A review by carina_shephard
Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore
4.0
3.5 stars // read June 2021
tl;dr: Winter, White and Wicked went wonderfully well; a wild and frigid ride with a whimsical spell. Except for content, which I didn't like. The end.
Actual review:
-First off, the cover. Feast your eyes on the beautiful cover. Feel the temperature drop fifteen degrees as Sylvi stares into your soul. The typography. The alliteration in the title- I almost want to do a video of this review just so I can keep repeating the title. XD
-Worldbuilding! The world is so completely unique and frigid and original, it's really fascinating. There's a dash of dystopian in there too! I also liked the different races and cultures.
-Yay for developed legends and mythology! I thought maybe it was a Snow Queen retelling; it's not, but there are some similarities with Frozen (two sisters, for example.)
-I actually thought that Sylvi was going to end up with someone else. XD I'm glad she didn't, because it would've been the cliche person and would've ended up being weird. I did like the romance- it's sort of in the background and features one of my favorite tropes.
-Plot twists! I figured out one thing, but didn't figure out other things, so it worked out.
-The writing is good, but a little too vague at some points. I really wish that we had a picture of the Sylver Dragon because that was the hardest thing for me to visualize.
-The ending is just tight enough that it works by itself but I'm wondering if maybe a sequel is in the works?
Content: Medium.
Language: Some swearing and crude words (denser towards the beginning of the book.) The word "flux" is used as a swear word and it's rather too easy to translate that into an English equivalent.
Sensuality: Mention of a young girl being assaulted. References to a prostitute.
Violence: By far the creepiest part are the Frankenstein's monster-type creatures, composed of various limbs from different dead people. Eep. Heavy rocks are placed on people as torture. Oh, yeah, and a guy is killed. Mentions of blood. Fun stuff like that.
Other: Sylvi prays to Winter at least once; even though she's technically a winter spirit she's basically viewed as a goddess. There's references to *cough* bodily fluids. Raw kol basically acts as a drug to those who aren't immune or who don't have protection against it.
tl;dr: Winter, White and Wicked went wonderfully well; a wild and frigid ride with a whimsical spell. Except for content, which I didn't like. The end.
Actual review:
-First off, the cover. Feast your eyes on the beautiful cover. Feel the temperature drop fifteen degrees as Sylvi stares into your soul. The typography. The alliteration in the title- I almost want to do a video of this review just so I can keep repeating the title. XD
-Worldbuilding! The world is so completely unique and frigid and original, it's really fascinating. There's a dash of dystopian in there too! I also liked the different races and cultures.
-Yay for developed legends and mythology! I thought maybe it was a Snow Queen retelling; it's not, but there are some similarities with Frozen (two sisters, for example.)
-I actually thought that Sylvi was going to end up with someone else. XD I'm glad she didn't, because it would've been the cliche person and would've ended up being weird. I did like the romance- it's sort of in the background and features one of my favorite tropes.
-Plot twists! I figured out one thing, but didn't figure out other things, so it worked out.
-The writing is good, but a little too vague at some points. I really wish that we had a picture of the Sylver Dragon because that was the hardest thing for me to visualize.
-The ending is just tight enough that it works by itself but I'm wondering if maybe a sequel is in the works?
Content: Medium.
Language: Some swearing and crude words (denser towards the beginning of the book.) The word "flux" is used as a swear word and it's rather too easy to translate that into an English equivalent.
Sensuality: Mention of a young girl being assaulted. References to a prostitute.
Violence: By far the creepiest part are the Frankenstein's monster-type creatures, composed of various limbs from different dead people. Eep. Heavy rocks are placed on people as torture. Oh, yeah, and a guy is killed. Mentions of blood. Fun stuff like that.
Other: Sylvi prays to Winter at least once; even though she's technically a winter spirit she's basically viewed as a goddess. There's references to *cough* bodily fluids. Raw kol basically acts as a drug to those who aren't immune or who don't have protection against it.