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ravensandpages's reviews
585 reviews
What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
4.5
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Nightfire!
What Feasts at Night was one of my most anticipated reads this year, and I could end the year happy if I blinked and it was December 31st. Being in Alex Easton's head is one of my favorite places, and the unerring forward movement, sharp wit, and well-crafted conversational tone have cemented them as one of my favorite narrators and characters.
This is a sequel (one of many? hopefully? hint hint?) to What Moves the Dead and follows Alex as they travel to their home country of Gallacia with the beloved Angus and Hob, intending to spend the autumn in their family's hunting lodge with Miss Potter. When they arrive, they find the caretaker dead with rumors that he was killed by a breath-stealing creature that walks in dreams. Alex isn't inclined to believe them, but the uncanny silence following them around the grounds and haunting them at night seems to prove otherwise...
Reading this made me wish that What Moves the Dead had been just slightly less iconic. I haven't yet mastered the art of judging a sequel on its own without comparing, and this book had a very different tone and atmosphere than the slow dread and horror of the first. The two have different bases and themes, though; What Feasts at Night did a wonderful job of building out Easton's past as a soldier and exploring PTSD. I also enjoyed the slightly less isolated setting, and T. Kingfisher has a phenomenal way with characters. I've never met one I wasn't engrossed by, even if I hated them, and I loved everyone between these pages.
While I may need time to round this up to a full five star, I still highly recommend this read and this universe. Thank you again to Tor Nightfire for approving me for this arc! I am eternally grateful. Please let me know what address you want my firstborn shipped to.
❧ 4.5 ★
What Feasts at Night was one of my most anticipated reads this year, and I could end the year happy if I blinked and it was December 31st. Being in Alex Easton's head is one of my favorite places, and the unerring forward movement, sharp wit, and well-crafted conversational tone have cemented them as one of my favorite narrators and characters.
This is a sequel (one of many? hopefully? hint hint?) to What Moves the Dead and follows Alex as they travel to their home country of Gallacia with the beloved Angus and Hob, intending to spend the autumn in their family's hunting lodge with Miss Potter. When they arrive, they find the caretaker dead with rumors that he was killed by a breath-stealing creature that walks in dreams. Alex isn't inclined to believe them, but the uncanny silence following them around the grounds and haunting them at night seems to prove otherwise...
Reading this made me wish that What Moves the Dead had been just slightly less iconic. I haven't yet mastered the art of judging a sequel on its own without comparing, and this book had a very different tone and atmosphere than the slow dread and horror of the first. The two have different bases and themes, though; What Feasts at Night did a wonderful job of building out Easton's past as a soldier and exploring PTSD. I also enjoyed the slightly less isolated setting, and T. Kingfisher has a phenomenal way with characters. I've never met one I wasn't engrossed by, even if I hated them, and I loved everyone between these pages.
While I may need time to round this up to a full five star, I still highly recommend this read and this universe. Thank you again to Tor Nightfire for approving me for this arc! I am eternally grateful. Please let me know what address you want my firstborn shipped to.
❧ 4.5 ★
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
5.0
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Del Rey!
Yet another favorite to go on my "took two months to read because my brain refused to let it be over" shelf, especially now that I have no idea what to do with myself now that it's over. (Probably finally read The Winter of the Witch, but that's for later.)
In 1918, a discharged field nurse, Laura Iven, receives word of her brother's death and returns to Belgium to uncover the truth. Two months earlier, in 1917, Freddie Iven wakes up in a dark overturned pillbox with only an enemy soldier to keep him company. Across time, Laura and Freddie try to find their way to each other, bound by a mysterious violinist who's rumored to have the ability to not only show people what they most desire, but also make the hell around them disappear.
THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS is a book that makes me wish I was better at putting my feelings into words, but all I truly have is me sending quotes to everyone I know at all hours of the night and me crying at work, so. I loved it, I'm a mess, I will be rereading. This novel is a true work of art, spellbinding in its themes and setting with characters that cut to the bone with their raw reality. I was captivated right until the end. Arden's writing is haunting and full of true talent. The core of human nature and drive, of how to move on after the world has ended, of old and new worlds colliding were all things I truly needed right now.
I can't thank the publisher enough for giving me the chance to read this. I will be passing on the gift to as many people as I can.
❧ 5 ★
Yet another favorite to go on my "took two months to read because my brain refused to let it be over" shelf, especially now that I have no idea what to do with myself now that it's over. (Probably finally read The Winter of the Witch, but that's for later.)
In 1918, a discharged field nurse, Laura Iven, receives word of her brother's death and returns to Belgium to uncover the truth. Two months earlier, in 1917, Freddie Iven wakes up in a dark overturned pillbox with only an enemy soldier to keep him company. Across time, Laura and Freddie try to find their way to each other, bound by a mysterious violinist who's rumored to have the ability to not only show people what they most desire, but also make the hell around them disappear.
THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS is a book that makes me wish I was better at putting my feelings into words, but all I truly have is me sending quotes to everyone I know at all hours of the night and me crying at work, so. I loved it, I'm a mess, I will be rereading. This novel is a true work of art, spellbinding in its themes and setting with characters that cut to the bone with their raw reality. I was captivated right until the end. Arden's writing is haunting and full of true talent. The core of human nature and drive, of how to move on after the world has ended, of old and new worlds colliding were all things I truly needed right now.
I can't thank the publisher enough for giving me the chance to read this. I will be passing on the gift to as many people as I can.
❧ 5 ★