this was a slow burn thriller, but it reads so quickly that i didn’t even notice i was already 60% of the way through the book and so little had happened. the payoff of this book is so incredibly rewarding and the indigenous folklore is so wonderful. it says so much about grief, trauma, and how it affects family and land. one of those books where it sounds cheesy as fuck, but yeah, i love being afab and being friends with women, they’ll never take that away from me.

in terms of good and bad, this one had me on a bit of a rollercoaster. the first 40% of this book is mostly spent setting up the last 60% and it does drag a little. i was worried that choices were going to be made that would have made me dnf the book, but when the dual timelines come together, it really clicks. i think it is probably one of my favorite reveals in a fantasy book.

that being said, as the final book in a fantasy trilogy, it does have to keep increasing the scope which it does well, but it can be too much at times. there are a lot of big plot points to wrap up really quickly and not all of them get the justice they deserve. for a book about war, the main cast of characters does have a surprising amount of plot armor and it does all get wrapped up a little too neatly for me.

i did enjoy this more than i thought i would and truly, still such a fun magic system, even if it does get a little too silly in this one.

i know in my heart that this isn’t a three star read, but i’m simply going to will it into existence, because i really wanted to love this book. the concept is so good, botanist and taxidermist victorian couple living in a greenhouse and creating a botanical daughter. it quickly falls apart from there.

the plot meanders around and never really finds its feet. there’s no solid storyline, which then really suffers because none of the characters have any strong motivations or character development. they all feel so flat. gregor’s character is the only one who really goes through any development, and even that doesn’t make sense. he kind of just goes feral, is terrible to everyone, and we pretty much pretend it’s not happening. like please, we have to do something about your off-leash dog, he’s terrorizing the town.

if this book is going to go absolutely off the rails, then i wish the body horror would have been amped up too. i would be more forgiving. it reads very YA with the exception of one sex scene that felt unearned and it was just….there. thanks, i guess.

last minor complaint, couldn’t stand the audiobook choice for gregor’s voice. it was actually upsetting to me.

gonna go mourn what could have been.

told the book club this book felt like playing a game of crusader kings and reading all the pop ups before i realized these were real historical figures. anyway, sorry for hating you eleanor, you were really going through it.

i don’t know if it connected for me. for a book about marie, it feels like we spend so little time with her. part two blazes through such a large chunk of marie’s life at such a neck-breaking speed that by part three, it’s hard to read this older marie as the same character in part one. we really skip past the biggest accomplishments of marie de france’s life and what we do know about her. i would have really liked this if we spent the time focusing on one time period in marie’s life versus her whole life.

i do just love marie though. there’s lesbians, nuns, and religious ecstasy, everything you’d want. the writing is beautiful and even with the issues i have, it’s enjoyable.