when i say i'm looking for a gothic winter fairytale feeling, i'm really just looking for this. it's equal part biting cold and warm hug, cozy and adventurous. it makes no sense but i swear that's what we're working with. vasya is a wonderful character who you instantly root for; i could read an entire book of just her walking around interacting with chyerti. i didn't expect to like the konstanin factor so much but it significantly elevated the plot from just another fairytale and absolutely pushed this above a 4 star read for me. the contrast between religion and the old gods and the external/internal conflict that results was marvelous. and the descent of konstantin with the "voice of god" element and interplay with anna was ugh so good and so effective in both it's execution and resolution. don't let the page count fool you, it took longer than i thought to read. i attribute it mostly to my ignorance of russian naming conventions and lore, and the writing style which was equal parts beautiful and a little bit dense (in a good way) so you really had to pay close attention.

my one and only wish was some of the other characters played a bigger part, namely the siblings and irina. i know (or i hope) morozko will be playing a bigger part in the coming books so i can only hope the ties that bind vasya back home extend to more than him. but i loved the how pyotr, marina, and especially dunya's characters were handled.

highly recommend reading to this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6t7dYWC0Ao

hey siri play "torn" by natalie imbruglia. i don't know how to feel about this duology. i absolutely adore the individual characters and i love vampires, old london, and revenge stories. hell i love coconuts too. but (same with the first book) it all felt incredibly random all together. flick and jin were the only combination of anything that i enjoyed. i supposed vampires in that setting was fun too. but for example i loved arthie and matteo separately, together they felt forced and uncharacteristic of arthie (laith/arthie was much better, the enemies to lovers was right there - i was also spoiled with jin/flick so every other possible pairing would've paled in comparison). the ram and flick separately were fantastic characters, but their dynamic together not as torturous as i was hoping. in fact the ram is on my list of top villains of 2025 but i was dying for complex interactions with flick that never came. and i'm still struggling to accept that coconuts belong with vampires and merry old london (i know its not actually london but i'm just gonna call it that).

i'm also not sure i can summarize the plot in one sentence - it's pretty "red yarn corkboard of a disheveled detective" once you try to follow all the interworkings of the side quests and how all the parties (athereum, council, the ram, the many guard factions, mr/mrs siwang, laith's kingdom, etc.) all fit together. this is partly my shortcoming i know, i'm a simple girl who needs a simple plot. i appreciate faizal trying to do something fun an unique but it felt like too much and it unfortunately didn't meshing as well as perhaps the intentions were. which is a shame because the writing (although a bit heavy handed), the atmosphere, the character building are all strong. just not strong enough to make this a high scoring read for me.