There's a big difference between hating someone in peace and hating someone during war
This book comes out August fourth. I was hoping to review it way before it came out but I got so swamped with NaNo and life. But here we go! My first ARC review!
Stats:
Genre: Fantasy
Feelings: Not really, actually
Happiness: Eh
Cuteness: Did not ship anything. Like. How many people is Beckan gonna make out with?
Fast pacing: Slow, but still it did a good job of engaging me
Series: Nope
Read if you like: ...Weird books. Unique fae type things,
Content: LOLOLOL what does this book NOT have.
a) cursing? Check. A lot of it.
b) Sex? Definitely. Nothing graphic and most of it off page.
c) Prostitute faeries? Why not.
b) Lesbian? Yep. Totally caught me off guard. Like. Wot.
c) Violence? You could say. It's just got some weird concepts
d) Thematic elements? lololol yes
a) cursing? Check. A lot of it.
b) Sex? Definitely. Nothing graphic and most of it off page.
c) Prostitute faeries? Why not.
b) Lesbian? Yep. Totally caught me off guard. Like. Wot.
c) Violence? You could say. It's just got some weird concepts
d) Thematic elements? lololol yes
In one sentence... Told back and forth from past and present, a very unreliable narrator tells the story of Beckan and her friends, and the struggles and conflicts with gnomes and other creatures, filling in the gaps with whatever he wishes.
Thoughts: glitter and dirt
Messages: It's kind of got some really neat family vibes here. And a lot about honesty.
Overall:
Rating: 3/5
This review is SPOILER FREE
The Lovely Bits:
This was...a weird book. I am so conflicted about it. More so then I ever have been.
-Characters-
What was Beckan. See, I saw her from our narrators POV. And our narrator was...special. Beckan was spirited and crazy, but still realistic. She was a damaged, far from perfect character and I had fun reading about her. But I still don't think I'll really care about her.
Then there's Tier, the weirdo. Piccolo, who was random but totally fascinating. And Scrap. Scrap made me feel feelings.
See, there's no character that really stand out. I'll have to give it to Hannah Moskowitz. She knows how to write some crazy realistic damaged characters in a story with as many crazy concepts as this one did. Each one was so...human. Which was surprising, giving they were faeries, gnomes and tightropers. These were some nasty people. Nasty, sad, hurting.
You have to give me a tiny break because I just got back from a writing workshop and I'm noticing more successes in books. This story had a very big struggle, a very good thing for a book.
-Writing and Structure-
The story just had...such cool concepts. Seriously. I love weird concepts. And this story had a lot of them. The worldbuilding, though sparse, was really fascinating. There was little description but there were just enough hints dropped that I could paint a picture of what I pictured it to look like and I loved that. This is one of those books where I am happy about the lack of descriptions.
The story had very little Big Events, but it did such a good job of getting into your head. I think it's good that it was short. It's hard to pull off a "no the writer did not write this the character did" book but Moskowitz did this so masterfully. It felt like someone had actually found this old notebook with the story in it and typed it up. I read this on a weekend trip and half the time forgot I was sitting curled up in a bunk bed at the beach because I was so tangled in this story.
-Messages and other-
This is a light-theme book, but the themes it does have were beautiful when you dug them out. There was a lot about redemption, and war, and recovery. All of it fit well with these characters.
The Less Lovely Bits
For as much as I loved it, there was a lot I didn't care for.
Okay. First off. It was just weird. I mean, I love weird books. I live for weird books. I write weird books.
I think what happened is I really didn't know what to expect. I did not expect prostitute faeries that swear every single sentence. I did not expect this wacky world, these wacky characters. Everything was so random. And on one hand, it added to the texture of the story and the whole " a character wrote this not the author" vibe, but it also felt off.
There were definitely some scenes that just felt extremely random. As stated above, there is a gay scene towards the end. I didn't get it. I'm sorry, it's not that I had a problem, it was just that I really didn't get why it needed to be there.
I don't know, man. This book is a weird one. I think a lot of people can really care about it. It's a concept and character driven book. But that's the problem.
You have to care about the characters to enjoy the book. If you don't, you'll hate the book. And if the character are impossible to dislike that's fine. But I can see how it would be easy to dislike this cast, which is what makes it a tricky book.
See, there was nothing blatantly bad about this book. Nothing that made me a Rage Monster and want to burn it. There was nothing truly wrong. The whole story as a whole just didn't sit perfect for me as a person. This can be different for everyone.
I honestly thought this was a debut at first. Because I didn't know going in this was written as a character-written-book so it felt very off. As I got into it, I saw more clearly what Moskowitz was trying to do, but starting out it seemed like she had written a NaNoWriMo and published it without edits. (But I do seriously know that's not true because if all NaNo first drafts were like this then we'd be all lucky)
Overall, I did like it. I defintly found myself thinking about it a lot, even if it was less fondly then I wanted. If you can handle some randomness, I'd give it a shot. It really was a fun book.
-Characters-
What was Beckan. See, I saw her from our narrators POV. And our narrator was...special. Beckan was spirited and crazy, but still realistic. She was a damaged, far from perfect character and I had fun reading about her. But I still don't think I'll really care about her.
Then there's Tier, the weirdo. Piccolo, who was random but totally fascinating. And Scrap. Scrap made me feel feelings.
See, there's no character that really stand out. I'll have to give it to Hannah Moskowitz. She knows how to write some crazy realistic damaged characters in a story with as many crazy concepts as this one did. Each one was so...human. Which was surprising, giving they were faeries, gnomes and tightropers. These were some nasty people. Nasty, sad, hurting.
You have to give me a tiny break because I just got back from a writing workshop and I'm noticing more successes in books. This story had a very big struggle, a very good thing for a book.
-Writing and Structure-
The story just had...such cool concepts. Seriously. I love weird concepts. And this story had a lot of them. The worldbuilding, though sparse, was really fascinating. There was little description but there were just enough hints dropped that I could paint a picture of what I pictured it to look like and I loved that. This is one of those books where I am happy about the lack of descriptions.
The story had very little Big Events, but it did such a good job of getting into your head. I think it's good that it was short. It's hard to pull off a "no the writer did not write this the character did" book but Moskowitz did this so masterfully. It felt like someone had actually found this old notebook with the story in it and typed it up. I read this on a weekend trip and half the time forgot I was sitting curled up in a bunk bed at the beach because I was so tangled in this story.
-Messages and other-
This is a light-theme book, but the themes it does have were beautiful when you dug them out. There was a lot about redemption, and war, and recovery. All of it fit well with these characters.
The Less Lovely Bits
For as much as I loved it, there was a lot I didn't care for.
Okay. First off. It was just weird. I mean, I love weird books. I live for weird books. I write weird books.
I think what happened is I really didn't know what to expect. I did not expect prostitute faeries that swear every single sentence. I did not expect this wacky world, these wacky characters. Everything was so random. And on one hand, it added to the texture of the story and the whole " a character wrote this not the author" vibe, but it also felt off.
There were definitely some scenes that just felt extremely random. As stated above, there is a gay scene towards the end. I didn't get it. I'm sorry, it's not that I had a problem, it was just that I really didn't get why it needed to be there.
I don't know, man. This book is a weird one. I think a lot of people can really care about it. It's a concept and character driven book. But that's the problem.
You have to care about the characters to enjoy the book. If you don't, you'll hate the book. And if the character are impossible to dislike that's fine. But I can see how it would be easy to dislike this cast, which is what makes it a tricky book.
See, there was nothing blatantly bad about this book. Nothing that made me a Rage Monster and want to burn it. There was nothing truly wrong. The whole story as a whole just didn't sit perfect for me as a person. This can be different for everyone.
I honestly thought this was a debut at first. Because I didn't know going in this was written as a character-written-book so it felt very off. As I got into it, I saw more clearly what Moskowitz was trying to do, but starting out it seemed like she had written a NaNoWriMo and published it without edits. (But I do seriously know that's not true because if all NaNo first drafts were like this then we'd be all lucky)
Overall, I did like it. I defintly found myself thinking about it a lot, even if it was less fondly then I wanted. If you can handle some randomness, I'd give it a shot. It really was a fun book.
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