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A review by sloanerangerlibrary
The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
3.5
Bardugo’s take on Grimm’s classic fairytales is a fun, quick read. However, the last two stories (the clockmaker and the mermaid stories) were not as good and didn’t really make a lot of sense.
For example, one of the mermaids kills someone so that her BFF won’t have to go through a breakup? Also, the version of Hansel and Gretel was very interesting, especially given her notes at the end and the fact that women are often the ones portrayed as cruel in fairytales, but I felt the child rape part was unnecessary - couldn’t it be enough that he was killing them too? She does this kind of thing in Ninth House too, like can we not…
The illustrations could have been fine if they were just one per chapter, but there was one on every single page that was almost identical to the last one and it did not add anything to the experience.
For example, one of the mermaids kills someone so that her BFF won’t have to go through a breakup? Also, the version of Hansel and Gretel was very interesting, especially given her notes at the end and the fact that women are often the ones portrayed as cruel in fairytales, but I felt the child rape part was unnecessary - couldn’t it be enough that he was killing them too? She does this kind of thing in Ninth House too, like can we not…
The illustrations could have been fine if they were just one per chapter, but there was one on every single page that was almost identical to the last one and it did not add anything to the experience.