whimsydearest

In  Fable for the End of the World , Ava Reid crafts an intriguing dystopian world. The inhabitants of Lower Esopus live in a flooded city where they must navigate by raft and take decontamination tablets to survive. Mutated wildlife roam the woods, and citizens who accumulate enough debt must participate in a deadly cat-and-mouse game called the Gauntlet. I also adored Melinoë as a character. She's an Angel—an augmented cyborg who's raised to be a weapon. However, she must grapple with the guilt of killing people and repeatedly have her memories erased (think along the lines of Bucky or Caleb). When she’s assigned to hunt a girl named Inesa in the Gauntlet, she becomes conflicted. However, it’s the relationship itself where the story falls apart for me. For someone who vehemently despises the government, I feel like Inesa is far too quick to trust her would-be assassin. Likewise, Melinoë is far too quick to discard all of her programming to protect Inesa. In essence, their ene...

 I’ll preface the review by saying that I absolutely adored and devoured The Wolf and the Woodsman and A Study in Drowning , so as soon as I heard that Ava Reid was doing a Macbeth retelling, I was foaming at the bits. This was one of my most highly anticipated reads of the year, which makes me so disappointed to say that it did not deliver. For me, Lady Macbeth fails utterly as a Macbeth retelling and was unrecognizable to me if it weren’t for the characters’ names. The original Lady Macbeth is a ruthless woman who spurs her reluctant husband to war. This is the same iconic character who said, “fill me from the crown to the toe, top full/ Of direst cruelty.” Instead this Lady Macbeth is a timid French girl who blushes and swoons and whose internal monologue constantly consists of her complaining about the barbarism of Scottish customs. This change was baffling to me. How are readers supposed to care about a civil war when its participants are portrayed as brutish and sub-human?...

Marlinchen and her witch sisters live under the thumb of their tyrannical father in the confines of a derelict home, which they are forbidden to leave. They provide their services to visitors who are curious about their old-world charm, but they begin to face poverty and uncertainty as technology booms in the city around them and their magic becomes obsolete. Juniper & Thorn  by Ava Reid presents an hauntingly beautiful retelling of the Brother Grimm's "The Juniper Tree," set in the same world as  The Wolf and the Woodsman . However, it’s worth noting that this book is much, much darker than its predecessor. This isn’t going to be a book for everyone. It unflinchingly explores personal trauma and abuse and some passages were so biting and visceral that they even made me cringe (and I typically have a strong stomach for body horror). I also do have to mention that this book suffers from some pacing and structural issues. The beginning does feel a bit meandering and unf...

  Born without magic, Évike is an outcast of her pagan village, so when Woodsmen arrive demanding they give up a precious Seer—a wolf girl—for their king, they disguise Évike as a Seer and send her instead. However, on their way to take her to the king, their party is attacked by monsters, leaving only Évike and the one-eyed captain named as the survivors. Now, in order to survive, the two of them form a reluctant alliance. Steeped in Jewish mythology and Hungarian history, The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid is an utterly enchanting and richly-woven fantasy. It’s incredible how well-crafted and well-throughout the story’s worldbuilding and lore are. The author delicately navigates the clashing of cultures and both explores the power of myth as well as how myths can intersect across cultures. I guess it’s only fitting that a story so rooted in myths also reads like an old epic poem itself. The writing is earthy and unflinchingly gruesome and, at times, also beautifully tender. I...