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A review by ladyelfriede
The Tenfold Tenants by E.V. Belknap
4.25
I am...very, VERY surprised this was a debut.
I'm like, half convinced this was a draft for a third book, and she already secretly published 3 books already, but this story got shelved for like 10 years, and Belknap dusted it off, changed her name slapped it on Tiktok, and here we are. *stops making tinfoil hats*
This is the first time where I have an indie book from Booktok that's genuinely good!
It's not perfect, of course, but damn, this is what I was hoping "Dreadful" would be and then some!
It's spoopy, cozy, makes you think a little too much about your failures in life like a true "horror" (hey existentialism is a type of a horror, man), and the setting is....well,
Compared to "Dreadful" where it was nondescript European country side with a dark wizard....OK, maybe Belknap didn't pick the best setting but hey, at least it's London with some snippets of worldbuilding and depressing realism. We didn't get much of anything in "Dreadful" in comparison. Fluff with little to no obstacles.
At least here there were obstacles and the found family that I fucking wish I had.
Go in for the cover, come out of it realizing how lonely you are! :D
Prose: The shining star in this book. If you love really diving into one POV only, this is it. We dive into it so smoothly that I forget I'm reading and not question my life choices of why I bothered with college. There are so many relatable lines that I wish I could have had this book physical so I can tab this shit. Excellent work! +3
Plot: We're trying to find out if someone is human or not and we're taken them in as our ward. Only problem is, the magical organization that put us in charge, doesn't want this person to find out about magic.
The OTHER problem is, where she's staying has a demon, a necromancer (and a Skeleton named Luke), a harpy, a faerie, a muse, a soul guide, two werewolves, one vampire, a demon, a mysterious shadow manipulator, and a potential poltergeist named Spoopy(?)
It was such a fun plot, to the point some scenes are burned in my head now, that it's way more involved than most cozy books. Loved it! +2
Pace: It's a medium pace, not too slow, not too fast, but the first few percentage is a bit of a slodge because we're understanding this author's style. But once you get used to it, it's well worth the money, trust me. Just because it's not on KU, doesn't mean you bypass this book. +1
Characters: Sadly, while we do get a bit deep dive on the MC and his life, and we do get a diverse character skeleton of the tenants, we only touched very little on the other tenants of the book. I wanted more ethnic diversity since London is a melting pot of SO MANY immigrants.
We only got two diverse characters and the rest are implied to be white so it didn't feel that realistic. It would have been nice to make a few of the girls be from other ethnicities. We touched basis that there are magical creatures in other countries but we primarily only focused on EU which was a bit sad and I wanted there to be a more diverse mix. -2.0
Vibe: Spoop London but make it LGBT friendly which was welcoming in a world full of darkness +1
Worldbuilding: The other reason why this is not a perfect 5 stars. The worldbuilding, while it was there, wasn't all that much and discussed only the MC's life and backstory. We do get some snippets of other places and their worldbuilding, but no explanation of the magic system and discussion of the other magical tenants and their creatures... it's just not a lot for me to merit this book as 5/5.
I loved this book, don't get me wrong, but it was more of a character/found family drama than an actual worldbuilding fantasy type of book. Think of it as an urban cozy fantasy and you'll get a better picture of what to expect. -.75
-
The saving merit of this book is the prose itself and the worst part of it is the lack of diversity and lack of increased worldbuilding that it just feels like London with a touch of Spoop. But the prose is so good that at the very least, if you have a few bucks and looking for a cozy time, it's still ridiculously good for a debut.
Hopefully after a few books she'll get the hang of inserting more diversity but by no means should she be written off. I look forward to reading more books by her in the future.
4.25/5
I'm like, half convinced this was a draft for a third book, and she already secretly published 3 books already, but this story got shelved for like 10 years, and Belknap dusted it off, changed her name slapped it on Tiktok, and here we are. *stops making tinfoil hats*
This is the first time where I have an indie book from Booktok that's genuinely good!
It's not perfect, of course, but damn, this is what I was hoping "Dreadful" would be and then some!
It's spoopy, cozy, makes you think a little too much about your failures in life like a true "horror" (hey existentialism is a type of a horror, man), and the setting is....well,
Compared to "Dreadful" where it was nondescript European country side with a dark wizard....OK, maybe Belknap didn't pick the best setting but hey, at least it's London with some snippets of worldbuilding and depressing realism. We didn't get much of anything in "Dreadful" in comparison. Fluff with little to no obstacles.
At least here there were obstacles and the found family that I fucking wish I had.
Go in for the cover, come out of it realizing how lonely you are! :D
Prose: The shining star in this book. If you love really diving into one POV only, this is it. We dive into it so smoothly that I forget I'm reading and not question my life choices of why I bothered with college. There are so many relatable lines that I wish I could have had this book physical so I can tab this shit. Excellent work! +3
Plot: We're trying to find out if someone is human or not and we're taken them in as our ward. Only problem is, the magical organization that put us in charge, doesn't want this person to find out about magic.
The OTHER problem is, where she's staying has a demon, a necromancer (and a Skeleton named Luke), a harpy, a faerie, a muse, a soul guide, two werewolves, one vampire, a demon, a mysterious shadow manipulator, and a potential poltergeist named Spoopy(?)
It was such a fun plot, to the point some scenes are burned in my head now, that it's way more involved than most cozy books. Loved it! +2
Pace: It's a medium pace, not too slow, not too fast, but the first few percentage is a bit of a slodge because we're understanding this author's style. But once you get used to it, it's well worth the money, trust me. Just because it's not on KU, doesn't mean you bypass this book. +1
Characters: Sadly, while we do get a bit deep dive on the MC and his life, and we do get a diverse character skeleton of the tenants, we only touched very little on the other tenants of the book. I wanted more ethnic diversity since London is a melting pot of SO MANY immigrants.
We only got two diverse characters and the rest are implied to be white so it didn't feel that realistic. It would have been nice to make a few of the girls be from other ethnicities. We touched basis that there are magical creatures in other countries but we primarily only focused on EU which was a bit sad and I wanted there to be a more diverse mix. -2.0
Vibe: Spoop London but make it LGBT friendly which was welcoming in a world full of darkness +1
Worldbuilding: The other reason why this is not a perfect 5 stars. The worldbuilding, while it was there, wasn't all that much and discussed only the MC's life and backstory. We do get some snippets of other places and their worldbuilding, but no explanation of the magic system and discussion of the other magical tenants and their creatures... it's just not a lot for me to merit this book as 5/5.
I loved this book, don't get me wrong, but it was more of a character/found family drama than an actual worldbuilding fantasy type of book. Think of it as an urban cozy fantasy and you'll get a better picture of what to expect. -.75
-
The saving merit of this book is the prose itself and the worst part of it is the lack of diversity and lack of increased worldbuilding that it just feels like London with a touch of Spoop. But the prose is so good that at the very least, if you have a few bucks and looking for a cozy time, it's still ridiculously good for a debut.
Hopefully after a few books she'll get the hang of inserting more diversity but by no means should she be written off. I look forward to reading more books by her in the future.
4.25/5