Vivid, dark, and atmospheric!

Real talk: I almost gave up on this book at 30%. I pushed through and am thankful to report that things finally started to get interesting shortly after! Teaming up with a monster? Okay! Our two characters and their bond of convenience had me hooked enough to keep going. Overall, I liked the plot, but there were several aspects of the book I took issue with: 

There were a lot of things that the author repeatedly told us as well as descriptive phrases that they repeatedly used: how much of a monster Ravel was, what the thousandfold smelled like, her treacle-dark hair, endlessly tall, solemn as a vow to name a few. There was a lot of flowery prose describing the setting and sometimes it was distracting rather than atmospheric. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I ate this up, but you’re meaning to tell me that our magic-less MC took our villain down with a handful of berries? Um what in the Hunger Games?! Some of the things in this book felt a little unrealistic. Yes, I know it's fantasy, but still! There's no way that Ravel couldn't have take out Evie if he had wanted to. 

I have mixed feelings about blood based magic. On one hand there’s the practicality - are these people constantly  walking around with a bunch of open sores from all the spells they are casting? And on the other hand - gross. And lastly, my red flag always alerts regarding blood magic because of the antisemitic trope of blood libel; which you can kind of draw a parallel with the vespertine (evil) trapping wardens (good) and using their blood for their magic (ritual sacrifice). 

One thing in particular that I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of light and dark/good and evil while paralleling our main character and villain’s motivations - it definitely scratched a particular itch in my brain.