therese blog

This review will be shorter than the book, I promise. This book is an undertaking, both mentally and physically, especially if you read a physical copy because it is quite thick.

SenLinYu, the author, does some pretty ambitious world building in this book and she takes her time doing it.

The short note on the book says;

In a world ruled by necromancers, a woman with missing memories threatens the dark order that keeps her captive – and the man sent to break her. Gothic in tone, epic in scope – this debut is destined to become a modern classic

Well, I find it so hard writing a review without giving major spoilers in this one, but I will focus on the themes and world building instead.

We get thrown right into a claustrophobic intro when we met Helena Marino. She’s Bering held captive by the evil necromancers and early on we are led to believe that within her mind there is a secret that would be crucial to the necromancers. The necromancers has already won the war, as it seems, so we don’t know why the secret is all that coveted yet. The reader gets fully plastered with names, the ins and outs of different kinds of ”mancys”. Vivimancy, necromancy and a bit more. It is a LOT to process within the forts few chapters and it does scramble my brain a bit and it’s sometimes in such detail that I lose focus on what the story really is.

It’s composed of three parts with the time line being warped because it’s after, the before, then after the after… hard to keep up? Try reading it. It almost instantly makes you want to re-read the first part while reading the second part because you get so thrown by everything.

The themes of the book about abandonment, survival shame and the ruthless sacrificing of oneself are really strong and well portrayed. Helena is going through a lot and is neither good nor evil even though she, in the beginning, seems to see herself as good. What is good and evil and what do you do for the ones you love and what will you do to just keep them alive long enough to perhaps be able to save them? And what evil deeds done by others are you able to forgive and understand when you have the whole picture? It made me think about lot about perspective and having the whole picture of something (even though there is not a full scale necromancy war, it sometimes feels like it).

The world building is as I wrote, really extensive. Sometimes when it comes to explaining how the magic/”mancys” work it gets a bit much. The second part is also (as always?) a bit to much, and I think the whole book could’ve been half as long and it still would be great and have the key elements. It’s 1000 pages is daunting and sometimes not worth it.

I read this book with a friend and I highly recommend to do-read this as there is A LOT to discuss. Having mid-read-meetings and talking after each part is also highly recommended.

And as for the ratings (perhaps I will spruce this up a bit when I get the time)…