Book Review: Sorcery of Thorns
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sorcery of Thorns is a love letter to libraries and reading, filled with dark whimsy and elements reminiscent of Howl’s Moving Castle… so much so that you begin to wonder if it’s not just a carbon-copy of HMC. But luckily, it’s not!
Why I read this book:My favorite Booktuber of all time, Codie’s Book Corner, showed this in a TBR video and I looked it up and thought the concept was interesting. Later when I set out to write my own YA fantasy, I decided that I would use this one as a comp, but wanted to read it first for myself to make sure.
As always, I’ll discuss three parts of this book I enjoyed and three parts I didn’t like so much so that you can draw your own conclusions about whether or not to pick it up.
I really loved
All the interesting twists this book took. During the first 1/3 or so, this was reading like a precise carbon copy of Howl’s Moving Castle, right down to the demon making a contract with a wizard and the main female character needing to break that curse to save the wizard, in the process falling in love with him, and meanwhile the demon is kind of sassy and says unexpected things, and the heroine making a sacrifice of what she thought she valued the most in order to save the wizard. Except without the sister relationship between the heroine and her two younger sisters that made Howl’s Moving Castle so fun to read. But then it took a sharp left turn down OH YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW WHERE THIS WAS GOING street and did its own thing, for the most part. Except for a few echoes near the end, this feels like a book that both would appeal to Howl’s Moving Castle fans but also does enough of its own thing so that you don’t feel like you just read “the original, but worse.”
The worldbuilding in this book is lush and amazing. The magic system is interesting, and though I had quite a few internal logic questions during the first parts of this book, as I kept reading, my questions were answered and I learned more and more about the world. One thing I don’t like in books is having to stop and reread earlier parts because character motivations or internal logic doesn’t match up to what we were told earlier, but this one was a smooth read start to finish, and you get just enough explanation about things to be able to understand the story without being overwhelming.
The prose of this book is gorgeous, the sentences are beautiful, and it’s just so much fun to spend time in the pages of this book. If you’ve ever heard of the “sandwich test,” it’s basically “will the reader want to put this book down to go make a sandwich?” and “Once they’ve made the sandwich, will they want to come back and keep reading?” I just wanted to keep reading, and keep reading, the entire time, and at times when I was forced to stop reading (eg. my dog needing to go outside to relieve herself) I always found myself back at this book as soon as circumstances would allow so I could read “just one more chapter.”
I didn’t like
People praise this book for its “bisexual representation” but I beg to differ; the “bisexual representation” is not very good. Only one character in this book is revealed to be bisexual, mentioned once in a line that’s meant to be both a throwaway line and a joke. Like “Oh, yeah, I like boys and girls, don’tcha know? LOL okay let’s continue with the adventure!” It’s never explored properly, it’s never mentioned again, and it’s just a real missed opportunity.
Our main character, Elisabeth, irritated the h-e-double hockeysticks out of me. Despite being a lifelong bookworm, she is so stupid. She doesn’t realize that (view spoiler)[Silas (hide spoiler)] is Nathaniel’s demon, and also the identity of the big bad antagonist when (view spoiler)[he offers her shelter as soon as she arrives in the capital, acting way too suspicious and was obviously the villain trying to bring her under his control (hide spoiler)]. As a Ravenclaw, I found myself constantly sighing at her blatant stupidity.
Some parts of the story felt really rushed, and the ending also left off on a cliffhanger. I feel like this is actually two books in one and should have been split into a duology. Some aspects could have been expanded upon a little more, especially going into the ending, and I did not like the ending at all. Hence the “WTF ending” designation. I think if that ending hadn’t been so… abrupt and cliffhanger-y, this might have been a five star read for me, I’m sorry to say.
In conclusion
A lush fantasy with prose as beautiful as its cover, familiar elements to draw readers in, and new elements and dark whimsy to break away from its predecessors and make a name for itself, that would appeal to fans of Diana Wynne Jones or Patricia C. Wrede. Some references to sex and descriptions of gore may not be appropriate for younger readers; parents considering gifting this to their children should first read it for themselves and use their good judgement as to if their children are mature enough.
