The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass, written by Adan Jerreat-Poole, is about Eli, a made thing who works for the witches to assassinate ghosts in the City of Ghosts. After a mission goes wrong, she is sent back to the City of Ghosts with nothing more than a name and feeling as if she has no idea what is going on or how to do her job anymore.
This is one of the few books I’ve read that has had a non-binary character that hasn’t come off super awkward and difficult to read (the best is still, hands down, the Murderbot Diaries), but that is honestly what this book does best. This should have been a story that was really plot driven, but it was character driven with the only character really fleshed out fully being the main character.
If it was plot driven, the characters would have just worked better. Most of the time, it really felt like there was no sense of urgency, even in the last couple of chapters.
The prose were beautiful, but they weren’t attention grabbing. They didn’t suck me into the story after we were back in the human world the first time and first met Tav.
If you are looking for a novel that does a great job with non binary characters, this novel does that very well. If you are looking for a novel that is very prose style, this could be a great novel for you. If you enjoy fairy tale style stories, this could be a decent option.
It isn’t a novel I would read again, and it was difficult to get through. I really wanted more information about the City of Eyes, and in a lot of ways it read more fairy tale in that it didn’t give you a whole lot of information. And, I wanted the rest of the novel to be as engaging as the first chapter.
I did receive a copy in exchange for an honest review.
