jean_michelle_miernik's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Author Jean Michelle Miernik here! It is my pleasure to watch readers discover and express surprise at how much they enjoy Leirah and the Wild Man, a juicy adventure novel ten years in the making, based on deep research into 11th century Eurasia and Africa and studies of mythology and folklore extending around the world and back thousands of years. It has been a joy to slowly craft and painstakingly edit this tale with a rich, less-traveled Byzantine setting and a vivid cast of diverse characters with morally complicated motives and relationships. My objective was to breathe life back into medieval storytelling, stripping off the Victorian-era-to-modern censorship of the ancient and medieval world's rich earthiness, moral complexity, and dangerously chaotic energy. Readers seeking a new path of adventure and a freshly authentic take on historical fiction--funny, crass, and ecstatic in turns, with a poetic sense of language and imagery--will not regret this dark, brutal, tender, ultimately hopeful trip down the Danube that pits different characters against a wide range of threats from barbaric wilderness survival to the politics of Constantinople. I can promise that you won't find anything else quite like it on the market.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Bullying, Classism, Drug use, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Violence, and Cursing
Minor: Xenophobia, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Mental illness, Excrement, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Incest, Gore, Cultural appropriation, War, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Pedophilia, Biphobia, Body shaming, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Racism
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