I was excited to pick up Untethered because I love gothic fantasy - and it's not hard to sell me on a necromancer heroine! Add in sentient trees and I'm *intrigued* for sure.

I ended up really enjoying Lux and Shaw, as well as their relationship. I thought Shaw's little sister was also a fun side character and wish we'd seen more of her!

Knowing this is book 1 in a duology helps some of my critiques. I felt like the world-building was a bit weak at times and I sometimes found myself confused as to what was actually happening/what the explanation for certain things was. While some of that was the writing itself being unclear, I could also see some of those confusions being cleared up in book 2! I'm particularly interested in the ways Lux's necromancer powers might expand moving forward.

I also found myself wishing for more depth to some of the characters, which I can definitely forsee being fleshed out more in book 2. While I'm giving book 1 a lower rating, I do think I'd pick up book 2 to see how everything resolves!

Thank you to the author, Gloria Bottelman, for allowing me to be part of the ARC team in exchange for an honest review!