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A review by essjay
Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey
4.75
Well, goddamn.
You know how sometimes you read something that feels like all of your Special Interests have been plucked right from your skull and placed lovingly on a page for you to marvel over? Once Was Willem ended up being like that for me.
Faerie/folktales and fables? ✔️
Zombies (kinda)? ✔️
Úlfhéðinn? ✔️
Biblically accurate angels and nephilim? ✔️✔️✔️
And then another thing at about the halfway point that made me shout "HOLY SHIT, IT'S A [REDACTED]!" that I'm not going to spoil for you bc it made me so fucking happy to realize and I want you to have that realization, too.
The way this story was written is probably not going to be for everyone. I started out keeping track of all the archaic words I had to look up, but eventually gave up and relied on context cues so I wouldn't have to stop reading. But some people are going to LOVE it, and I can't wait to talk to them about it.
You know how sometimes you read something that feels like all of your Special Interests have been plucked right from your skull and placed lovingly on a page for you to marvel over? Once Was Willem ended up being like that for me.
Faerie/folktales and fables? ✔️
Zombies (kinda)? ✔️
Úlfhéðinn? ✔️
Biblically accurate angels and nephilim? ✔️✔️✔️
And then another thing at about the halfway point that made me shout "HOLY SHIT, IT'S A [REDACTED]!" that I'm not going to spoil for you bc it made me so fucking happy to realize and I want you to have that realization, too.
The way this story was written is probably not going to be for everyone. I started out keeping track of all the archaic words I had to look up, but eventually gave up and relied on context cues so I wouldn't have to stop reading. But some people are going to LOVE it, and I can't wait to talk to them about it.