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A review by thecaffeinatedreader
Anna Undreaming by Thomas Welsh
4.0
I was lucky enough to receive this book from Thomas Welsh and Owl Hollow Press after responding to a tweet about a review copy. My review is honest and given with no strings attached! But still, a big THANK YOU to the and Kal who strongly recommended this book!
It's rare to get a good dark urban fantasy [It's one of the reasons I became enamoured by Holly Black but I digress] but this one was a very good dark urban fantasy. It was creepy without being too much if you get my drift and the 'worlds' called 'Hazes' were surreal and wonderfully chilling at times. Speaking of Hazes and other things, we were lucky enough that Thomas Welsh put a glossary in the back which came in handy at the start but he also does a great job of explaining the terms during his worldbuilding. And his worldbuilding is not only introducing us to this new setting but Anna as well so it doesn't feel out of place or redundant. [The Sump was my favorite place.]
"Never play their game. Their game is always rigged."
Anna is raw, real, she is suffering through a dark time in her life and she has learned a mantra that suits someone living in a world that's felt so harsh to Anna. I absolutely loved that quote and each time I read it I would be nodding as if to say 'that's right Anna, you got this.' Because usually, she was in the middle of dealing with everything under the sun when that quote came up. Her background isn't thoroughly given up and neither is Teej's, but, you don't need their full histories for this, you're sucked into their world and are rushing with them through everything that happens!
Teej, her mentor of sorts, tries to help Anna in this new world she's been flung into but ultimately Anna is on her own, she is the one who is supposed to be saving him and she saves herself over and over and you have to admire that kind of strength. <3
The pacing was on point, it never really dragged for me, I mean I got impatient but that was not on the book, that was on me, haha. And it's divided into two parts but come on, I read right into the second part to see what was going to happen, who wouldn't? I really enjoyed this book and it was a great read for me.
It's rare to get a good dark urban fantasy [It's one of the reasons I became enamoured by Holly Black but I digress] but this one was a very good dark urban fantasy. It was creepy without being too much if you get my drift and the 'worlds' called 'Hazes' were surreal and wonderfully chilling at times. Speaking of Hazes and other things, we were lucky enough that Thomas Welsh put a glossary in the back which came in handy at the start but he also does a great job of explaining the terms during his worldbuilding. And his worldbuilding is not only introducing us to this new setting but Anna as well so it doesn't feel out of place or redundant. [The Sump was my favorite place.]
"Never play their game. Their game is always rigged."
Anna is raw, real, she is suffering through a dark time in her life and she has learned a mantra that suits someone living in a world that's felt so harsh to Anna. I absolutely loved that quote and each time I read it I would be nodding as if to say 'that's right Anna, you got this.' Because usually, she was in the middle of dealing with everything under the sun when that quote came up. Her background isn't thoroughly given up and neither is Teej's, but, you don't need their full histories for this, you're sucked into their world and are rushing with them through everything that happens!
Teej, her mentor of sorts, tries to help Anna in this new world she's been flung into but ultimately Anna is on her own, she is the one who is supposed to be saving him and she saves herself over and over and you have to admire that kind of strength. <3
The pacing was on point, it never really dragged for me, I mean I got impatient but that was not on the book, that was on me, haha. And it's divided into two parts but come on, I read right into the second part to see what was going to happen, who wouldn't? I really enjoyed this book and it was a great read for me.