Synopsis:
We choose our own gods here.
Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch entity—three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving—who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended.
Ferain is willing to pay a ludicrous sum of money for her help. To save him, Karys inadvertently binds him to her shadow, an act that may doom them both. If they want to survive, they will need to learn to trust one another. Together, they journey to the heart of a faded empire, all the while haunted by arcane horrors and the unquiet ghosts of their pasts.
And all too soon, Karys knows her debts will come due.
Review:
Hello again dear reader or listener, I hope you’re reading something great and, speaking of, mind if I recommend your (potentially) next awesome read?
With a big thank you to the TorDotCom team for granting my Netgalley request for an arc of this, let’s get down to business. (To defeat, the Huns – sorry)
I first caught wind of this book from the tagline “Sabriel meets For The Wolf” and when I say I ran so fast to Netgalley. Sabriel is my number one book of all time and I absolutely adored For The Wolf so really there was no way I wouldn’t have. Also death magic, I mean come on, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Well, dear reader I’m pleased to say this description was nearly spot on and I would add a further touch by saying this book also reads a bit like Ghibli on dark steroids.
Hall has created such an imaginative piece of dark fantasy that fully enthrals the reader with its innovations and scope. While also potentially unsettling you a tiny bit, the way the sound of something you can’t see breathing somewhere near you might.
The world building is rich, if at times a mite heavy in the magic system’s exposition, but it’s most definitely not your run of the mill “specific time period of human history but a little to the left” kind of buildup either – hence stuck following genre “rules” that seem to have been agreed upon in recent years. In fact, I’m a fantasy reader first and foremost but I’d been feeling a bit of fatigue with the genre of late – hence my more varied reads recently – but I can safely say this book snapped me out of it. It felt like a breath of fresh air for fantasy, which I hadn’t read in a while.
But where Hall truly shines is in her complex character work that, even in a short time, hooks you so utterly that you cannot help but need to keep reading to see how each character will deal with each new obstacle or challenge. I found myself rushing to wrap up chores so I could secrete myself away to read in peace (Greek families are loud and I am easily distracted), continuing on late into the night till my eyes would just shut on their own. Also the ahem fruity tension through a lot of interactions or seamless inclusivity was so very smooth I feel the need to tip my hat at it.
The main protagonist duo, of course, has my utter devotion and their bond was a beauty to behold as it grew throughout the story. Hall gave her own spin to forced proximity and when I say it worked so well! Ferain’s banter in the face of adversity paired with Karys’ pragmatism and aggravations made for such a complementary dynamic. Plus, I love me an imperfect protagonist and Karys’ inner turmoil was both relatable and so real you can’t help but both root for her and deeply understand her in the good and the ugly feelings that wage wars inside all of us. Also, let’s face it, there will never be a time when a disaster bisexual character doesn’t melt your heart while they also amuse you.
Hall weaves a tale of darkness and trauma and healing and tentative bonding despite it all, expertly and without pulling any punches. This story is gory, it is dark, and it will take you by surprise in more ways than one. In fact, you might even need breaks while reading to escape the inexorably building sense of dread and running out of time that hounds Karys throughout the story.
However, it’s not unrelenting either, as the narrative pace and plot offer the occasional respite and gradual buildup that comes from stories reminiscent of side quests or episodic storytelling which I personally thoroughly enjoy!
Unfortunately for me, and you dear reader, Hall also makes sure to end the book with so much emotional damage that’s it’s been days and I’m still recovering. And what an ending it was! Full of so many conflicting feelings I just couldn’t catch my breath. But she did gift us some fluff right before it all hit the fan so I shall live in denial until that b**** of a cliffhanger is resolved in the strongly needed sequel. As a treat.
I’m fine.
Granted it’s always a good sign if a book elicits that much of a reaction, and Kerstin Hall’s Asunder is nothing if not compelling. Be it for emotional complexity or for her chimerical world brimming with as much quiet or loud wonder as cosmic horrors and inscrutable beings.
That’s all I’ll say for now, dear reader, because, as always, I believe the less you know going in the better! Just trust me when I say it’s worth it.
Until next time,
Eleni A. E.
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