Scan barcode
aloeverra's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Absolutely fantastic read, it started out a little slow but as soon as you add a few more perspectives in the story it picked up for me. I listened to the audiobook of this and the reader was incredible. I loved every voice, I could tell who was talking within the first few sentences even though the perspective changes weren't announced.
The book had a fun blend of different fairy tale retellings, though all were subtle. The strongest link was to rumplestiltskin, though how that story was adapted was very clever in this books plot.
The topic themes in this book really resonated with me. The idea that the three main women in the book are all stuck in these circumstances out of their control. Instead of despairing or complaining about it, they find ways to control aspects of their life little by little. At first, its small but their strength grows. I also loved the idea of what is magic really? Each person sees miraculous or wonderous things in different places depending on their experiences. Even just the act to give without wanting anything in return can seem impossible to some people.
The book had a fun blend of different fairy tale retellings, though all were subtle. The strongest link was to rumplestiltskin, though how that story was adapted was very clever in this books plot.
The topic themes in this book really resonated with me. The idea that the three main women in the book are all stuck in these circumstances out of their control. Instead of despairing or complaining about it, they find ways to control aspects of their life little by little. At first, its small but their strength grows. I also loved the idea of what is magic really? Each person sees miraculous or wonderous things in different places depending on their experiences. Even just the act to give without wanting anything in return can seem impossible to some people.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty
Domestic abuse tagtibbarasden's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
4.5
I debated about giving this a five-star, but in the end, even though I thoroughly enjoyed the story/characters I couldn't quite give it that. The atmosphere of this book was spot on. I liked the little connections of the three main characters throughout the storyline. I loved the fire and ice/winter and summer theme throughout. The only thing I didn't like was the number of POVs (6) and the way the author transitioned through the POVs. It wasn't always clear initially whose POV it was, which would take me out of the story a little. Also, I didn't feel the tree's backstory was explained, which left me a little dissatisfied with its whole role. But everything else about the story was wonderful, and I loved how it played out in the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, and Animal death
ink_and_wings's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Body horror, and Death of parent
Moderate: Confinement, Antisemitism, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Violence, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty
sucralose's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The men are kinda useless but hot I guess.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse and Animal cruelty
brassmonkey's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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? Yes
3.0
The second half is just really fucking boring. Sorry. Cool concept.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Death of parent
Moderate: Antisemitism, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Blood
Minor: Stalking, Miscarriage, War, and Animal cruelty
chattie_the_mad_chatter's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The plot, atmosphere and retelling of the fairy tale Rumplestiltskin was really well crafted. All the different parts of the story pulled together for the final.
I enjoyed how it drew from Mythology as well as different aspects of the fairy tale and the use of thrice repeated. The Winter atmosphere of both the mortal and Stark Kingdoms along with the harsh world's of both created a fantastic winter setting.
Themes of a pragmatic business sense and greed were mixed with compassion and weakness along with women at the bottom of life's ladder finding inner strength to take their place in the harsh unrelenting world.
It was nice to see Jewish representation with a fantasy and the family values were the spot of warmth that was well needed.
Despite this, I did not warm to the characters and I can’t pinpoint why. I liked them and followed their adventures, but i did not make friends with them and grow attached like I usually do with at least one characte. I'm not sure if this was a narrative voice choice where secondary characters gave first person perspective and I would have preferred 3rd person? That could be a factor. I am glad I read this, but it's not going to be a favourite re-read, which I think is down to my personal preference.
I enjoyed how it drew from Mythology as well as different aspects of the fairy tale and the use of thrice repeated. The Winter atmosphere of both the mortal and Stark Kingdoms along with the harsh world's of both created a fantastic winter setting.
Themes of a pragmatic business sense and greed were mixed with compassion and weakness along with women at the bottom of life's ladder finding inner strength to take their place in the harsh unrelenting world.
It was nice to see Jewish representation with a fantasy and the family values were the spot of warmth that was well needed.
Despite this, I did not warm to the characters and I can’t pinpoint why. I liked them and followed their adventures, but i did not make friends with them and grow attached like I usually do with at least one characte. I'm not sure if this was a narrative voice choice where secondary characters gave first person perspective and I would have preferred 3rd person? That could be a factor. I am glad I read this, but it's not going to be a favourite re-read, which I think is down to my personal preference.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Bullying, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Violence, and Child abuse
haley49's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This was such an intricate and beautiful fantasy. All the povs fit together so well and told a story that was masterfully done. There were some skimmable parts, too many povs, some pacing issues, and a need (in my opinion) for more side character character depth. However, in the end the world building and continuous story was so well done I couldn’t help but enjoy it. I liked how the MC was Jewish as I hadn’t seen that in fantasy and you can really see how it effects her life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Grief, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Dementia, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Classism, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, and Abandonment
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Violence, and Torture
maeverose's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.0
TL;DR: I’m sad because I really liked some aspects of this and it had the potential to be a favorite, but it needed to be shorter, have less povs, and have the romance not be toxic, and then make it a little more of a focus. I also don’t care for the gratuitous violence…
The toxic romances. First I should say that this isn’t a romance book. I went into this with the expectations of it being a fantasy romance and it’s definitely not. That’s my bad, I thought I’d heard people talk about it as if it was. There’s only a tiny tiny bit of romance at the very end, but the way the two male love interests treat their eventual partners is incredibly toxic. I made some lists to illustrate the point (spoilers, obviously & tw for rape and sa):
The Staryk king threatened to kill Miryem if she didn’t complete his tasks, threatened to kill her family, forced her to marry him, was physically aggressive with her, nearly raped her, trapped her in her room with no food or water for a day, used her to lengthen winter in turn harming people from her world, generally treated her like shit, it’s also made clear that his people killed and raped innocent people in the sunlit world for centuries, and he had no problem with it. Mirnatius scared Irina as a child by leaving her dead squirrels, clearly had no issues with the demon trying to kill her, touched her sexually without her consent and might’ve raped her if she hadn’t stopped him, generally treated her like shit
And it’s so sad because both of those relationships could have been really fun if they hadn’t been horrible to each other. I love a good enemies to lovers but this is not how you do it.
Gratuitous violence. Mostly from Wendy and Stepon’s povs, where they had to bring up at every opportunity that their father abused them. It felt like the author was just throwing it in there to keep the book feeling dark and gritty but there was no real purpose to it. We already know from the first few chapters that their father is a despicable human being, it didn’t need to be mentioned repeatedly every single time it switched to one of their povs.
The multiple povs. I only cared about Miryem’s and Irina’s a little bit towards the second half of the book. However I wouldn’t say the others were unnecessary (well, Magreta’s maybe) or couldn’t be interesting to other readers. I felt that it was usually pretty clear who’s pov it was right away, but the book does switch povs multiple times in every chapter, so it could get annoying.
Bad autism rep? I wanted to talk about one of the perspectives in particular: Wanda’s younger brother Stepon. His narrative voice is especially different from the others and I can’t tell if it’s just supposed to be that he’s young, abused and had a very isolated upbringing, or if he’s autistic coded. He has sensory issues with noise too, which could be a trauma response from his abuse, I’m not sure, but it felt like an attempt at a very stereotypical representation of autism, and if it was I don’t like that. It’s a very narrow minded interpretation of autism, not to mention it was just so tedious to read.
It’s overwritten. It definitely could’ve (should’ve, imo) been at least 100 pages shorter. Maybe its just because I wasn’t enjoying it that much but it felt like a drag to get through. I was bored for a lot of it.
The writing. Her style just doesn’t work for me. I liked the winter descriptions, and the folktale style of it, but I found certain sentences to be worded awkwardly to where I’d have to read them multiple times to get what she meant. It was the same with Uprooted for me. Like she’s trying to make it sound pretty but it’s just awkward to read. Could just be me. I did find some sentences that were actually grammatically incorrect though…
Homophobic?? This one was easy to miss, but the only - very minor side character - that’s gay has a crush on his own cousin. I feel like I don’t need to explain how that’s problematic.
Gratuitous violence. Mostly from Wendy and Stepon’s povs, where they had to bring up at every opportunity that their father abused them. It felt like the author was just throwing it in there to keep the book feeling dark and gritty but there was no real purpose to it. We already know from the first few chapters that their father is a despicable human being, it didn’t need to be mentioned repeatedly every single time it switched to one of their povs.
The multiple povs. I only cared about Miryem’s and Irina’s a little bit towards the second half of the book. However I wouldn’t say the others were unnecessary (well, Magreta’s maybe) or couldn’t be interesting to other readers. I felt that it was usually pretty clear who’s pov it was right away, but the book does switch povs multiple times in every chapter, so it could get annoying.
Bad autism rep? I wanted to talk about one of the perspectives in particular: Wanda’s younger brother Stepon. His narrative voice is especially different from the others and I can’t tell if it’s just supposed to be that he’s young, abused and had a very isolated upbringing, or if he’s autistic coded. He has sensory issues with noise too, which could be a trauma response from his abuse, I’m not sure, but it felt like an attempt at a very stereotypical representation of autism, and if it was I don’t like that. It’s a very narrow minded interpretation of autism, not to mention it was just so tedious to read.
It’s overwritten. It definitely could’ve (should’ve, imo) been at least 100 pages shorter. Maybe its just because I wasn’t enjoying it that much but it felt like a drag to get through. I was bored for a lot of it.
The writing. Her style just doesn’t work for me. I liked the winter descriptions, and the folktale style of it, but I found certain sentences to be worded awkwardly to where I’d have to read them multiple times to get what she meant. It was the same with Uprooted for me. Like she’s trying to make it sound pretty but it’s just awkward to read. Could just be me. I did find some sentences that were actually grammatically incorrect though…
Homophobic?? This one was easy to miss, but the only - very minor side character - that’s gay has a crush on his own cousin. I feel like I don’t need to explain how that’s problematic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Gore, Physical abuse, Vomit, Child abuse, and Misogyny
Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, Blood, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Classism, Incest, and Miscarriage
Graphic: Eye trauma Moderate: mentioned child rapegoizi's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, and War
Minor: Death of parent
rockyroadbutch's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Death of parent, Violence, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Sexism, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty