I was so excited for this book, I wanted to like it, I gave it so many chances. But this book, in my opinion, is not even close to be ready to be published. This reads like a first draft. I like the overall concept, which is why I gave it two stars, but everything else needs work. The plot is confusing, not completely thought out, lacks any kind of direction. Even after finishing this book, I don't know what actually happened. I couldn’t explain the storyline at all.
I really appreciated the non-binary characters (overall good LBGTQ+ representation), but none of the characters seemed complete. I couldn’t connect or relate to any of them and they lacked character building. No one seemed to have their own personality.
Overall, I didn't like this one at all. I feel like this book is far from being ready to publish, regardless that I read this as an ARC. With some editing, I think this book could be good.

Thank you to Dundurn and NetGalley for providing me with an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I should also note that I have a personal connection with the author.

I really enjoyed The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass and flew through it in less than 24 hours. (I even read it standing on the subway!) I found Jerreat-Poole’s writing unique in the way they captivated my senses with their use of rich smells, colours and elemental ‘ingredients’ like the hawthorn and glass, obsidian and granite.

I found some of the settings really intriguing - the junkyard, the labyrinth and especially the Children’s Lair. Clytemnestra (my favourite character) reminded me of a creepy twin from The Shining or one of the kids from Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

I’ve never read a book with a non-binary character before, so this was an exciting first for me. I feel like a lot of YA authors in particular are invested in and committed to writing diverse characters. I love that because I think it’s important for readers, particularly young people, to see themselves in the stories they’re consuming.

I’m looking forward to getting my physical copy of this book in the mail and can’t wait to read the sequel!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have given up on two books in my entire life. Unfortunately "The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass" makes three. I made it 30% into the book and I am completely lost. I don't know what is going on and I don't care about any of the characters. First some good things. The story features binary characters in a real and positive way. I love this. Also the cover is simply beautiful and the general plot synopsis sounds like the book should be fantastic.. However I was completely confused by the plot. Sometimes I didn't know if something was currently happening, happened in the past or maybe was dreamlike imagery that didn't happen at all. Because of this I didn't connect with plot I couldn't connect with the characters. I think this book is going to be split amount ardent fans and readers like me who are just left confused and underwhelmed.

2.5 ⭐️ “My existence is marked by empty spaces, she though bitterly.”

Arc provided by netgalley.
I was really excited to read this book because of the synopsis and cover (pretty af), and the promise of queer characters. I liked the writing, and the parts were it shifted back to the past and we could learn a bit more about Eli’s and her friendship with Kile. But I felt that the world building was kind of weak, mostly about the city of eyes and the magic system. And the beginning was so rushed, like the way the characters met and suddenly became friends and bound on the mission, also I didn’t see their development, cause it felt rushed for me too. Unfortunately the only character I’ve felt attached to was Kile that appeared only in the beginning and the ending.

"Eli isn’t just a teenage girl — she’s a made-thing the witches created to hunt down ghosts in the human world."
The story follows Eli, a made-thing, created to kill and to be a tool in the witches' hands.
I got hooked from the beginning, intrigued by what I think is a very unique concept. The world-building is masterful but not too explanatory, it leaves you just enough of this wtf sensation that I really enjoyed.
Character development was very well done, you really get to see Eli grow and understand her journey from being a thing to more of a someone.
I appreciated the representation of queer discrimination, even if brief.
To be completely honest, I was in love with the author from the Dear Reader page:
"Dear Reader, I want you to know it’s OK to be angry. Your anger is important. This story is about a girl whose anger will change worlds."
This introduction had so much promise and unfortunately I feel like it wasn't fully accomplished, but I will look out for the sequel.
I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sorry this book was a no for me. I got two chapters in, but had to dnf. This book is a young adult book, but it talks down to the reader and the story is cheesy. It gave off The Shadowhunter vibes but cheesier. I couldn’t read anymore of this book. I guess if you like The Mortal Instruments series, this could be for you.

#MetamorphosisBooks #NetGalley
Interesting read. Not exactly what I was anticipating with the summary that was given.

Very creative book! Some of the scenarios were a bit too much. At times it was over the top. I enjoyed the storyline. I just wish it had been a little more realistic in some areas. Over all it was a good book. I finished rather quickly unfortunately.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

Ok...DNF this 20% in. I felt very lost in this book. Everything was very jumbled and hard to keep straight. I finally had to give up after trying to read it for 2 days. I don't think I'd recommend this to anyone.

I loved this book.
It's a tale of loving yourself before you can love others, and of thinking of yourself as something other than just a 'thing's.
When Eli screws up on a mission to kill a ghost she bands together witha group of humans and witches to steal the Heart so Eli can get back to her world.
But when Eli falls in love with the person shes supposed to kill, things get a lot more complicated.

Thanks to @netgalley and Metamorphosis books for the free book in exchange for my honest review. This book is a dark fantasy thriller that centers on Eli, a witch-made assassin that starts to question her assignments in the human world. She falls in with a couple of humans (including a non-binary character) which join her on a quest to find out more about her origins and her purpose. Overall, I found the story compelling, and I am excited to see what is in store for these characters in the future!
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At first, the story took time to develop and set up, and it seemed like too much detail and information was being thrown at the reader. Mixed in the the poetic prose, it was confusing at first. Once she started introducing her characters, their dialogue and story took over, and the plot moved along. It reminded me of The Starless Sea in that there were lots of moments of story and prose that seemed to be out of context, then the story snapped back to the present. It also gave me Hazelwood vibes with its dark undercurrents. I gave it a 3, as I feel some editing might help it to be more streamlined, but I enjoyed it and I was happy to see more representation of both minority and LGBTQ characters.
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This was a DNF for me. 19% in and I just couldn't keep going. I try not to DNF, but I was NOT feeling it at all. A shame, because the synopsis sounded really interesting. Take this with a grain of salt, obviously.

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass consists of two parts crisp metaphor, four parts ethereal boundaries between realms, three parts identity story, and seven sprinkles of magically attuned blades.

Eli is an assassin crafted by her Witch mother, Circinae, and used by a ruling body of Witches known as the Coven to assassinate various targets. When the opening mission goes horribly wrong, Eli gets drawn into a sprawling sequence of events full of questions about all she’s ever known.

My favourite part about this novel was the beautiful language and descriptions. Reading portions of this book felt dreamlike at times, beautiful and fleeting imagery described and vanishing in the next blink. Some sentences I would pause to re-read, savouring their particular taste or vision or metaphor. There’s a definite feel of unreality to the novel’s story—it makes it quite clear how otherworldly (and deadly) the place Eli was made truly is. The on page depictions of Kite in particular were some of my favourites.

The secondary characters of Cam, Tav, and Kite were intriguing and interesting in their own unique ways. Of course, the delightful Tav, who is both Black and non-binary, can’t go without mentioning as my favourite. I will always and forever be a sucker for non-binary folks with purple hair and delightful, motorcycle-loving swagger. There’s no much left unsaid about Tav in this installment, but given that an upcoming title by Jerreat-Poole is The Boi of Feather and Steel, I have a feeling some of my questions about them might be answered.

Unfortunately, although I absolutely LOVE the premise of this story and the enchanting language with which it’s told, technical issues prevented me from getting fully absorbed and thus giving more than three stars. In particular, some portions feel hurried or rushed; other sections are incredibly detailed but confusing temporally (i.e. flashbacks that seem to have little connection to the current events). The dialogue at times reads as stilted and stiff. It’s difficult to put my finger on why, but I feel like I was looking at a puzzle that was 75% completed—what I saw was absolutely beautiful, witchy, and sharp, but I still didn’t have the whole picture.

Imperfect though it may be, I still enjoyed reading The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass for the engaging characters, supernatural worlds, and diverse representation it provided.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Dundurn Press for the advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own!

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. First of all I wanted to thank Netgalley and Dundurn for this copy.
I was attracted by this book because I fell in love with the cover and the plot. It was suggested for readers of Nevernight and The hazel wood and since I love both I couldn't not request this book! I was so happy when they accepted my request and I wasn't disappointed in the book!

Eli was created by witches to hunt down ghosts and she's an assassin, but after an assignment she starts to question everything. She decided to do anything in her power to get earn her freedom and to try to understand and get some answers.

This book is unique, very peculiar. The story is engaging, captivating, able to capture the reader's attention and never let go, until the very end. Eli is a fantastic main character, smart, brilliant, sassy and I really liked her. I enjoyed the story and the LGBT rep in it. The characterization, the plot and the writing style are really well done and written. If you like a really well written fantasy, with witches, humans and assassins, this is the right book for you

I really wanted to like this book. The idea and the plot really had a lot of potential. Unfortunately the writing geeky very erratic and choppy. Like reading someone's broken thoughts.

The world building was unfortunately too far fetched for me. I can see that others will probably like how creative it is.

I didn't feel much connection with the characters either. I feel like this is a case where maybe this entire book just wasn't my cup of tea

I did like that there was a non binary character who preferred them/they. We need to see more of that!

Well... the imagination was sure going strong in this story. Unfortunately, for me, it was too much. There was just so much going on, and it was kind of hard to follow. It all felt a little forced. Trying to put too much in. Not a fan.

I received an ARC of this book from netgalley. I wanted badly to love it, and there were many things I did love. The world building was excellent, thorough, well thought out. Eli was a compelling character, as were many of the others we got to know. The premise was good, and this had the potential to go so far into the right direction but somehow it just. . .didn’t. I wish I could pinpoint where it lost me, but there seemed to be many pages of filler that weren’t entirely necessary and didn’t move the plot along at a pace fast enough to keep my attention.

That said I would give this another shot as a series. Many authors struggle to find their voice with the first book, and with a world this strong, and characters this finely managed it has the potential to be amazing. So, not my favorite read of the new year, but I wouldn’t give up just yet.

This book was so beautiful...and so messy. I really have no idea what to think about it.

Eli was made, not born, by the witches of the City of Eyes - another world not so very far from our own. Eli's task is to hunt down ghosts in the human world and kill them with her seven magical daggers, each of which has its own special power - and Eli is very, very good at what she does. But one day a hunt goes wrong, starting Eli on a road that will uncover the darkest secrets of the City of Eyes and entangle her in the cause and fate of an underground rebellion.

There's so much to love about The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass; the world Jerreat-Poole has created is weird and wonderful, full of fierce and otherworldly magic. There's the living Labyrinth that overlays the City of Eyes, the Children's Lair, the gemstone books in the Coven's library and Eli's daggers of pearl and glass and thorns. When Jerreat-Poole turns on the descriptions, they're lovely and different, not falling back on familiar similes but making strange and dazzling new ones. And there's so many bits of the worldbuilding that I adored; the wild, feral children hiding in the depths of the Labyrinth, the truth about the ghosts, the fact that witches have to go on quests to the human world to steal themselves names, since they're born without any of their own. And Hawthorn and Glass is casually but powerfully queer, with non-binary characters at the forefront and a deeply important f/f relationship in Eli's past - not to mention Cam, who was drawn into the world of magic when he fell hard for a male witch.

But...

It feels like this book just isn't finished. It moves too quickly, and too much goes completely unexplained. The mysteries presented to the reader aren't the kind that make you want to keep reading to get answers; they're just frustratingly confusing, and the answers, when they come at all, aren't satisfying. Vital pieces of the worldbuilding are dropped into the narrative without explanation - the Heir, the Heart of the Coven, the Warlord; I still have barely any idea what any of them are or how they work, despite all of them being intrinsic to the plot and its conclusion. None of the character motivations/drives felt very developed, except maybe for Tav's; Eli requires almost no convincing to turn on everything she's ever known, and I honestly have no clue whatsoever what the hells Kite was up to the entire time.

And there's just. No explanation for why, or how, Tav breaks all the rules about magic. Maybe that's meant to be explained in the sequel, but as-is it was just maddening, and came out of nowhere.

I wish there'd been more introspection, more description. I wish the book were longer, so that it could have moved more slowly; the plot feels so rushed, which is such a shame when the bones of a really incredible story are there beneath everything.

I still think that a lot of readers are going to enjoy the hell out of this one; there's enough here to really appeal to readers who aren't as obsessive or nit-picky as I am. But for me, this one was a disappointment.

I thought this was a really interesting book but I did however think this book was all over the place. There was times when I was like wait how did we get here. I kinda wish there was some more world building and more character building as well. and more background information The main character Eli was interesting but one thing I hate when it comes to protagonists is when they think they don't need any ones help. It seemed like throughout the whole book she just kept mentioning how she didn't need any help. It was hard to get through the first couple of chapters but when she meets the other two protagonists it gets a little better. Speaking of the other two characters, Cam and Tav, I thought it was really nice how they were LGBTQ+ characters and like they're story line wasn't just around on how they were LGBTQ+ which was nice. Overall this book is very promising if there was better execution of the plot.

This was exhausting. It felt like trying to communicate with someone underwater, which, even when possible, isn't worth the effort.