Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Gilded Wolves

First of all, it’s super messy. Roshani Chokshi attempted to include too many things in the narrative, but none of them were written well. Info dumping does not stop until very late in the book and I had to constantly re-read entire paragraphs to make sense of the erratic descriptions.

The characters: at first, I enjoyed reading about Enrique and Zofia (I did not care about the rest of them), thinking that their personality traits will lead to some character development. But no. We finish right where we started.

THE JOKES. WERE. AWFUL. The banter got old very fast and pretty much everything Hypnos said was terrible.

The romance. In short: “we wanna fuck”. There was one good moment

between Enrique and Zofia but then it got lost in a love triangle with Hypnos (really?).

The plot. We’ve seen it million times. And it includes many accidents when someone’s foot/hand slipped.

In conclusion: there is really nothing redeeming besides the diversity of the cast. Oh yeah, the book is also supposed to talk about the atrocities of 19th century France (according to Author’s note) but… it does not, not really.

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thecourtofreading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.75

"you can change your name, your eye colour. make yourself a myth and live within it, so that you belong to no one but yourself."

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strange's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.5

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bookishbat's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

it typically does not take me this long to read ~400 page books, but this one took me a while, and i'm going to basically summarize TGW like this: something is missing.

the plot felt very underwhelming. the world-building to this version of paris + houses + forging felt very surface-level. i'm not quite sure i could explain the concept back to you. the characters also felt like something was equally missing. i could take up some personality traits and whatnot, but i really only left the novel really enjoying zofia and hypnos. everyone else felt like they had a 'set' personality that wasn't just discovered yet or just wasn't touched.

spoilers:

tristan was an off-case. i never felt any emotion for him to begin with and never any emotion at the end. the saddest part was laila and the hot cocoa, not even tristan's death.

everything felt surface level and underwhelming. like i said, something is missing. BUT, this book is gorgeous with representation and diversity. i don't think i've ever read a book with such natural levels of representation.

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alouette's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

another complex book that it's hard to sort out my feelings for. time for a pros and cons list!

pros

the diversity!! most of the main cast was bipoc, some were also queer, and zofia (my beloved) was on the autism spectrum. that last one was really awesome to see because rarely have i come across books about characters with ASD in which their mental disability isn't the main focus but rather just a part of their character. loved it.
banter and character dynamics! their interactions were fun with also plenty of complexities and depth, and i was rooting for them the whole way.
the whimsy and the magic system! while it was confusing, it was also intriguing. the puzzles they solved + the magical inventions they used were fun to follow in each individual instance, and i liked the illustrations as they made new discoveries. it helped me visualize what was happening and get more immersed.

cons

confusing worldbuilding. the intertwining of actual history with heavy fantasy elements was interesting, but we were thrown into it with little preamble and even the baseline of the main plot got hard to follow at times. the flowery writing was lovely for my imagination but did not help when trying to understand what was actually going on.
a lack of character development. now, i don't mean that the characters weren't plenty rounded, just that they weren't dynamic. everything about them was pre-established (again, we're thrown right into this world abruptly) and they've all known each other for years. while this made for some fun dynamics, it meant that i sensed little change in any of them by the end.
the villian...
he really came out of nowhere and i didn't even understand what the heck his magical blood powers were. when they talked about the stealing of House Kore's ring being an inside job i was expecting some betrayals, not this weirdo...
the ending... quite rushed and disappointing.
tristan deserved so much better in terms of character development and time devoted to him, and then it felt like what happened to him was absolutely brushed past, both the trauma he suffered and then his actual demise. still don't know what the heck was up with the birds, the reveal that he was killing them was super rushed and not explored.

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cnohero's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I almost DNF'd this one. I liked the characters and I think the premise seems interesting but it just wasn't carried out all that well. I sort of had to push myself to finish it.

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