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A review by kimwritesstuff
The Gilded Crown by Marianne Gordon
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is a good debut from author Marianne Gordon. The book centers around Hellevir, who can walk in death and bring people back to life. When she brings her mother back from the dead, her mother is startled by what Hellevir is capable of. Sensing her mother's discomfort, Hellevir moves in with the town's midwife/herbalist. While there, the Queen brings her granddaughter who has been poisoned and demands that the herbalist raise her. When Hellevir raises her, the princess Sullivan, she traps herself in a deal with the crown.
Hellevir leaves the town she grew up in and joins her family in the capital. Her mother is still wary of her, but her dad and brother are so excited to have her back. It's genuinely sweet the relationships Hellevir has with her dad and brother. From there, we get into the bones of the plot where Hellevir has a promise to raise Sullivan any time she dies in order to protect her family. At the same time, Hellevir makes a deal with Death to bring him treasures in a trade for raising the dead.
I thought the world-building felt really organic and described the history and religion of the book clearly without being a giant info dump. I wish there had been more info or history about the beings Hellevir was interacting with for the treasures. However, I think that leaving out that information set up a good plot for the next books in the series. I also loved that the queer characters in this book simply existed. There wasn't really any discussion of persecution or exile for being gay. I love a book where queer characters just are.
There were a few confusing plotlines for me. Like, were the treasures good enough for Death that Hellevir wasn't losing more pieces of her soul? Or were they just stand-ins for her limbs? I thought that was a little confusing. I also thought there should have been a little bit of a reveal about what the Onastian (sorry if I spelled it wrong) symbols meant. It was described over and over without actually giving any descriptions or meaning. I get that it sets up the next book, but I felt like it could have been fleshed out more. It just felt like for how good the world-building was, some of the background lore made no sense and could have been fleshed out more.
Overall, I thought this was a solid book, and I'm excited to see where the series goes.
Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
Hellevir leaves the town she grew up in and joins her family in the capital. Her mother is still wary of her, but her dad and brother are so excited to have her back. It's genuinely sweet the relationships Hellevir has with her dad and brother. From there, we get into the bones of the plot where Hellevir has a promise to raise Sullivan any time she dies in order to protect her family. At the same time, Hellevir makes a deal with Death to bring him treasures in a trade for raising the dead.
I thought the world-building felt really organic and described the history and religion of the book clearly without being a giant info dump. I wish there had been more info or history about the beings Hellevir was interacting with for the treasures. However, I think that leaving out that information set up a good plot for the next books in the series. I also loved that the queer characters in this book simply existed. There wasn't really any discussion of persecution or exile for being gay. I love a book where queer characters just are.
There were a few confusing plotlines for me. Like, were the treasures good enough for Death that Hellevir wasn't losing more pieces of her soul? Or were they just stand-ins for her limbs? I thought that was a little confusing. I also thought there should have been a little bit of a reveal about what the Onastian (sorry if I spelled it wrong) symbols meant. It was described over and over without actually giving any descriptions or meaning. I get that it sets up the next book, but I felt like it could have been fleshed out more. It just felt like for how good the world-building was, some of the background lore made no sense and could have been fleshed out more.
Overall, I thought this was a solid book, and I'm excited to see where the series goes.
Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, and Death of parent