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tyrshand's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
4.0
Despite the description immediately making me think of warlock pacts in D&D, I found myself immediately pulled into the novel's mythology. I was fascinated by the idea of these two sets of, essentially, gods who are neither incredibly beneficial to humankind. At least, while there are examples of benevolent seeming creations, the stories of the old gods were pretty much all rather dark with ample evidence that whatever care they had for humans was pretty callous. The new gods, however, seem less concerned with humanity overall -- except for those who make contracts with them.
The main character, Karys, is one such person. While she's able to scrape by with the power her Ephirite (and is that basically pronounced "efreet" so it's essentially a djinn?) master gave her to speak to the dead, the trade-off is that he gets to force her permanently into his realm someday. No one really knows what happens there, but her short visits indicate it will be horrific and probably involve unspeakable acts and some body horror.
After she accidentally bonds someone to her shadow in attempt to rescue him, she becomes a target for several political groups... but he promises her riches if she can figure out how to set him free. That's the main thrust of the story, but the scope gets so much bigger and there are plenty of misadventures along the way.
This kind of gives it an episodic feel, but also lends to a feeling of things not really resolving at the end. (hence why this is a four star read for me instead of a five -- if there is a sequel, then I might have to bump it up) But at the end of the novel, there are plenty of big issues that could spawn sequels or spin offs and I hope they do. Though Karys was the POV character, the greater found family aspect of the book makes me really want to learn more about where everyone else ended up. And there are minor villains I'd like to see get some comeuppance...
At any rate, overall, just a lovely, gripping writing style that usually is able to span both cosmic (Ephirite) horror and mundane (the difficulty of paying rent) ones.
The main character, Karys, is one such person. While she's able to scrape by with the power her Ephirite (and is that basically pronounced "efreet" so it's essentially a djinn?) master gave her to speak to the dead, the trade-off is that he gets to force her permanently into his realm someday. No one really knows what happens there, but her short visits indicate it will be horrific and probably involve unspeakable acts and some body horror.
After she accidentally bonds someone to her shadow in attempt to rescue him, she becomes a target for several political groups... but he promises her riches if she can figure out how to set him free. That's the main thrust of the story, but the scope gets so much bigger and there are plenty of misadventures along the way.
This kind of gives it an episodic feel, but also lends to a feeling of things not really resolving at the end. (hence why this is a four star read for me instead of a five -- if there is a sequel, then I might have to bump it up) But at the end of the novel, there are plenty of big issues that could spawn sequels or spin offs and I hope they do. Though Karys was the POV character, the greater found family aspect of the book makes me really want to learn more about where everyone else ended up. And there are minor villains I'd like to see get some comeuppance...
At any rate, overall, just a lovely, gripping writing style that usually is able to span both cosmic (Ephirite) horror and mundane (the difficulty of paying rent) ones.
jordandotcom's review against another edition
5.0
ohmygodohmygod I loved this so much & it wrecked me & it’ll absolutely be in my top five for 2024 reads. in the last 20% of the book my notes were just me screaming and “!!!!!!!!!!!!”
charliebee23's review against another edition
5.0
screaming crying throwing up. i can't wait to reread this again after publication.
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