I’ve been friends with the author on TikTok for a while now, and thought the cover and premise of her debut novel were really interesting. So I got stuck in, and I enjoyed it. I found it quite hard to get through and a little slow in terms of the pacing at times, but this book is an interesting take on modern day fairytales, from an unreliable narrator who doesn’t believe in them. I call her unreliable because through most of the story, we don’t know much about her. Only that she has fire magic, and that she accidentally hurt a few people with her magic in the past, and that she has no parents. Maybe that was intentional, but personally it made it quite difficult for me to connect with her as the narrator. But that didn’t mean I stopped enjoying the story, it was just difficult to stay invested at times, but I wanted to keep going because I was intrigued by the world building.
I loved the fact that this has a bit of a Stardust atmosphere at times. You can just imagine the MC crossing the wall and finding her true family on the other side. You have characters in the Above, the Below and the In Between. You have potens, who possess magic but aren’t allowed to use it or risk imprisonment. Jacob Grimm knows who the MC is, and what magic she possesses. Turns out she’s from a long line of Elementals, one of the last. So when he brings her into his magical world, unbelieving, she’s hesistant. But knowing she can help people, and save them from this cruel, scar faced being called Torn, she eventually finds her footing and with the help of a few fairytale characters, discovers who she really is.
This one took me on a ride, and I really enjoyed it. Especially the second part, which is a lot more fast paced.
April Grace 