The Folk of the Air | Review

I know I usually write about each individual book in a series but I read The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King, The Queen of Nothing, and How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories in such quick succession that they have all blurred together for me. The fact that I read them all so quickly is probably more than enough of a review for some of you but I actually started and ended the series a little unsure, it wasn’t until I accepted that it’s mis-sold as purely enemies-to-lovers (this is a plot point but it’s such a small part of the plot!) and that it’s YA for a YA audience (Holly Black’s writing style is so brilliant I could have mistaken it for adult fantasy if not for the ages of the characters and some of the tropes) that I realised it’s actually pretty amazing. After I finished these books I really thought I’d just forget them in the same way I’ve sort of just let go of The Grisha Trilogy but Holly Black’s The Folk of the Air has stuck with me and I can’t stop thinking of it for a few reasons;

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The Fae

First of all, anyone who knows me will know I’m deeply obsessed with the Fair Folk, the Good Neighbours, the Hidden People, they are my jam, literally just look at my blog title, I wanna look at goblin men and Black delivers plenty of hobgoblin-y goodness for me to gaze upon. Black’s fae, or the Folk, are so close to real folklore they are horrific and believable and utterly inhuman. I know it sounds silly but I love that aesthetic of the fae in literature that isn’t particularly dark or light, evil or good, they are just a terrifying morally neutral thing that dwells in nature. For me Holly Black’s work is up there with books like Jonathan Strange and Me Norrell and Under the Pendulum Sun which are perfect examples of fae to me.

The story follows Jude Duarte, a human whose parents are murdered in front of her by her mother’s ex, the redcap and general of Elfhame, Madoc, only to be taken in and raised by him. Now Madoc isn’t the small redcap goblin we usually imagine; he is tall, but that’s the only real difference from folklore (and I’m sure there’s folklore of taller redcaps) he is green, goblin-like and does indeed have a red cap that he dips in the blood of his slain enemies. He is bloodthirsty, but he is also a father to four children, two of them human, who he raises with care and genuine affection and worry. If you couldn’t tell Madoc is my favourite character but he’s also the perfect example of how complex and interesting Black’s Folk are, they are just so genuine it’s hard not to become a little obsessed with them.

The Politics

Though I’ve spoken about the fae being morally neutral I mean that as a whole. They are not an evil race in the way orcs are in LOTR, but individually they are as morally complex as humans but without the ability to lie. How exciting is that?! Imagine Game of Thrones where no one can tell a lie except for Tyrion. That’s basically how the politics here work, everyone has to be underhand and clever with their words, except for Jude and her sister. Jude would rather live her life by the blade but her ability to lie pulls her into a tangled web of faerie politics that involves her with her arch nemesis Prince Cardan Greenbriar.

Jude and Cardan

Jude and Cardan could be the stuff of a ye olde folk ballad or a medieval epic. They are such strong and distinctive characters. Even without the enemies-to-lovers subplot their relationship is a wild ride. I can’t give away too much but every small progression of their relationship ties in so well with the rules of the Folk, their magical limitations, the relationship between the Folk and humans, it’s just brilliant. Although I wouldn’t say this series is explicitly enemies-to-lovers I can see why people focus on that arc so much Jude and Cardan are just a car crash character pair you literally can’t look away no matter how brutal it gets. I did feel like their relationship was a little rushed towards the end (in fact the whole last book felt rushed) but it was still compelling nonetheless and I think it’s a testament to Black and how she writes relationships that this small aspect of a massive plot captures everyone’s imaginations so thoroughly.

So I guess that’s my review/thought-vomit over, I loved this series and I can’t imagine any lovers of the fae or urban fantasy wouldn’t love it too. It’s probably some of the first YA I’ve read in a while that crosses over very well to adult readers too without relying on steamy romance to build that bridge, looking at you Maas!

Howl’s Moving Castle Trilogy | Review

Whenever I think about Diana Wynne Jones I think about my favourite story about her: that she (and one other) was all that was left in Tolkien’s class at Oxford after he purposefully gave terrible lectures in the hopes that no students would mean more time to write. She found even Tolkien’s attempt at being shite too interesting and I kind of love that about her. You can tell in her books that she has such a strong interest and a keen eye for storytelling in the best kind of way. DWJ could find magic in anything and I definitely think these books speak to that.

Now I will admit I haven’t read any of DWJ’s work as a child, I found her as an adult unfortunately and feel like maybe my childhood was deprived because of it (what a young me would have done to have Sophie Hatter in my life) but it’s all too easy to appreciate these books as an adult too, maybe more so. Initially I picked up Howl’s Moving Castle because I so loved the Ghibli adaptation, but wow the book is something else.

The trilogy with a mug that is so Sophie Hatter I just love it

Howl’s Moving Castle
The first book in the trilogy follows Sophie Hatter, an eldest daughter of three who believes she is bound to a boring life never to go and seek her fortune due to being the eldest, but when she crosses the Witch of the Waste and is cursed to live as a ninety year old woman she becomes the cleaner to Wizard Howl who is more of a massive Welsh mess than he is the feared sorcerer of legend.

For me this book, as well as its first sequel, were just perfect for any Discworld fans. The same attention to detail, the same subversion of fantasy tropes, and the same sort of humour rang through it. DWJ has a mastery of story, she weaves our most primal and familiar stories into something so wonderful and fresh and yet unlike Pratchett’s work it doesn’t feel like crossover fiction for me. Though this book is mostly about adults it’s entirely for children I wouldn’t dream of recommending this to an adult unless they already had a big interest in kidlit. This might not seem a particularly strong opinion but I so rarely read children’s lit that it’s strange for me to come across something that is entirely childlike, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Castle in the Air
Despite being a lot shorter than Howl’s Moving Castle I think I read this one a lot slower. It follows Abdullah, a carpet merchant from Zanzib who meets his true love, Flower-in-the-Night, only to see her snatched away by an evil djinn who he then sets out to challenge. I wanted this book to be my favourite (and it was still brilliant, but was also the low point of the trilogy I think) weirdly, I think I didn’t enjoy it quite as much because it focused almost entirely on two male characters. Something about reading children’s lit turned me back into a kid and suddenly I don’t want to read about boys that’s stupid! Hilariously though, like with the first book, it was the female characters who shined through.

What I did love about this installment was the look at Eastern myths and tropes rather than Western. DWJ claims she even wrote it because she realised she hadn’t covered all the fairy tales available to her after she discovered the stories of the djinn. I’m a big lover of djinn in any fantasy story so it was really refreshing to see it in children’s lit not bogged down by adulthood politics or racism or identity crises in the way they usually are. The way DWJ made her fantasy cultures (clearly based on our own) clash ever so slightly was just wonderful too; there was a beautiful scene where Abdullah was angry with one of his travelling companions and grunted in response to a question, something that was a massive slight in his culture but to the soldier he was travelling with it was just more talking. It was these little attentions to detail that I really enjoyed, and even though this was my least favourite of the trilogy it was still an absolutely brilliant read.

House of Many Ways
The absolute best part of the trilogy if you ask me. This book follows Charmain Baker, a sheltered, bookish young girl who lives mostly off the pastries her father makes in his bakery, who is made to look after her great-uncle-by-marriage’s house whilst he recovers from a mysterious illness. This uncle also happens to be the Royal Wizard of Norland and his house happens to have (you guessed it) so many ways, despite only having one door. Whilst watching the house Charmain becomes entangled in a mystery that is plaguing the royal family and comes across some worrisome creatures whilst discovering her own powers.

This is definitely one for fans of Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching. Despite her naivete Charmain is practical, angry, and ready to fight, though instead of a frying pan she has stern words and a stray dog. What struck me most about this book though was the outright body horror! Without spoiling too much Charmain encounters a creature called a Lubbock that will lay its eggs in you when you’re not looking and the most horrific things will hatch from those eggs and kill you. This might not seem particularly horrible and honestly I found it kind of funny until I remembered that this is a children’s book. Had I read this as a child it would have been on par with Coraline in terms of fears instilled in me. It might still given that I can’t stop thinking about it!

Overall it was refreshing to read some middle grade fantasy instead of my usual depressing reads. I read them quite slowly, but mostly because they were like a literary comfort blanket, I didn’t really want them to end. Luckily now I’ve finished them I still have everything else Diana Wynne Jones has written left to read.

The Grisha Trilogy | Review

Given that the Grishaverse is getting a Netflix series this year I thought I should finally make myself read The Grisha Trilogy. I read it so quick I figured I’d just review them all together and maybe even start fantasy wrap-ups at some point the way I do with romance but more on blog housekeeping another time, when I’ve actually had a chance to plan.

So I won’t lie I wasn’t too pumped to pick this trilogy up. Don’t get me wrong I adored Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom to the point of near obsession, they are excellent books and Leigh Bardugo is an excellent writer who pretty much redefined YA for me and probably a lot of people. But I’d always heard that the Six of Crows duology was her best work and that the trilogy that came before it wasn’t quite as good. Sadly, after reading them all, I sort of have to agree.

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Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate the Grisha Trilogy not even a little bit, in fact I loved it. It follows the story of Alina Starkov who becomes the first Sun Summoner, a type of Grisha (magician, witch, magic user in the Grishaverse) who can summon and manipulate light, who ends up being trained by the Darkling, a Grisha with the exact opposite of her power, someone who can summon darkness. That in itself is a little heavy handed but, I won’t lie, I live for light magic/phosphoromancy/shadow summoning etc. in any kind of fantasy so I was pretty thrilled. But after the first book, Shadow and Bone, it still didn’t reach the glorious heights of Six of Crows. Still, I carried on, because, as with most trilogies, I figured it would get better as I went.

However, I forgot that, in my opinion anyway, most trilogies dip a little in the middle and the second book Siege and Storm felt pretty slow and awkward to me. The ending of Siege and Storm drew me back in though, I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone wanting to read the series before the adaptation, but the second book brings Alina very low and I found myself needing to know what happened so I persisted.

Ruin and Rising is where it paid off though, finally I got a taste of the SoC Bardugo I had come to love and respect. The writing picked up, the plot pacing was spot on, and my investment in the story just skyrocketed. It was absolutely fascinating to read through what was essentially a writer learning how to become the best they can be. It was also really inspiring, the improvements seem sort of minimal in hindsight but they made such a difference to the reading experience. There’s no way for me to tell if a casual read would evoke the same feelings in the reader, I read them all pretty much in a two week period and have the added curse of always judging the writing in what I read because of how I was taught (don’t do creative writing courses if you want to enjoy things folks) but I actually did really appreciate seeing Bardugo grow as a writer.

This comes across as a pretty negative review but believe me I really did enjoy the trilogy. I was dreaming in the Grishaverse for a couple weeks, it became that much a part of my life. It’s made me want to read more YA again and has renewed my love for Leigh Bardugo and her work. If you haven’t yet read Six of Crows read this first, and if you have and are just excited for the Netflix adaptation and fancy an enjoyable YA experience then this is for you!

Age of Assassins|Review

I first heard about R.J. Barker’s Age of Assassins from the Breaking the Glass Slipper Podcast, which is a podcast I really cannot recommend enough for the feminist speculative fiction fan. The hosts of the podcast just kept mentioning this amazing book and given that I trust them I went out and bought it. Then I didn’t read it. And they kept talking about it so eventually I bought the trilogy and… well I still didn’t read it. But after watching The Witcher I really wanted a little more high fantasy in which murderous freelancers were tossed coins so I FINALLY picked up the first book in The Wounded Kingdom Trilogy and honestly my only regret is that I waited this long.

Age of Assassins follows Girton Club-Foot a 15 year old assassins apprentice whose life is changed pretty dramatically (though not for the first time) when his master is called to a kings castle to do the unthinkable; stop another assassin. Their investigation slowly turns from a straightforward job to a full blown Agatha Christie style mystery whodunnit thriller extravaganza and Barker managed to blend all these aspects together perfectly.

So first of all let’s talk about Girton. I’ve never really related to young male characters as a reader, yes there was Harry but I was more into Hermione, and sure Percy was there but who really cared when Annabeth was doing all the damn work, but Barker has managed what I thought was impossible and really made me deeply interested in the actual main character of a fantasy series without scrambling to look around for more relateable female characters.

Couldn’t get a photo without The Goblin trying to help!

Girton is a former slave who is picked up by Merela, a talented assassin, and trained as her apprentice, but as his name suggests he is a disabled character with a clubbed foot and, rather than be wholly perfect, he actually struggles throughout the book to do basic things like run or climb, things an assassin has to do, things that are clearly much easier for Merela. Not being disabled myself I’m not sure how much to really comment on this other than it just being refreshing to me as a reader to read a disabled character when their story is centered entirely on something else. Girton’s disability hinders him, but it also makes him seem unthreatening and gives him a split seconds edge, but no more than him being a skinny little kid. I’m not even sure what I’m trying to say other than I need more fantasy where a characters disability isn’t magic related. I loved it.

As well as making me relate to a character I would usually brush over Barker got me entirely enamoured with a mystery! Mystery lit and crime fiction has never been my thing, I generally don’t care too much about whodunnit or what angsty detective caught them or who rewrote their will before dying alone in a locked room, but Barker really brought that aspect of the story alive for me. By the end my heart was racing, my hands were shaking and I actually gasped, yes people, I audibly gasped at a book, because, as with all the best twists, it made perfect sense! I hate when twists come out of left field but this one was just close enough and just far away enough from all my own theories to blow my mind.

If you weren’t sold on Barker’s genius yet he’s got me interested in a third thing I never would have even glanced at before; violence. Violence in books has always fallen flat for me, which is probably why I liked Lord of the Rings so much more than I thought I would. But unlike Tolkien Barker really takes a good look at violence and makes it seem interesting and horrifying and thrilling and uncomfortable all at once. I usually skim over fight scenes never quite able to picture who was hitting who where or what a blow might feel like, but after every fight scene in this book I could almost smell the stale sweat and taste the tang of blood as Girton limped away defeated from a fight he had won. I hated every moment of it but thirsted for more. R.J. Barker has actually done the impossible and made me bloodthirsty.

This is turning into an essay but I will discuss two more things that I actually love in fantasy fiction but Barker made feel new; dead gods and magic.

So, we’re familiar with dead gods I assume, they crop up in most fantasy works, they die people forget about them and some fanatics still worship them? Not so in Age of Assassins. In Barkers world the gods died and time itself stopped, people continue to worship them because since the death of the gods nothing has changed other than death (Xus the god of death being the only one to survive). I could write a whole essay on this and I might do a post on religion in fantasy soon because I love it, but Barker was just so original with it I couldn’t leave it out.

And with originality I can’t ignore the magic, my gosh, the MAGIC. There is nothing more boring than limitless magic, and most authors are guilty of using this as a deus ex machina, but Barker creates a world where the price of magic is too high to utilise it properly. The story takes place on the edge of the sourlands, a vast yellowed desert of dead land that will never see life again because a mage used its life for magic. This threat looms in the distance throughout the story getting closer and closer to the main plot before you even really realise it’s there. In case you haven’t realised, I think R.J. Barker is a genius.

So far this is easily the best book of 2020, I know it’s only February but by the dead gods I know it’s going to stay fresh in my mind for the rest of the year.