A beautifully written Eastern European fantasy, steeped in fairy tale. 

To get an elephant out of the room, the relationship politics between

Agnieszka and Sarkan

are somewhat uncomfortable

with the popular aesthetics of an ancient semi-mortal in a young man's clothes wooing a high-school aged girl, as well as an emotionally abusive and otherwise coercive beginning to their acquaintance

. 

As these things go, I think it's handled fairly well, but it's not something I would necessarily expect readers to forgive. It's especially frustrating as Novik's second take on a similar aesthetic pulls a similar trick. In Spinning Silver, there is much ado about the injustice and horror of the lot of Novik's women, but while they end up in more or less the positions they were threatened with it is played off as something of a happy and romantic ending. When the characters are dissatisfied with the status quo, why should the readers appreciate its repackaging?  I feel like Agnieszka has more agency and less dire options than Spinning Silver's cast, and the overall feeling is much less uncomfortable, but together the books form enough of a pattern to make me a bit more uncomfortable on rereading than I was before I read Spinning Silver.

That significant caveat aside, the prose is fluid, the pacing is tight, the depictions of magic and of the horrors of The Wood are enthralling, and Agnieszka's point of view makes for excellent company throughout the story. Additional characters are vivid and the novel's turns all feel just surprising enough to excite without feeling sudden or unearned. One of the best reads I've had in a while. I couldn't put it down or stop thinking about it when it ended. I wish I could recommend it unreservedly.