A review by ninegladiolus
The Ivory Tomb by Melissa Caruso

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It’s always difficult for me to review all-time favourites, and The Ivory Tomb (and the Rooks & Ruin trilogy as a whole) is definitely a new all-time favourite. So, if you like:

  • Disaster bi main character energy
  • Traumatized sad fae boy love interests...
  • ... Scratch that, make it a whole traumatized yet loving queer found family 
  • Heavy amounts of intricate politics, diplomacy, and bargaining
  • Light and not-so-light stabbings of magical and mundane varieties
  • Demons and devils, the obvious and the unexpected
  • A not insignificant amount of blood, guts, mayhem, and murder
  • Powerful thematic meditations on what it means to be human...
  • … and being loved for who and what we are, human or not

Then this series may also be for you! I can’t recommend this highly enough, honestly. The Rooks & Ruin trilogy is woefully underrated in my humble opinion; I will be reading anything and everything I can by Caruso moving forward.

Thank you to Orbit and Edelweiss for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.