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milooo's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
this was almost 4 stars, just because there are some things that i didn’t love but overall, this is a great book. i absolutely loved the vibes (im a sucker for elemental themed magic). it really reminded me of The Hazel Wood (which i love love love). i went into this read completely blind, so it took me a while to get a hold of what the themes and commentary was about, but once i was up to speed, i really enjoyed this exploration or morality and how different standards are applied to women. the diversity of experiences and circumstances was also a really important angle to explore for this theme, and i think that the book handles this really well. i would recommend checking the content warnings for this because i was caught off guard several times. however, let it be know that i think these difficult topics were addressed with sufficient grace and were not at all gratuitous or trivialised. all the romances were tinged with a weird sense of being ‘not quite right’, which makes sense eventually, but still. the overarching theme of sisterhood would be so well done, if only they weren’t constantly talking about their father or their boyfriends. this is actually something that bothered me a bit during the whole book, that there are just. so. many. men. i know it makes sense plot-wise, but i loved the moments where we got glimpses of each sister’s relationship with each of their mother and how each of them dealt with the consequences of being a woman in Wilhelm Grimm’s world. i wish we got a bigger focus on that. the magic system was nice and vague (just how i like them), but the overall worldbuilding wasn’t developed in a satisfactory way. anyway, to summarise: really good read, just didn’t quite hit like i wanted it to
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Sexual assault
Moderate: Racism and Abandonment
Minor: Rape
sebnia_05's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore, Incest, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Racism
kaylaclark200's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
beldaran1224's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
There were so many things wrong with this book. Let's start with something objective: there are five main POVs in the story, and they swap approximately every half page to page and a half. They are all labelled...but the labels were sometimes wrong, or the POV of the passage would literally shift from one sentence to the next. It was very frustrating.
The plot is very slow, and I kept hoping for a good payoff, but frankly felt it wasn't worth it.
The diversity was shallow, especially in regards to Bea. With Liyana, there is at least one running theme that felt more than a little racist, especially because it was rooted in the family's immigration story. The book explicitly positions itself as feminist, but has nothing of interest to say about feminism, womanhood, or any related topic. Several of our characters experience economic hardship, but any opportunity to say interesting things about them is left by the wayside.
Folklore is used throughout, but in a kind of ham-fisted way. Three of the four girls clearly fit folklore archetypes or are meant to. One is left out for no apparent reason. The folklore didn't particularly enhance the story.
There are quite a number of horrible things that happen to these girls, and it really seems to just be checking tragedies off a list without delving into them or exploring them or how they shape the character of the girls. Check the trigger warnings, because there are a LOT of triggering things. It's meant to be a character driven book, but between the many POVs and the hopping around in time, its hard to get invested in any of them. Both the past sections and the present frequently lacked anything of real interest.
What does this book do well? The ending was interesting. Not amazing, but solid. It doesn't really deliver on any of the elements the blurb sells. All in all, if you're looking for a book that integrates folklore, has themes of anger, feminism, sisterhood, etc., read the Once & Future Witches instead.
The plot is very slow, and I kept hoping for a good payoff, but frankly felt it wasn't worth it.
The diversity was shallow, especially in regards to Bea. With Liyana, there is at least one running theme that felt more than a little racist, especially because it was rooted in the family's immigration story. The book explicitly positions itself as feminist, but has nothing of interest to say about feminism, womanhood, or any related topic. Several of our characters experience economic hardship, but any opportunity to say interesting things about them is left by the wayside.
Folklore is used throughout, but in a kind of ham-fisted way. Three of the four girls clearly fit folklore archetypes or are meant to. One is left out for no apparent reason. The folklore didn't particularly enhance the story.
There are quite a number of horrible things that happen to these girls, and it really seems to just be checking tragedies off a list without delving into them or exploring them or how they shape the character of the girls. Check the trigger warnings, because there are a LOT of triggering things. It's meant to be a character driven book, but between the many POVs and the hopping around in time, its hard to get invested in any of them. Both the past sections and the present frequently lacked anything of real interest.
What does this book do well? The ending was interesting. Not amazing, but solid. It doesn't really deliver on any of the elements the blurb sells. All in all, if you're looking for a book that integrates folklore, has themes of anger, feminism, sisterhood, etc., read the Once & Future Witches instead.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, and Suicide attempt
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