Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Last Wish

A male power fantasy but a great one. I love the adaptation of classic stories to this world. I love the characters. I love how they interact. Jaskier (Dandelion) and Geralt's relationship is so well written. They really sound like old friends and I smile every time they have scenes together.

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brittni_in_ink's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.25

I enjoyed this more than I expected! The episodic format and time jumps were interesting, and I liked getting to know Geralt and his main circle through the short stories that make up the book. The "monsters" had nuance to them, and the action sequences were very well written. Having fairy tale references throughout was also interesting! Also props to the translation team - the quality of the writing really shone through.

I'd played a little of the Witcher 3 before reading this, so I was familiar with the characters and the kinds of stories I'd encounter. But I didn't expect the book to be so funny. There were some legit laugh out loud moments. Geralt does say "hmmm" a lot.

Overall, the lore and the characters were compelling, and I'll definitely continue reading through the series.

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pvbobrien's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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jewelkr's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

My adult kid gave me this book as a birthday present because we enjoyed watching the Netflix series together. This is one of the cases when the moving image production is better than the book. I'd like to say it's because the stories were written in the previous century by a boomer male and obviously men's opinions of women/people have changed so much since then but regrettably I can't - women's lives are still a full of inequity and fear. I will say that the people who produced the series addressed a lot of the absolutely disgusting misogyny in the book, as well as restringing the story in a cohesive manner and giving Geralt a personality. Reading one account after another of what a woman (always referred to as a "girl" by the author) looks like, whether she passes the male-imposed standard for attractiveness, the incredible, cliche'ed detail of their breast-enhancing, thigh-revealing, hip thrusting outifts (compared to the male characters of whom very little is said about what they wear), the sexualization of the fight scenes between the Witcher and his female foes (always thighs and breasts exposed during a viscous fight to the death), the opening scene of an actual girl sexually attacking the Witcher in his sleep as part of her priestess training - it was all so gross that I had a hard time processing the stories behind these disturbing revelations of what men think when they see women. The stories were interesting, although I was hoping for more of Geralt's back story, and you have to keep in mind that these stories preceded the Game of Thrones celebrity not to find them kind of hackneyed. Sadly, no matter what male writers imagine, women are always relegated to one of three roles - virgin or girl I'd like to have sex with, whore or in this case demon, and female bringing beverages to men. If we are imagining a different world, couldn't we fantasize something different for the women for change?

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