climate politics, human trafficking, and monsters both supernatural and man-made. It intimately follows protagonist Lina Stephenson, a biologist with a dangerous past that has followed her to the isolating Rila Mountains and the sinister beauty of its surrounding forests, in the form of an old adversary’s strange family and the wake of his murder. The disastrous climate storm approaching the mountains is not the only storm Lina has to weather, and I was completely gripped by how she would survive either, in the end.

From the story’s onset the suspense is believable, and I was invested in what was taking place and how the characters would interrelate. Much of this has to do with the subtle spin of author Lorraine Wilson’s stunning prose. The delicacy of her words weaves a web of suspense that I earnestly became entrapped in. The unfolding scenes are powerful and penetratingly tense, on both an interpersonal level as well as that of the overarching plot. I got goose bumps time and again.

Lina’s superbly rendered emotional landscape, which she occupies so frequently and fully, is also a point of interest – very compelling, and in equal turns vibrant and nuanced. The dance between this internal landscape and the landscape and magical realism of the mountains and forest itself, is exquisite and masterfully executed. The powerful, emotionally wrought scenes surrounding her, with their realistic streams of consciousness and fantastic dialogue, make Lina an engrossing character to follow.

I loved how impossible it was to tell the truth of things in this story right until the very end, where the truth – finally revealed – was the only thing that made sense, even if I didn’t see it coming. And so satisfying! Even before the appearance of monsters and Otherness is made on the peripheries of this tale, I was invested in the murder mystery in which the characters were entrenched, as well as all the other characters themselves, not just Lina. I didn’t always agree with their decisions, but I cared! There are also darker things than the monsters in the woods in this book.

The tapestry of this story is so gorgeously and subtly woven that once it became clear, the impact of it was just like a tornado manifesting, from unseen elements, in a seemingly clear sky. The hybridity of magic and science, the masterful characterization, the beautifully paced world-building, all coalesced into my undoing. I cannot recommend this book enough.

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When Days Tilt (Time Catchers Book 1)

Review by Knicky L. Abbott

Author name: Karen Ginnane

Book Title: Time Catchers Book 1 When Days Tilt

A historical fantasy adventure for teens set between Victorian London and a darker parallel city.

It’s 1858, and there are two queens on the throne. Victoria reigns over London, the biggest city the world has ever known. But London has a secret shadow city, called Donlon, where another queen, the Green Witch, rules her own domain – time.

London is in turmoil. The Thames is at the height of the Great Stink; a blazing comet is searing the sky; technology is moving so fast it seems otherworldly; and the city is exploding with more people than it can hold. Darwin is about to publish his theory of evolution and humanity’s very place in the world is in question. On top of all this, people are disappearing into thin air. If they return, it is with empty eyes and torn souls, never to be the same again. Ava, a fourteen-year-old Londoner, feels trapped by the limited life of a young Victorian woman and by her watchmaking apprenticeship with her father. Her predictable world is turned upside down when she discovers that the body in her mother’s grave is not her mother, but a stranger.

When Ava goes in search of her real mother and her true identity, she is thrust into the dark world of Donlon and must fight a battle to save those she loves and the future of both worlds . . .

Publication date: 2nd July, 2021

Available formats: Paperback and Kindle from Amazon

Purchase Link: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/when-days-tilt-9781760895037

Time Catchers When Days Tilt is a stunning YA Historical Fantasy with a seam of thrilling suspense woven throughout. It is set in Victorian London and its dark parallel counterpart, the city of Donlon.  It is the story of reluctant, watchmaking apprentice Ava and her quest to find her real mother at the height of 19th century turmoil, uncertainty, and human proliferation.

I loved the setup of this story from the very first chapter. Author Karen Ginnane provides her reader with a solid starting point for understanding and caring about Ava, as well as introduces a few other most intriguing mysteries along the way for good measure. There is a real feeling of being ‘Off on an adventure’ or ‘Away with the faeries’ to this book, one that both excites and underscores the emotional impact of what happens to each of the characters we grow to love.

The words pulled me along scene after incredible scene, with prose that is very surreal, nostalgic and whimsical on the one hand, but tells a dark, dangerous, and deadly tale on the other. In a word, this book is truly enchanting, a richly-spun wonder with a mood that is exactly right for teens and young adults.

My favourite character is Malaika. Without spoiling too much of anything, I’ll simply say I found his ‘speak’ a true joy to read, and reading him was like watching a favoured childhood film. The whimsy and fancifulness just unfurled in my mind with wondrous, magnificent, dreamy imagery. And it’s this imagery, and Ginnane’s incredible prose, that makes Malaika so lovely, and this story simply exceptional.

Malaika aside, the world-building as a whole is both solid and subtly done in When Days Tilt. A feat of pure imagination disseminated through dialogue, imagery, character experience, emotion, and realization. It is such a wonderful story. The kind that lingers. The kind my soul favours best. Looking forward to more offerings in The Time Catchers series, and from Karen Ginnane herself.

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