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shh_reading85's review
5.0
I received this book as part of a Review Tour with Curiosity Quills Press.
**May Contain Spoilers**
I adored Edna. Her natural maternal instinct for her brother rivals that of her own mother. She was a mix of tough and naive, which makes a perfect heroine.
Growing up in a Victorian England-esque era, there wasn’t much hope for her other than working as a maid or much, much worse. She was lucky to get in as a maid and provide her brother of employment as well.
Well, at least until she dismisses the sound of twinkling in the night and awakens to an impostor for a brother. One she knows is an impostor as soon as she removes an expensive pocket watch from around Harrison’s neck and he crumbles into a pile of cogs!
Frantic, Edna races off to try to help him until she runs into would-be thief Ike, who recognizes the pocket watch immediately as a device used to power the Hag’s Cogling’s.
Hags are seen as Fairy Godmother’s, so their pleas are pretty much ignored as they battle towards bringing down the Hag’s and their empire.
Ike, now he is the ultimate bad boy. A thief and someone who may or may not have the best intentions at first with Edna. But over time, he reveals his heart and his own secrets. He comes to trust and even love Edna and Harrison.
If you would like to read more of this review and other reviews, please visit me at https://shhiamreading.wordpress.com/
**May Contain Spoilers**
I adored Edna. Her natural maternal instinct for her brother rivals that of her own mother. She was a mix of tough and naive, which makes a perfect heroine.
Growing up in a Victorian England-esque era, there wasn’t much hope for her other than working as a maid or much, much worse. She was lucky to get in as a maid and provide her brother of employment as well.
Well, at least until she dismisses the sound of twinkling in the night and awakens to an impostor for a brother. One she knows is an impostor as soon as she removes an expensive pocket watch from around Harrison’s neck and he crumbles into a pile of cogs!
Frantic, Edna races off to try to help him until she runs into would-be thief Ike, who recognizes the pocket watch immediately as a device used to power the Hag’s Cogling’s.
Hags are seen as Fairy Godmother’s, so their pleas are pretty much ignored as they battle towards bringing down the Hag’s and their empire.
Ike, now he is the ultimate bad boy. A thief and someone who may or may not have the best intentions at first with Edna. But over time, he reveals his heart and his own secrets. He comes to trust and even love Edna and Harrison.
If you would like to read more of this review and other reviews, please visit me at https://shhiamreading.wordpress.com/
karenrenka's review
4.0
I have always loved a good Steampunk novel and Cogling is a good edition to the genre. Edna is a hard working maid that needs her income to help her family survive. When her brother is changed out for a Cogling she risks everything to go and find him. Ike is a thief who has a vendetta against the hags and is willing to help Edna get her brother back. I really like these two characters and their chemistry. Edna is not sure of Ike at first but trusts that he wants to prove that the hags are swapping out children. It is a simple story that follows all the basic plot points of a fantasy novel but I thought it was a fun read. The reader can read between the lines and figure out Ike's secrets early on but it is interesting to feel Edna's reaction to them. There is also the spoiled girl that Edna works for who is dragged into the story. I do like that she retains her snobbish ways throughout the story but also grows as a character.
This is a by the numbers fantasy with lots of Steampunk elements thrown in for good measure. I did enjoy the story and tweens should get a kick out of it. Buy the Kindle version when it goes on sale.
This is a by the numbers fantasy with lots of Steampunk elements thrown in for good measure. I did enjoy the story and tweens should get a kick out of it. Buy the Kindle version when it goes on sale.
mishale1's review
3.0
I was offered a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.
I had trouble getting into this book. That probably says more about my reading preferences than it does about the book itself. I don't normally read YA or fantasy novels, so this is a big departure for me from the kinds of books that tend to appeal to me.
That being said, I read the author's book Escape from Witchwood Hollow and definitely enjoyed it more of the two.
I kept with this story, wanting to make sure I saw it through. I knew there was a moral in the story and I wanted to make sure I found it. Here's the line in the book that I felt summarized the story the most "we are doomed to be born where we are, but we choose where to die".
The lead character is in a poor family, she is a teenager and her brother a young child and they both have to work to help support their family. She occasionally helps as a lady's maid to a rich family. There are also hags and other creatures/people/animals in the background of the story. A hag is like a witch and one day the young boy in the story is stolen by a hag and replaced by a cogling. His sister is smart and quickly realizes that this is not her brother. So, she sets off to find her brother, wherever he may be. She gains help from a young man around her age, who sounds as though he may be homeless.
They set off together to battle the evil and to get her brother back.
In the story you can see how much easier and different life can be for some than for others. With the humans it's more of a division between the rich and the poor and on the other hand there's the difference in life between the humans and the hags.
While the journey may be harder for the poor people that no one is helping, they are struggling to be the best versions of themselves and accomplish what they need to (in this case, getting bag the real boy).
I had trouble getting into this book. That probably says more about my reading preferences than it does about the book itself. I don't normally read YA or fantasy novels, so this is a big departure for me from the kinds of books that tend to appeal to me.
That being said, I read the author's book Escape from Witchwood Hollow and definitely enjoyed it more of the two.
I kept with this story, wanting to make sure I saw it through. I knew there was a moral in the story and I wanted to make sure I found it. Here's the line in the book that I felt summarized the story the most "we are doomed to be born where we are, but we choose where to die".
The lead character is in a poor family, she is a teenager and her brother a young child and they both have to work to help support their family. She occasionally helps as a lady's maid to a rich family. There are also hags and other creatures/people/animals in the background of the story. A hag is like a witch and one day the young boy in the story is stolen by a hag and replaced by a cogling. His sister is smart and quickly realizes that this is not her brother. So, she sets off to find her brother, wherever he may be. She gains help from a young man around her age, who sounds as though he may be homeless.
They set off together to battle the evil and to get her brother back.
In the story you can see how much easier and different life can be for some than for others. With the humans it's more of a division between the rich and the poor and on the other hand there's the difference in life between the humans and the hags.
While the journey may be harder for the poor people that no one is helping, they are struggling to be the best versions of themselves and accomplish what they need to (in this case, getting bag the real boy).
gillygab's review
4.0
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I've previously read Escape from Witchwood Hollow by this author, so I was interested to read her newest novel.
Edna Mather lives in a world where magic is real, but only hags use it. Humans pay hags for potions and spells, but otherwise treat hags like second-class citizens. One night, a hag comes to Edna's house and kidnaps her brother, Harrison, leaving a cogling in his place. The cogling looks just like Harrison, but the hag did a rush job, and the cogling's behavior is a bit off. While chastising him about his odd behavior, Edna grabs what she believes is a stolen pocket watch and lifts it over his head. The cogling immediately falls apart.
Determined to save her brother regardless of the peril, Edna reluctantly recruits the help of a thief named Ike. Together, they cross the kingdom in an attempt to free the children the hags have kidnapped. On their journey, Edna and Ike have to flee from slave traders on a train only to fall into the trap of different slave traders, escape from their subsequent enslavement, ride a blimp into the swamp where the hags live, free the kidnapped children, and convince the king of the hags' sinister plot.
Mierek's novel is filled with action from start to finish. I felt like poor Edna never got a chance to catch her breath. The language is simple, but engaging. Her description is vivid without being cumbersome. While aspects of the plot are very predictable, I still found the book to be very enjoyable.
I've previously read Escape from Witchwood Hollow by this author, so I was interested to read her newest novel.
Edna Mather lives in a world where magic is real, but only hags use it. Humans pay hags for potions and spells, but otherwise treat hags like second-class citizens. One night, a hag comes to Edna's house and kidnaps her brother, Harrison, leaving a cogling in his place. The cogling looks just like Harrison, but the hag did a rush job, and the cogling's behavior is a bit off. While chastising him about his odd behavior, Edna grabs what she believes is a stolen pocket watch and lifts it over his head. The cogling immediately falls apart.
Determined to save her brother regardless of the peril, Edna reluctantly recruits the help of a thief named Ike. Together, they cross the kingdom in an attempt to free the children the hags have kidnapped. On their journey, Edna and Ike have to flee from slave traders on a train only to fall into the trap of different slave traders, escape from their subsequent enslavement, ride a blimp into the swamp where the hags live, free the kidnapped children, and convince the king of the hags' sinister plot.
Mierek's novel is filled with action from start to finish. I felt like poor Edna never got a chance to catch her breath. The language is simple, but engaging. Her description is vivid without being cumbersome. While aspects of the plot are very predictable, I still found the book to be very enjoyable.
elise68's review
5.0
I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review
Although it took me some time to finish reading Cogling it was enjoyable from the first page right to the last. The characters were richly developed and the twists and turns in the storyline kept it fresh and exciting. There were a few moments where I felt quite distressed by events that were described so if you are delicate be warned, there is no holding back on the descriptive elements of this book. They are totally worth enduring as the story in its entirety is greatly rewarding. What an imagination and talent for storytelling this author has! Thank you for the opportunity to read this great story and share my review. Well earned 5 stars.
Although it took me some time to finish reading Cogling it was enjoyable from the first page right to the last. The characters were richly developed and the twists and turns in the storyline kept it fresh and exciting. There were a few moments where I felt quite distressed by events that were described so if you are delicate be warned, there is no holding back on the descriptive elements of this book. They are totally worth enduring as the story in its entirety is greatly rewarding. What an imagination and talent for storytelling this author has! Thank you for the opportunity to read this great story and share my review. Well earned 5 stars.
elevetha's review
2.0
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
2.5 stars.
One of those in-between books. I liked it more than not, but due to my lack of interest in the beginning, procrastination, and the fact that most Netgalley books expire after a couple months, I realized I had two days to read this, which after company came and we played Pinochle all day long, that meant a few hours of staying up in order to finish this. So I was reading a little faster than normal so I could go to bed darnnit. (Daylight Savings is brutal).
At its core, this story is all about family. Edna's brother is stolen away by a hag and replaced with a cogling, and come hell or high water, she's gonna get him back. Enter Ike, who has his own agenda but is willing to help Edna get her brother back. They become a thing, but it was handled fairly well, and was mostly put on the back-burner and the rescue/quash hag takeover took precedence. Which I mightily appreciated.
Also, it must be noted that hags and ogres are not your typical hags and ogres of folklore. These guys are all magical folk who got magic by living on a swamp and then they came back to the city, and whoops, everyone hated them now (because ewwww and magic) and banished them, and then the hags and ogres rebelled and won, and then THEY were rebelled against and quashed, and now some of them are allowed to practice magic to heal the elite, but are mostly scorned, and shocker, some of them would very much like to try for a hostile takeover. The females are the hags and the males are the ogres, and much like the non-magical humans, they can be either good or bad, though of course, with derogatory names like "hag" and "ogre", quite a bit of ill-will has been cultivated against them as a whole.
I guess I liked the overall idea of this book, but it failed a bit in my estimation in the execution. I didn't get a good sense of atmosphere, which with this world and the magic, would have been very nice to have. The world building in general felt rather one-dimensional, and the religion concerning the "Seven Saints" (which were mentioned frequently by both the hags and Edna) was vague at best. Not a bad book by any means, but not great either.
2.5 stars.
One of those in-between books. I liked it more than not, but due to my lack of interest in the beginning, procrastination, and the fact that most Netgalley books expire after a couple months, I realized I had two days to read this, which after company came and we played Pinochle all day long, that meant a few hours of staying up in order to finish this. So I was reading a little faster than normal so I could go to bed darnnit. (Daylight Savings is brutal).
At its core, this story is all about family. Edna's brother is stolen away by a hag and replaced with a cogling, and come hell or high water, she's gonna get him back. Enter Ike, who has his own agenda but is willing to help Edna get her brother back. They become a thing, but it was handled fairly well, and was mostly put on the back-burner and the rescue/quash hag takeover took precedence. Which I mightily appreciated.
Also, it must be noted that hags and ogres are not your typical hags and ogres of folklore. These guys are all magical folk who got magic by living on a swamp and then they came back to the city, and whoops, everyone hated them now (because ewwww and magic) and banished them, and then the hags and ogres rebelled and won, and then THEY were rebelled against and quashed, and now some of them are allowed to practice magic to heal the elite, but are mostly scorned, and shocker, some of them would very much like to try for a hostile takeover. The females are the hags and the males are the ogres, and much like the non-magical humans, they can be either good or bad, though of course, with derogatory names like "hag" and "ogre", quite a bit of ill-will has been cultivated against them as a whole.
I guess I liked the overall idea of this book, but it failed a bit in my estimation in the execution. I didn't get a good sense of atmosphere, which with this world and the magic, would have been very nice to have. The world building in general felt rather one-dimensional, and the religion concerning the "Seven Saints" (which were mentioned frequently by both the hags and Edna) was vague at best. Not a bad book by any means, but not great either.
Spoiler
I figured out Edna had magic nigh instantly, and was reminded of this fact every couple chapters because "the evil" running through her blood kept being mentioned. This got old pretty quick, and also makes me wonder if we were supposed to immediately know she had magic, or was it supposed to be a surprise?dtaylorbooks's review
4.0
COGLING is going to be a little difficult for me to review based on some behind-the-curtains information I have about the book but I’ll base this review on the product itself, mutually exclusive to anything else. That only seems fair.
Elizabeth contacted me through Critique Circle to thank me for the editing input I provided years ago for this book and to let me know it was being published. Hooray! Such a squishy feeling that gave me, not only to know that my advice helped to improve a book but that it got published as well. Victory all around! When she said it was being published with Curiosity Quills that gave me a bit of pause.
See, I have a bit of love/hate relationship with that small digital publisher. I was a reviewer for them a few moons ago after I fell in love with Michael Panush’s Stein and Candle books (still love them, go read them, so much fun). I accepted more of their books for review and they all turned out to be . . . duds. Poorly edited, poorly constructed duds. And I had quite a few of them. Actually, the Stein and Candle books were the only books I not only liked but could get through. The rest of them I just ended up ditching (4 on my DNF list alone). Since it’s a publisher of writers publishing for writers, the execution of the books would be different than publishing for readers and at the time they prided themselves on not having enough time to edit. And it showed. So I stepped away and haven’t picked up a book from them until now.
So you can understand my weariness but I wanted to support the book and Elizabeth so I kept an eye out on NetGalley for when they listed the book (really close to pub date and it wasn’t listed for very long, not sure why that is or the reason for such a short review window) and requested it for review. Luckily they approved me.
COGLING is a glorious story written in a manner befitting a steampunk story. It has some of that Victorian voice styling going in but in a “lower” manner because the main characters aren’t wealthy aristocrats (thank god, mixed it up a bit, which I liked) but barely above street urchins living in near-squalor. The story didn’t really dwell on that, though, because it kicked into Edna’s hunt for Harry pretty quickly, which I liked. It didn’t linger in any one moment for too long and it felt fast-paced than other like-books I’ve read that tend to get bogged down in minutiae because “that’s the style.”
It’s a world of Elizabeth’s creation, blending a pseudo-Victorian England with a world inhabited by mechanical and mythical creatures alike, creating a caste society based on how human people actually were. Hags played a huge role and while people sought them out for their healing and helping capabilities they were largely stepped on by the human population lording over them. No surprise there that that kind of behavior spurned resentment. Being from close to the bottom of the barrel Edna empathized with the plight of at least some of the creatures and had to have her prejudices torn down when it came to others. It was good character development watching her morph over the course of the story to see things for how they really were.
I really like the concept of a cogling. In the same vein as a changeling but with clockwork parts, a cogling was left in place of Edna’s brother. She found out it wasn’t really him when she took off a pocket watch hanging around his neck that caused him to dissolve into a pile of springs and other clock pieces. Apparently it was that clock holding him together. So incredibly imaginative! I don’t read much steampunk at all but I love this idea of blending these types of fairy tales with clockwork workings.
Ike I felt was a little underdeveloped considering his extensive involvement of the story but not to the point that he felt static. His course of character development revolved around Edna and how he felt about her but he otherwise stayed the course in his vengeance against the hags. He proved a useful tool for Edna in certain situations and a catalyst for her to work herself out of jams. Really, that’s a bit unfair. Edna lit a fire under her own butt to save Harry and didn’t need Ike’s motivation to do it but to say he wasn’t useful would just be an outright lie. She literally couldn’t have done it without him since it was his connections that got her to Harry to begin with.
But truly, Edna stands on her own. Despite the feminine and proprietary trappings of her society she let nothing get in her way. She was willing to die for her brother and maybe she was okay with getting a little play on the side. Nothing wrong with a woman taking charge of her own life. It’s refreshing.
I’d definitely recommend COGLING for any fans of steampunk looking for something a little different, something mixed in with fairy lore. For me it feels really different but take that for what it is because I don’t read a lot of steampunk. It’s all going to feel different to me. But the writing’s stellar, the story came together excellently, and, being the world whore that I am, it gave me a glorious place to live in for a short time. A unique world that was glittering at the same time it was covered in grime. Elizabeth definitely pegged squalor pretty solidly, no doubt about that.
With that being said, would I read other books put out by CQ? Possibly, if they really caught my eye, and based solely on the quality that is COGLING. However, I do know that the quality of COGLING isn’t solely attributed to CQ so whether they came upon a higher level of manuscript with this one than normal or whether their editing has truly gotten better, I can’t rightly say without reading more of their recent releases. It’s hard to judge off of this title alone knowing what I know. I’d like to think COGLING is indicative of an all-around improvement with the publisher and I wouldn’t want to write them off completely. But I wouldn’t give them a heaping pile of additional chances either. Any publisher, of course, can be hit or miss but hit or miss due to taste is different than hit or miss due to quality. We’ll see.
COGLING is worth the read, definitely. Everything else (except Stein and Candle, obvi) I would say is a gamble based on my prior experience.
4
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Elizabeth contacted me through Critique Circle to thank me for the editing input I provided years ago for this book and to let me know it was being published. Hooray! Such a squishy feeling that gave me, not only to know that my advice helped to improve a book but that it got published as well. Victory all around! When she said it was being published with Curiosity Quills that gave me a bit of pause.
See, I have a bit of love/hate relationship with that small digital publisher. I was a reviewer for them a few moons ago after I fell in love with Michael Panush’s Stein and Candle books (still love them, go read them, so much fun). I accepted more of their books for review and they all turned out to be . . . duds. Poorly edited, poorly constructed duds. And I had quite a few of them. Actually, the Stein and Candle books were the only books I not only liked but could get through. The rest of them I just ended up ditching (4 on my DNF list alone). Since it’s a publisher of writers publishing for writers, the execution of the books would be different than publishing for readers and at the time they prided themselves on not having enough time to edit. And it showed. So I stepped away and haven’t picked up a book from them until now.
So you can understand my weariness but I wanted to support the book and Elizabeth so I kept an eye out on NetGalley for when they listed the book (really close to pub date and it wasn’t listed for very long, not sure why that is or the reason for such a short review window) and requested it for review. Luckily they approved me.
COGLING is a glorious story written in a manner befitting a steampunk story. It has some of that Victorian voice styling going in but in a “lower” manner because the main characters aren’t wealthy aristocrats (thank god, mixed it up a bit, which I liked) but barely above street urchins living in near-squalor. The story didn’t really dwell on that, though, because it kicked into Edna’s hunt for Harry pretty quickly, which I liked. It didn’t linger in any one moment for too long and it felt fast-paced than other like-books I’ve read that tend to get bogged down in minutiae because “that’s the style.”
It’s a world of Elizabeth’s creation, blending a pseudo-Victorian England with a world inhabited by mechanical and mythical creatures alike, creating a caste society based on how human people actually were. Hags played a huge role and while people sought them out for their healing and helping capabilities they were largely stepped on by the human population lording over them. No surprise there that that kind of behavior spurned resentment. Being from close to the bottom of the barrel Edna empathized with the plight of at least some of the creatures and had to have her prejudices torn down when it came to others. It was good character development watching her morph over the course of the story to see things for how they really were.
I really like the concept of a cogling. In the same vein as a changeling but with clockwork parts, a cogling was left in place of Edna’s brother. She found out it wasn’t really him when she took off a pocket watch hanging around his neck that caused him to dissolve into a pile of springs and other clock pieces. Apparently it was that clock holding him together. So incredibly imaginative! I don’t read much steampunk at all but I love this idea of blending these types of fairy tales with clockwork workings.
Ike I felt was a little underdeveloped considering his extensive involvement of the story but not to the point that he felt static. His course of character development revolved around Edna and how he felt about her but he otherwise stayed the course in his vengeance against the hags. He proved a useful tool for Edna in certain situations and a catalyst for her to work herself out of jams. Really, that’s a bit unfair. Edna lit a fire under her own butt to save Harry and didn’t need Ike’s motivation to do it but to say he wasn’t useful would just be an outright lie. She literally couldn’t have done it without him since it was his connections that got her to Harry to begin with.
But truly, Edna stands on her own. Despite the feminine and proprietary trappings of her society she let nothing get in her way. She was willing to die for her brother and maybe she was okay with getting a little play on the side. Nothing wrong with a woman taking charge of her own life. It’s refreshing.
I’d definitely recommend COGLING for any fans of steampunk looking for something a little different, something mixed in with fairy lore. For me it feels really different but take that for what it is because I don’t read a lot of steampunk. It’s all going to feel different to me. But the writing’s stellar, the story came together excellently, and, being the world whore that I am, it gave me a glorious place to live in for a short time. A unique world that was glittering at the same time it was covered in grime. Elizabeth definitely pegged squalor pretty solidly, no doubt about that.
With that being said, would I read other books put out by CQ? Possibly, if they really caught my eye, and based solely on the quality that is COGLING. However, I do know that the quality of COGLING isn’t solely attributed to CQ so whether they came upon a higher level of manuscript with this one than normal or whether their editing has truly gotten better, I can’t rightly say without reading more of their recent releases. It’s hard to judge off of this title alone knowing what I know. I’d like to think COGLING is indicative of an all-around improvement with the publisher and I wouldn’t want to write them off completely. But I wouldn’t give them a heaping pile of additional chances either. Any publisher, of course, can be hit or miss but hit or miss due to taste is different than hit or miss due to quality. We’ll see.
COGLING is worth the read, definitely. Everything else (except Stein and Candle, obvi) I would say is a gamble based on my prior experience.
4
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
coolcurrybooks's review
2.0
Cogling is a stand alone YA fantasy novel with steampunk elements. It suffers from a number of issues, most notably poor world building and an ill developed lead. The end result is a clumsy story.
When Edna Mather’s tears a pocket watch away from her brother, he crumbles into a pile of clockwork. She soon learns that her brother was replaced by a cogling, a changing left by the hags of the forest who steal children to work in their magic factory. Edna finds Ike, a street thief who knows the way to the hag’s swamp. Together they head off to the swamp to rescue Edna’s brother and stop the hags.
Edna is supposed to be fifteen, but she feels twelve at the oldest. She’s incredibly naive and immature, and her thought process does not read as a teenager! I think it was primarily Edna’s immaturity that made this read like a middle grade novel. At least until about half way through when all this weird stuff about virginity and sexual assault popped up, mainly surrounding a character named Rachel. Slight spoilers up ahead – Rachel ends up in a mental hospital where the doctor in charge forcibly kisses her and threatens to rape her. All of this was unnecessary. What’s even more mind boggling is when they get Rachel out by replacing her with some nameless homeless girl they kidnap off the street! Seriously?
All that aside, the world building was probably the biggest problem with the book. It feels like a whole bunch of different elements were thrown in with no regards for how they fit together. The world building feels superficial and clumsy, an effect only heightened by the gratuitous info-dumping at the beginning of the novel. For instance, there’s this race of avian people called tomtars who are all enslaved to humans. Why are they in the book? What do they add? How did they get enslaved? Do they have their own culture? None of these questions are answered. Similar lack of thought is given to the development of other areas of world building. Elizabeth Jordan created a religion for Cogling – Edna worships the Seven Saints. However, we are told nothing about them even though Edna is constantly thinking that they’ll protect her and so on. Unfortunately, a large part of the plot ties directly into the clunky world building, i.e. the conflict between the humans and the hags (and their male equivalent, ogres).
The plot itself felt underdeveloped and stuttery, like it was constantly stopping and starting again. According to Goodreads, Cogling is only 285 pages long. However it took me much longer to read than other books of the same length, mainly due to the abysmal pacing and my continued boredom. One of the ongoing plot threads was the “evil” inside Edna. This one had potential, but it was brought out way to late in the novel and basically felt like a deus ex machina.
I wouldn’t recommend Cogling. It’s possible that it could be fixed up (and might be better served in the middle grade market), but as stands it is not a book I can recommend.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received a free ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
When Edna Mather’s tears a pocket watch away from her brother, he crumbles into a pile of clockwork. She soon learns that her brother was replaced by a cogling, a changing left by the hags of the forest who steal children to work in their magic factory. Edna finds Ike, a street thief who knows the way to the hag’s swamp. Together they head off to the swamp to rescue Edna’s brother and stop the hags.
Edna is supposed to be fifteen, but she feels twelve at the oldest. She’s incredibly naive and immature, and her thought process does not read as a teenager! I think it was primarily Edna’s immaturity that made this read like a middle grade novel. At least until about half way through when all this weird stuff about virginity and sexual assault popped up, mainly surrounding a character named Rachel. Slight spoilers up ahead – Rachel ends up in a mental hospital where the doctor in charge forcibly kisses her and threatens to rape her. All of this was unnecessary. What’s even more mind boggling is when they get Rachel out by replacing her with some nameless homeless girl they kidnap off the street! Seriously?
All that aside, the world building was probably the biggest problem with the book. It feels like a whole bunch of different elements were thrown in with no regards for how they fit together. The world building feels superficial and clumsy, an effect only heightened by the gratuitous info-dumping at the beginning of the novel. For instance, there’s this race of avian people called tomtars who are all enslaved to humans. Why are they in the book? What do they add? How did they get enslaved? Do they have their own culture? None of these questions are answered. Similar lack of thought is given to the development of other areas of world building. Elizabeth Jordan created a religion for Cogling – Edna worships the Seven Saints. However, we are told nothing about them even though Edna is constantly thinking that they’ll protect her and so on. Unfortunately, a large part of the plot ties directly into the clunky world building, i.e. the conflict between the humans and the hags (and their male equivalent, ogres).
The plot itself felt underdeveloped and stuttery, like it was constantly stopping and starting again. According to Goodreads, Cogling is only 285 pages long. However it took me much longer to read than other books of the same length, mainly due to the abysmal pacing and my continued boredom. One of the ongoing plot threads was the “evil” inside Edna. This one had potential, but it was brought out way to late in the novel and basically felt like a deus ex machina.
I wouldn’t recommend Cogling. It’s possible that it could be fixed up (and might be better served in the middle grade market), but as stands it is not a book I can recommend.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received a free ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
rebekkahindbo's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. I think it deserves a 4.5*/5 because there was a lot of great things in this book. The story is about Edna who figures out that her brother has been replaced with a cogling (an automaton that imitates the person who has been kidnapped). With help from a newfound friend called Ike she sets out to find her brother and free him from the hags that kidnapped him.
The characters where in my opinion very well developed. There was a lot to them and a lot of things had affected the way they viewed the world and reacted to things. It was great to slowly discover the world and the characters.
The thing that brought down the book half a star for me was the way the romance was written. There was great chemistry between the two who fell in love but it felt a bit rushed and misplaced at times even though I really wanted them together.
Overall a great steampunk book (especially if you are just getting into the steampunk genre), that I would definitely recommend to my friends! :)
*I received a free copy of this in e-book format in exchange for an honest review.*
The characters where in my opinion very well developed. There was a lot to them and a lot of things had affected the way they viewed the world and reacted to things. It was great to slowly discover the world and the characters.
The thing that brought down the book half a star for me was the way the romance was written. There was great chemistry between the two who fell in love but it felt a bit rushed and misplaced at times even though I really wanted them together.
Overall a great steampunk book (especially if you are just getting into the steampunk genre), that I would definitely recommend to my friends! :)
*I received a free copy of this in e-book format in exchange for an honest review.*
adia's review
1.0
You can read more of my reviews at haphazardlyreading.wordpress.com
Spoilers. Because this is more of a rant than a review. I did not like this book. If it was the end all, be all of books for you, look away.
I honestly don’t know where to start with this. This is the fourth time I tried to write this review/rant. I don’t know what to talk about first or what order to put my complaints in. This might be all over the place, but AT LEAST I FINALLY WROTE IT.
I did not like this book. The one star rating I gave it on goodreads was far more than it deserved. Quite frankly, I think it could pull stars away from other books by sitting too close to them on the shelf.
Let’s start with the characters.
None of the characters act like teenagers. Enda is fifteen, but she acts like she’s twelve or younger. She doesn’t think like a teenager or use the logic that a teenager would. Here’s an example, she thinks that if she goes to the police or the king (that escalated quickly, because everyone just gets in to see the king the way they do) they’ll help her with all of her problems and everything will be okay. At fifteen, and living in a corrupt and class-divided society, I wouldn’t have thought that. I wouldn’t even have thought that at thirteen. Does the author just not know any teenagers? Or does she just develop characters really poorly? I don’t know. This is just one of many examples. It seems that every time Edna expresses an opinion or devises a plan her thinking is incomplete and immature.
It bothers me that most of the reason Edna wants to get her brother back is because he keeps “the evil” away. She mentions saving him to keep “the evil” away many times but never says she misses him or loves him for his own sake. She doesn’t want to save him because it’s the right thing to do, or because she’s his sister, and she loves him. She wants to save him for a reason that’s kind of selfish, in my opinion.
I’m really bothered by the way the romance is written in this book. Ike is very aggressive with the way he kisses Edna, and it’s kind of disturbing to read about. Literally, the first time he kissed her, he stuck his tongue in her mouth and kissed her in a really weird aggressive way. There was too much detail put into each description of a kiss. I don’t want to hear about how Edna’s knees got weak or about Ike’s tongue. It’s disturbing and gross. It adds nothing to the plot. I’ve read American Gods, which is very explicit in some scenes, so it’s not as if I’ve never seen this sort of thing before. But there are big differences. In American Gods, the characters were consenting adults and their actions fit with the plot. In Cogling, one character is a seemingly experienced street-boy-prince and the other character is a sheltered, naive, young housemaid. Given the immaturity of Edna, and the simplicity of the plot, the kissing bits seem to serve no purpose other than to boost the book from middle grade to young adult.
Also, can we talk for a second about the similarities between the way the doctor kisses Rachel and the way that Ike kisses Edna? The same words are used, the boy and the man do the same things. But when the doctor kisses Rachel, it’s creepy and weird, yet when Ike kisses Edna it’s supposed to be romantic. The doctor’s kisses are creepy because he sticks his tongue in her mouth, but when Ike does it it’s fine? What? You can’t say something is romantic, and even desirable, in one sentence, and then say that it’s creepy and wrong in the next. I know their intentions are different, but Edna could have been as upset by Ike’s kisses as Rachel was by the doctor’s. Just because you don’t mean to be creepy doesn’t mean something isn’t creepy. Also, I don’t know many girls who like to feel that they are being kissed in a forced and aggressive way. This doesn’t make for romance. It justifies rape culture.
Also, whenever it talks about Ike thinking of Edna, the book says that he thought about her lips or her mouth. One time it actually said something about how he thought about how her lips were swollen after nearly drowning. She nearly died, and he’s thinking about how her mouth is attractive? I sat here for five minutes trying to think of how to describe what I feel, and the only thing I could come up with were many disgusted facial expressions. Oh my god. Then, whenever he talks to her he looks at her lips. That’s not love. He’s objectifying her. But this seems to go along with the author’s conception of love. Ike loves Edna for her physical characteristics, and Edna loves her brother because he can make her good. No one loves anyone because of their personality or their intelligence or their wit. I guess even the author knew this would be too big of a suspension of disbelief since none of the characters had personalities developed far enough to identify with let alone fall in love with. (Burn.)
The grammar in this book is horrifying. In one sentence she uses “its” instead of “it’s” twice (even my grammar checker is highlighting my retelling of her grammar errors). Not just one stupid grammar mistake that should have been caught during the editing process but two. In the same sentence. There were also times when there were literally just misspelled words. It seems like in some parts of the book the author started to use a simple word but decided to step-up her writing with the ever helpful thesaurus. Instead of picking a better word, though, she got one that was vaguely close-ish to the original word and used it even though it was semantically incorrect. For example, Edna’s finger is irritated from rubbing something, but it says that her finger was “exfoliated.” Exfoliated doesn’t mean that your skin has been rubbed off to the point of pain (if it did, body wash would be so hardcore), it means scrubbing dead skin off. I don’t know why she chose to use this word instead of saying that her finger was rubbed raw or something. It took something away from the scene because the author was trying to be serious, then she wrote exfoliate, and I couldn’t take it seriously.
I kept forgetting that this is a young adult book. At least I think it’s a young adult book. I’m honestly not sure because in one sentence Edna will be acting like a ten year old, and in the next she’ll be calling some woman an “alley whore.” I’m not kidding. This is an actual quote. I would assume that that kind of thing wouldn’t be in a middle grade novel, but I would also assume that the writing would be a little more complex, and the characters would be a little more mature in a young adult book.
Everything in the plot of this book was so easy. Edna needed someone to take her to the swamp and then IMMEDIATELY she found Ike. But she didn’t just find him, he tried to rob her, then he heard her story and decided he would take her to the swamp. And, of course, he knew exactly how to get to the swamp and how to defeat the hags. Whenever they needed something it was right there and easy to find. It’s so unrealistic. That’s not how life works, and that’s not how a book should work either. Not a well-written book anyway.
There was a part towards the end where for half of a page there was a bit that got really into social justice, and then she just dropped it. I had been told by a friend who had read this that there was a bit of social justice stuff at the end, but it was random and very quickly dropped, so I was looking for that part. I honestly didn’t realize that that was the part until I had finished the book and there was nothing else about social justice. I kept thinking that that part wasn’t actually the bit my friend was talking about because, if I hadn’t been told that it was coming, and if I hadn’t been looking out for it, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed it. I’m not exaggerating when I say there was half a page on this stuff. Wait, no, I am exaggerating. There was less. And it was weird as it didn’t really fit with the rest of the story. If there had been bits of social justice stuff scattered throughout the story, then a lot at the end, where maybe it would become the point of the book, it would have been more reasonable. As it was handled, it doesn’t add anything to the plot, and I can’t imagine why the author put this in. In fact, it makes everyone seem even more shallow when it gets dropped at the point when Edna and company can be rich and live in the castle. Social justice doesn’t matter anymore, I guess.
I’m going to end my criticisms of the book here, even though there are plenty more things that are wrong with it that I haven’t mentioned yet. I could honestly go on for hours about everything that’s wrong with it, but it would be weird to have a review longer than the book.
But before we leave this train wreck, I want to say a few more things about this sort of book and publishing.
Whoever bought this book was looking for a well-written, enjoyable book, and instead they got this waste of paper. (Those poor sad trees. I’m sure they dreamed of being more than this. Toilet paper, maybe?) It’s not okay to publish something this bad because it’s not fair to the readers. Your goal as an author, or as a publisher, should be to make books that are well-written and that people would actually get something out of. This publisher is obviously not doing that. There were spelling and grammar mistakes that should have been picked up by the word processor the author used, or, if not that, an editor should have noticed. If you’re going to publish something, it should at least be grammatically correct.
Another reason it’s not fair is that it’s not fair to the author. The publisher (for the little they are worth) never pushes the author to be better. They take a book that’s worse than a first draft written by a thirteen year old and they publish it. I’m sure it feels great for the author to be able to hold their published book, but wouldn’t they feel more proud to have a book they know is amazing? Maybe some of these authors have some kind of talent that could actually become something if they really worked on it. However, instead of pushing themselves to be better, and instead of editors pushing them to be better, they get their poorly written novel published and think they have well-developed talent. There are plenty of positive reviews on this book on goodreads. If the author checked the reviews, I’m sure she’d see all the positive ones and ignore the negative ones, because that’s what people do. But without an editor to push her, or the bad reviews to goad her, is she going to improve?
A few words on the so called publisher. The information on the website about submitting a manuscript sounds like the rules for a writing contest for children. When I was younger, I would enter a lot of writing contests for children, so I know what these things look like. If I didn’t already know that this was a serious website for publishing a book, I would have thought it was something for children. If your professional website looks like a contest for children to enter, you may want to rethink your would-be publishing empire. Really the bulk of this book’s problems lay at the feet of the publisher and their editors. This book has the potential to be a really interesting book if it was edited well, and the author was encouraged to fix the issues. She would gain experience, becoming a better author. The public would get a book worth reading. The publisher should be ashamed of themselves. These days everyone wants to be famous and fast. Great authors work for years and years to hone their craft under the guidance of good editors. Publishing houses that just churn out work without challenging the authors to do better serve no one but themselves.
Like I said before, I gave this book one star on goodreads. I would have given it no rating, but I’m pretty sure the only book I haven’t given a rating was Lord of the Flies, and that was because it messed with my emotions so much that I didn’t know how to rate it. (The boy with the glasses. Need I say more?) I know exactly how I want to rate this book, my problem is just that one star isn’t low enough. But, until goodreads starts to offer ratings of negative numbers, I guess I’ll just have to stick with one star.
If you were thinking of reading this, please don’t. Spend your hard-earned money on something better. Perhaps Twilight. I hate Twilight.
Spoilers. Because this is more of a rant than a review. I did not like this book. If it was the end all, be all of books for you, look away.
I honestly don’t know where to start with this. This is the fourth time I tried to write this review/rant. I don’t know what to talk about first or what order to put my complaints in. This might be all over the place, but AT LEAST I FINALLY WROTE IT.
I did not like this book. The one star rating I gave it on goodreads was far more than it deserved. Quite frankly, I think it could pull stars away from other books by sitting too close to them on the shelf.
Let’s start with the characters.
None of the characters act like teenagers. Enda is fifteen, but she acts like she’s twelve or younger. She doesn’t think like a teenager or use the logic that a teenager would. Here’s an example, she thinks that if she goes to the police or the king (that escalated quickly, because everyone just gets in to see the king the way they do) they’ll help her with all of her problems and everything will be okay. At fifteen, and living in a corrupt and class-divided society, I wouldn’t have thought that. I wouldn’t even have thought that at thirteen. Does the author just not know any teenagers? Or does she just develop characters really poorly? I don’t know. This is just one of many examples. It seems that every time Edna expresses an opinion or devises a plan her thinking is incomplete and immature.
It bothers me that most of the reason Edna wants to get her brother back is because he keeps “the evil” away. She mentions saving him to keep “the evil” away many times but never says she misses him or loves him for his own sake. She doesn’t want to save him because it’s the right thing to do, or because she’s his sister, and she loves him. She wants to save him for a reason that’s kind of selfish, in my opinion.
I’m really bothered by the way the romance is written in this book. Ike is very aggressive with the way he kisses Edna, and it’s kind of disturbing to read about. Literally, the first time he kissed her, he stuck his tongue in her mouth and kissed her in a really weird aggressive way. There was too much detail put into each description of a kiss. I don’t want to hear about how Edna’s knees got weak or about Ike’s tongue. It’s disturbing and gross. It adds nothing to the plot. I’ve read American Gods, which is very explicit in some scenes, so it’s not as if I’ve never seen this sort of thing before. But there are big differences. In American Gods, the characters were consenting adults and their actions fit with the plot. In Cogling, one character is a seemingly experienced street-boy-prince and the other character is a sheltered, naive, young housemaid. Given the immaturity of Edna, and the simplicity of the plot, the kissing bits seem to serve no purpose other than to boost the book from middle grade to young adult.
Also, can we talk for a second about the similarities between the way the doctor kisses Rachel and the way that Ike kisses Edna? The same words are used, the boy and the man do the same things. But when the doctor kisses Rachel, it’s creepy and weird, yet when Ike kisses Edna it’s supposed to be romantic. The doctor’s kisses are creepy because he sticks his tongue in her mouth, but when Ike does it it’s fine? What? You can’t say something is romantic, and even desirable, in one sentence, and then say that it’s creepy and wrong in the next. I know their intentions are different, but Edna could have been as upset by Ike’s kisses as Rachel was by the doctor’s. Just because you don’t mean to be creepy doesn’t mean something isn’t creepy. Also, I don’t know many girls who like to feel that they are being kissed in a forced and aggressive way. This doesn’t make for romance. It justifies rape culture.
Also, whenever it talks about Ike thinking of Edna, the book says that he thought about her lips or her mouth. One time it actually said something about how he thought about how her lips were swollen after nearly drowning. She nearly died, and he’s thinking about how her mouth is attractive? I sat here for five minutes trying to think of how to describe what I feel, and the only thing I could come up with were many disgusted facial expressions. Oh my god. Then, whenever he talks to her he looks at her lips. That’s not love. He’s objectifying her. But this seems to go along with the author’s conception of love. Ike loves Edna for her physical characteristics, and Edna loves her brother because he can make her good. No one loves anyone because of their personality or their intelligence or their wit. I guess even the author knew this would be too big of a suspension of disbelief since none of the characters had personalities developed far enough to identify with let alone fall in love with. (Burn.)
The grammar in this book is horrifying. In one sentence she uses “its” instead of “it’s” twice (even my grammar checker is highlighting my retelling of her grammar errors). Not just one stupid grammar mistake that should have been caught during the editing process but two. In the same sentence. There were also times when there were literally just misspelled words. It seems like in some parts of the book the author started to use a simple word but decided to step-up her writing with the ever helpful thesaurus. Instead of picking a better word, though, she got one that was vaguely close-ish to the original word and used it even though it was semantically incorrect. For example, Edna’s finger is irritated from rubbing something, but it says that her finger was “exfoliated.” Exfoliated doesn’t mean that your skin has been rubbed off to the point of pain (if it did, body wash would be so hardcore), it means scrubbing dead skin off. I don’t know why she chose to use this word instead of saying that her finger was rubbed raw or something. It took something away from the scene because the author was trying to be serious, then she wrote exfoliate, and I couldn’t take it seriously.
I kept forgetting that this is a young adult book. At least I think it’s a young adult book. I’m honestly not sure because in one sentence Edna will be acting like a ten year old, and in the next she’ll be calling some woman an “alley whore.” I’m not kidding. This is an actual quote. I would assume that that kind of thing wouldn’t be in a middle grade novel, but I would also assume that the writing would be a little more complex, and the characters would be a little more mature in a young adult book.
Everything in the plot of this book was so easy. Edna needed someone to take her to the swamp and then IMMEDIATELY she found Ike. But she didn’t just find him, he tried to rob her, then he heard her story and decided he would take her to the swamp. And, of course, he knew exactly how to get to the swamp and how to defeat the hags. Whenever they needed something it was right there and easy to find. It’s so unrealistic. That’s not how life works, and that’s not how a book should work either. Not a well-written book anyway.
There was a part towards the end where for half of a page there was a bit that got really into social justice, and then she just dropped it. I had been told by a friend who had read this that there was a bit of social justice stuff at the end, but it was random and very quickly dropped, so I was looking for that part. I honestly didn’t realize that that was the part until I had finished the book and there was nothing else about social justice. I kept thinking that that part wasn’t actually the bit my friend was talking about because, if I hadn’t been told that it was coming, and if I hadn’t been looking out for it, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed it. I’m not exaggerating when I say there was half a page on this stuff. Wait, no, I am exaggerating. There was less. And it was weird as it didn’t really fit with the rest of the story. If there had been bits of social justice stuff scattered throughout the story, then a lot at the end, where maybe it would become the point of the book, it would have been more reasonable. As it was handled, it doesn’t add anything to the plot, and I can’t imagine why the author put this in. In fact, it makes everyone seem even more shallow when it gets dropped at the point when Edna and company can be rich and live in the castle. Social justice doesn’t matter anymore, I guess.
I’m going to end my criticisms of the book here, even though there are plenty more things that are wrong with it that I haven’t mentioned yet. I could honestly go on for hours about everything that’s wrong with it, but it would be weird to have a review longer than the book.
But before we leave this train wreck, I want to say a few more things about this sort of book and publishing.
Whoever bought this book was looking for a well-written, enjoyable book, and instead they got this waste of paper. (Those poor sad trees. I’m sure they dreamed of being more than this. Toilet paper, maybe?) It’s not okay to publish something this bad because it’s not fair to the readers. Your goal as an author, or as a publisher, should be to make books that are well-written and that people would actually get something out of. This publisher is obviously not doing that. There were spelling and grammar mistakes that should have been picked up by the word processor the author used, or, if not that, an editor should have noticed. If you’re going to publish something, it should at least be grammatically correct.
Another reason it’s not fair is that it’s not fair to the author. The publisher (for the little they are worth) never pushes the author to be better. They take a book that’s worse than a first draft written by a thirteen year old and they publish it. I’m sure it feels great for the author to be able to hold their published book, but wouldn’t they feel more proud to have a book they know is amazing? Maybe some of these authors have some kind of talent that could actually become something if they really worked on it. However, instead of pushing themselves to be better, and instead of editors pushing them to be better, they get their poorly written novel published and think they have well-developed talent. There are plenty of positive reviews on this book on goodreads. If the author checked the reviews, I’m sure she’d see all the positive ones and ignore the negative ones, because that’s what people do. But without an editor to push her, or the bad reviews to goad her, is she going to improve?
A few words on the so called publisher. The information on the website about submitting a manuscript sounds like the rules for a writing contest for children. When I was younger, I would enter a lot of writing contests for children, so I know what these things look like. If I didn’t already know that this was a serious website for publishing a book, I would have thought it was something for children. If your professional website looks like a contest for children to enter, you may want to rethink your would-be publishing empire. Really the bulk of this book’s problems lay at the feet of the publisher and their editors. This book has the potential to be a really interesting book if it was edited well, and the author was encouraged to fix the issues. She would gain experience, becoming a better author. The public would get a book worth reading. The publisher should be ashamed of themselves. These days everyone wants to be famous and fast. Great authors work for years and years to hone their craft under the guidance of good editors. Publishing houses that just churn out work without challenging the authors to do better serve no one but themselves.
Like I said before, I gave this book one star on goodreads. I would have given it no rating, but I’m pretty sure the only book I haven’t given a rating was Lord of the Flies, and that was because it messed with my emotions so much that I didn’t know how to rate it. (The boy with the glasses. Need I say more?) I know exactly how I want to rate this book, my problem is just that one star isn’t low enough. But, until goodreads starts to offer ratings of negative numbers, I guess I’ll just have to stick with one star.
If you were thinking of reading this, please don’t. Spend your hard-earned money on something better. Perhaps Twilight. I hate Twilight.