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A review by surbhi_reads
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Bumping it up to 4⭐️ after the re-read!
“Wolves were everywhere. In politics, on thrones, in beds. They cut their teeth on history and grew fat on war.”
[b: The Gilded Wolves|39863498|The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1)|Roshani Chokshi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1525714353s/39863498.jpg|53547018] was one of my most anticipated releases of 2019 and honestly, I am a tad bit disappointed with this book. It isn’t that it’s bad, in fact, somewhere, I felt it to be a very clever book, which, deals with science, history, myths as well as politics, however, regardless of all the positive points above, my problem lies with the fact that it took me forever to really be interested or even start making sense of the plot and that’s a huge deal breaker for me.
The Story is set in an alternate version of Paris in the year 1889. In this world, some people can forge things and the forging ability is of two types, there’s mind affinity and there’s material affinity. Severin is a hotelier but he is also a treasure hunter and him along with his group of misfits are roped in with the infamous secret society called the Order of Babel to find a rare artifact, which has the power to destroy the world.
I am going with the positive aspects of this book first. This is the first book that I read by [a: Roshani Chokshi|13695109|Roshani Chokshi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1544538355p2/13695109.jpg] and I really enjoyed her lyrical writing style and the use of multiple POV in the narration. However, the best thing about this book is without a doubt it’s characters, they are a very diverse and merry group and each one of them brings a very interesting trait to the overall story. I couldn’t get enough of the characters and the relationship dynamic between them. Severin, Laila, Zofia, Enrique, Hypnos, and Tristan care so much for each other and their banter was such a delight to read.
“Make yourself a myth and live within it, so that you belong to no one but yourself.”
Severin is the leader of the group and the brain behind all the mischief’s, honestly, it took some time but he eventually grew on me, his relationship with Tristan is extremely endearing and I am heart-broken after that ending, they honestly, deserved better. My favorite characters though is Zofia, Enrique, and Hypnos because I found them the most interesting and intuitive of the lot and their respective representation of Autism and LGBTQ+ was done so, so well.
I can’t praise the author enough for bringing this cast of characters together, they are diverse in both their color of skin and their sexualities and all of their struggles pertaining to it felt very real and fresh. The plot isn’t very romance-centric but the tension between certain characters was extremely tangible and delicious. I also loved the relationship between Zofia and Laila. Laila is the mother of the group and she cares for everyone but the amount of care she shows towards Zofia is so heartening and wholesome. Laila is the found sister everyone needs in their lives. Also, Laila is an #ownvoices Indian character, so many cheers to that. Apart from the characters, I also loved the setting of this book, the author does a fantastic job in bringing out the glamour and glitz of Paris to life and I basked myself in the decadence of the city which can be equally good as well as cruel.
“History is a myth shaped by the tongues of conquerors.”
As for the negative aspect and the reason this book didn’t really work for me despite my love for its character are the ever so confusing plot and magic system. There was heist upon heist and scheming upon scheming but most of, these parts were excessively confusing and sometimes even over-explained. I am totally blank about the whole tower of babel business and the various puzzles and how they were solved really bewildered me. It may just be a ME problem but because of the perplexing world building, I couldn’t really connect myself to the general plot. I knew what was going on or at least the gist of it but I was more interested in finding out if the characters made it out safe or not instead of the actual heist. I really think that this could be a much better book if the world and the magic system was explained a little better because it had something new to offer to the YA Fantasy scene. Only, if it wasn’t so dense and heavy at times.
Overall, there were things I loved and a few things I didn’t really care about but despite it all, I made it until the end, so that’s something. I may or may not pick the next book in the series but that’s something only time will tell. I know everyone has been comparing it to Six of Crows but I beg to differ, the similarities between the two books ends with the rag-tag group carrying out a heist because after that, [b: The Gilded Wolves|39863498|The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1)|Roshani Chokshi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1525714353s/39863498.jpg|53547018] embarks on a journey of its own which is very different from that of [b: Six of Crows|23437156|Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459349344s/23437156.jpg|42077459].
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“Wolves were everywhere. In politics, on thrones, in beds. They cut their teeth on history and grew fat on war.”
[b: The Gilded Wolves|39863498|The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1)|Roshani Chokshi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1525714353s/39863498.jpg|53547018] was one of my most anticipated releases of 2019 and honestly, I am a tad bit disappointed with this book. It isn’t that it’s bad, in fact, somewhere, I felt it to be a very clever book, which, deals with science, history, myths as well as politics, however, regardless of all the positive points above, my problem lies with the fact that it took me forever to really be interested or even start making sense of the plot and that’s a huge deal breaker for me.
The Story is set in an alternate version of Paris in the year 1889. In this world, some people can forge things and the forging ability is of two types, there’s mind affinity and there’s material affinity. Severin is a hotelier but he is also a treasure hunter and him along with his group of misfits are roped in with the infamous secret society called the Order of Babel to find a rare artifact, which has the power to destroy the world.
I am going with the positive aspects of this book first. This is the first book that I read by [a: Roshani Chokshi|13695109|Roshani Chokshi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1544538355p2/13695109.jpg] and I really enjoyed her lyrical writing style and the use of multiple POV in the narration. However, the best thing about this book is without a doubt it’s characters, they are a very diverse and merry group and each one of them brings a very interesting trait to the overall story. I couldn’t get enough of the characters and the relationship dynamic between them. Severin, Laila, Zofia, Enrique, Hypnos, and Tristan care so much for each other and their banter was such a delight to read.
“Make yourself a myth and live within it, so that you belong to no one but yourself.”
Severin is the leader of the group and the brain behind all the mischief’s, honestly, it took some time but he eventually grew on me, his relationship with Tristan is extremely endearing and I am heart-broken after that ending, they honestly, deserved better. My favorite characters though is Zofia, Enrique, and Hypnos because I found them the most interesting and intuitive of the lot and their respective representation of Autism and LGBTQ+ was done so, so well.
I can’t praise the author enough for bringing this cast of characters together, they are diverse in both their color of skin and their sexualities and all of their struggles pertaining to it felt very real and fresh. The plot isn’t very romance-centric but the tension between certain characters was extremely tangible and delicious. I also loved the relationship between Zofia and Laila. Laila is the mother of the group and she cares for everyone but the amount of care she shows towards Zofia is so heartening and wholesome. Laila is the found sister everyone needs in their lives. Also, Laila is an #ownvoices Indian character, so many cheers to that. Apart from the characters, I also loved the setting of this book, the author does a fantastic job in bringing out the glamour and glitz of Paris to life and I basked myself in the decadence of the city which can be equally good as well as cruel.
“History is a myth shaped by the tongues of conquerors.”
As for the negative aspect and the reason this book didn’t really work for me despite my love for its character are the ever so confusing plot and magic system. There was heist upon heist and scheming upon scheming but most of, these parts were excessively confusing and sometimes even over-explained. I am totally blank about the whole tower of babel business and the various puzzles and how they were solved really bewildered me. It may just be a ME problem but because of the perplexing world building, I couldn’t really connect myself to the general plot. I knew what was going on or at least the gist of it but I was more interested in finding out if the characters made it out safe or not instead of the actual heist. I really think that this could be a much better book if the world and the magic system was explained a little better because it had something new to offer to the YA Fantasy scene. Only, if it wasn’t so dense and heavy at times.
Overall, there were things I loved and a few things I didn’t really care about but despite it all, I made it until the end, so that’s something. I may or may not pick the next book in the series but that’s something only time will tell. I know everyone has been comparing it to Six of Crows but I beg to differ, the similarities between the two books ends with the rag-tag group carrying out a heist because after that, [b: The Gilded Wolves|39863498|The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1)|Roshani Chokshi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1525714353s/39863498.jpg|53547018] embarks on a journey of its own which is very different from that of [b: Six of Crows|23437156|Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459349344s/23437156.jpg|42077459].
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