The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass
Adan Jerreat-Poole
16th May 2020
Eli is a girl, but also definitely not a girl. She is a made-thing, an assassin, a witch's tool. She can travel between the City of Eyes, where the witches reside, and the City of Ghosts, where the humans live, because she is of both worlds. And yet, there is change afoot.
This was a ride and a half. I want to make a special point of talking about the magic and the sheer imagination that went into this story - I loved so much of it, and a lot of elements that were added along the way just made me gasp in sheer delight at the wonderfulness of it all. And also the darkness of it, too. This is definitely my kind of book. The labyrinth in particular is actually something I'd love to know more about, but, to be honest, I feel like this author might be able to make an amazing world out of whatever they write.
Eli is definitely an interesting character to follow - she is so conflicted at times, and curses this as her 'human side', and at other times she curses herself for being a monster. The other characters, Kite, Tav, and Cam specifically, were all fantastic, flawed, real. At least, they felt that way to me. And the representation and diversity was fantastic. (Speaking as someone who identifies as non-binary, I appreciated the little bit of backstory we got for the enbie character, but also that it didn't devolve into a sort of 'torture porn' level of pain. There was more focus on the character stepping forward into who they were, and just being that person. I loved that.)
I have read that other people felt like nothing really happened in this book, and I am not really sure where that is coming from, however - I know that I like slower books sometimes, and I also love this quality that Jerreat-Poole has created throughout the whole book: dreamlike, magical, sort of flowy. One section will sometimes flow into a memory, and then back to 'current time'. Having said that, the last 25% or so was basically all action and I loved it all.
Very interested to see what Adan Jerreat-Poole does next! Someone to watch, methinks.
8/10 thorn, glass, and pearl stars.
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own.
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