I kept expecting the actual wolves to be a bigger part, like at some point all the grown-ups would be eaten by wolves and the children would be left alone. It felt like reading a Sherlock Holmes story a lot of the time (in a good way). I just wanted it to be a lot darker than it ended up being.
Set in a mythical place that is a reflection of Japan the way much of regular fantasy reflects Europe, this is an interesting twist on the Beauty and the Beast story that takes some of the ideas of the story and twists them subtly.
Everyone in Hana's remote village knows that going too far into the forest is bad, very bad, won't come back bad. Hana's family has lost her brother to this and her father blames her. A lot of the time the people who vanish seem to wander away in the middle of the night and are never seen again. When Hana's father disappears she decides to user her talent to talk to the trees to help her search for the monster they keep whispering to her about. This will change everything.
I loved it, great story and compelling characters that really spoke to me. It kept me from sleep last night.
Zoe Marriott has never written a book I didn't like, started this last night, this may have been a bad decision. Now I have to wait for a year for her next one.
The lead is continuously learning about life and herself. She's been wronged by people close to her and lost people she loved in unnatural ways. She has to cope with her feelings of anger at herself and others throughout. She also has to learn to control newfound powers. I wasn't crazy about the story right from the start, but I continued to get more into it as it went along.
I am quite a fan of Zoe Marriott and I should have trusted that the end of the series would be satisfying. It was well done and the characters played a blinder and I was at the edge of my virtual seat (most of the reading was in bed) throughout.
Mio has managed to win a battle, at a terrible cost and now she has to try to keep with the war. She realises that she will have to make more hard choices and that if she wants to win and keep the world safe she will have to fight and that fight will not be easy in any way.
I was invested in the characters and the situations and the relationships felt right, yes, things were finished up a bit neatly and somewhat less nastily than if it was an adult novel but it was a good read all the same.
I know I said I was going to use the Peter Grant novel I have on the wings for my Darkest London square but I'm going to use this one. It was a good story and I enjoyed the read.
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