The first book in Blanchet's Neath trilogy offers a bizarre dark underworld; cruelty and revenge; an unlikely hero; and heartwarming bravery and unexpected bonds.

In Blanchet's young adult fantasy debut, Herrick's End, Ollie's only friend Gwen has disappeared. He has no idea where she's gone, but he thinks her recent black eye, edginess, and her brooding jerk of a boyfriend have something to do with it.

He searches for her, then receives a mysterious note: "Still looking for your friend? I know where she is." A strange fellow offers to lead Ollie to Gwen. Ollie pushes down his panic and decides to push on bravely (and possibly foolishly), determined to find and save Gwen.

But the trail Ollie finds himself on leads to darkness and danger in a mysterious underworld. The land is odd, troubling, and filled with unexpected magic--as well as brutal vengeance. It defies much of what he has known as fact and reality up above. And, alarmingly, a powerful local legend has been expecting him.

He had been hanging his hopes on some fool notion of "fairness." He would find a way out, because he deserved to find a way out.... It wasn't until he watched a gaseous frog sever an innocent man's arm for no particular reason that Ollie realized: There was no fairness here. There was no justice. Those were quaint, forgotten notions.
Cruel forces wield ruthless power in the dark land below--and those in charge might destroy him if he doesn't figure out an escape, or at least find a little help in this unforgiving place.

When Ollie drums up a glimmer of hope in a devastating prison of a situation, he begins the trajectory of becoming an unlikely hero who might just save everyone in the end.

The story is funny, sometimes grotesque, at other times sweet, and full of surprises. With zombified children; curses and prophecies; domestic abuse and revenge; bizarre creatures; impossible choices with enormous consequences; struggles with body image; and budding love.

I love this beautiful cover and loved how much heart Blanchet's story offered.

I received a prepublication digital edition of this book (published spring 2022) courtesy of Tiny Fox Press and NetGalley.

Herrick's End is the first book in Blanchet's Neath trilogy. I can't wait to read the second book in the series, Herrick's Lie, which is scheduled for publication in spring 2023.

TW: domestic violence, trauma, prison.

The world building was top notch . It is the first in the trilogy and is YA fantasy. I would have personally preferred the romance element to be more slow-burn!

I still don't know what to think about this book. On one hand, I really loved the worldbuilding, characters, prologue, twists and turns. However, the self-consciousness about food and talks related to the eating disorder really threw me of and made me feel uncomfortable. In this case, I would appreciate trigger warnings regarding this issue.

I love Ollie and his naive personality. He believed always in the good in everyone and I just love him for that. I think he's a very likeable main character. Terra was the badass female side character the story (and Ollie) needed the most.

The world was set in a very dark underground world that I enjoyed exploring. The whole idea behind, connected to a domestic violence, was very unique and something I've never read before.

Overall, the prologue was the best part of the book although I want to see where the whole story is going so I will give the second book a shot. Not sure if I recommend it l, but if the book interests you, the plot is worth a try and you'll see if it's your cup of tea.

I have to dnf this book for now. I am not in the right headspace to read this. We jumped from a prologue set during the Salem witch trials to a modern day weight loss meeting. This shift in tone was very abrupt and made it hard for me to even finish that chapter. I loved the prologue and was so excited to continue reading. The first line of the chapter was “I am not the fattest person in the room.” That immediately threw me off. As someone who struggles with disordered eating it was hard for me to keep reading. The entire scene where the mc is at the weight loss meeting was really hard. The motto of the weight loss group the main character attends is “Here today, lighter tomorrow.” For now, I have to dnf this book. I’m not going to say I will bever pick it up again because I might. Right now, I am just not in the place where I can read this if the tone is going to be similar to this. I feel bad not finishing but I have been trying for a while now and it is just not something I can read right now.

TW: fatphobia, eating disorders, abuse, self image issues

Unfortunately, this story had too many flaws for me to enjoy it. The most painful being the topic of eating disorders. The main charter has an obsession with food. His entire life revolves around how much not only he eats, but how much others eat. This is a realistic struggle, however, I could not sympathize with the MC due to his negative thoughts about others. He constantly comments and judges and categorizes peoples physical appearance. This was such a huge turn off for me that I immediately could not sympathize with him and didn’t care about his journey or character arc. I did not appreciate his sudden turn of confidence simply because he stopped thinking about food. This is not how eating disorders are solved and does not say much about his change in empathy for others. Eating disorders are a serious disease and I sadly did not think it was handled in a safe way. The world building was intriguing and I liked the overall concept of the story. Because of the view on this health disorder, I will not be sharing my review online.

Rating : 3 out of 5
Blurbs :
"You did nothing. You were nothing. And so, you shall remain here, until the end of your days. As nothing."

Ollie's only friend disappeared a few days ago, and now, he's frantic to find her. But he doesn't have much to go on until a mysterious note arrives, which reads:

"Still looking for your friend? I know where she is."

Unfortunately for Ollie, the trail leads to the last place he'd ever expect.

Somewhere dark.

Somewhere deep.

The kind of place where magic spills like blood, vengeance is merciless, and escape seems all but impossible.

Worse still, it soon becomes clear that someone-or something-was expecting him.

Now, time is running out.

If Ollie has any hope of ever seeing home again, he's going to have to summon every last scrap of courage, smarts, and tenacity he can find. And none of it will matter if he can't get some help. Fast.

Because Ollie might not know much about the vast underworld that's ensnared him, but he does know this:

He'll never make it out alone.

Thoughts : First, look at that gorgeous cover! I like the concept and the idea sadly, I don't think this book is for me. It's pretty hard for me to get through the book and I somehow can't connect with the characters here. I think it's partly because this book is a YA book. I still think it has a redeemable quality so if you're interested after reading the blurbs, please do try read this book! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy!

First off thank you for this eARC in exchange for my review!

I have mixed feelings. I liked the pace and the storyline!

I wasn’t really loving the body image issues being a real big part of the storyline and how he goes from insecure to Mr. Confident in one day because he forgets about food. It was an interesting one.

DNF'd at 20%. Interesting premise but a bit of a slow read. Had a lot of trouble getting into it, so ultimately decided to cut my losses. Thank you for the arc.

A good start to a YA fantasy series. I don’t often read this genre but the blurb intrigued me.
I enjoyed following the characters in this story, and the twists and turns kept me turning the pages. The storyline was well executed and easy to follow, but there were some unanswered questions - which is normal for a series book.
If you like YA fantasy, you should enjoy this!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy of this book.

Really loved the concept behind this book but struggled to really get into it. I was constantly putting it down and didn’t feel like the story had enough pull to keep me entertained. I liked the characters and how they developed but felt it was a bit too slow. I think I needed to become more attached to the characters early on and this did not happen until half way through the book. Overall really enjoyed the angle and concept and think it is unique to other fantasy stories.

Intriguing premise but a bit of a slow read. The elements were there…I just didn’t love this as much as I had hoped to. Not bad, by any means…just not super special. No characters you have to love (or love to hate).

I loved the premise of Herrick's End . A secret fantasy underworld, vengeful witches, righteous revenge against abusive partners - it all sounds fantastic. The story is fast-paced, the characters are vivid and interesting, and there's a high sense of urgency with plenty of twists. I just could not overcome the hurdle that is our protagonist, Ollie. The entire narrative is predicated on the fact that Ollie stands by and does nothing when others are in need; otherwise, he's a great guy. In truth, Ollie is the classic 'nice guy' - he doesn't listen, thinks he always knows best, has a major saviour complex, and blames everything on his weight. When you add this to the fact that the writing is YA fantasy level with dark fantasy content, I struggled to connect. Excellent concept, average follow-through.
I think that this book has an interesting concept, but it’s one that I would’ve liked a lot better if it was told from a different perspective. We follow Ollie, who is supposed to be this great and nice person. The only thing he’s guilty of is standing by and doing nothing when he sees the signs of abuse on other people. It’s clear we’re supposed to be rooting for Ollie all book long, but I disliked him early on. He’s got a savior’s complex, doesn’t listen, and thinks he knows a lot more than he does. Ollie is the classic “nice” guy and he irked me all book long. This book turned out to not be a book for me, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be others who enjoy it.
I think the concept of Herrick’s end and its dual purpose as a sanctuary for survivors while being a total hellscape for abusers is very interesting. I wonder how this book would’ve gone if we followed the three witches who created it or any one of the many who have sought sanctuary. We briefly met Ollie’s crush, Nell, and it would’ve been interesting to follow the story from her perspective as well.
Instead, the story is pulled in several directions making it seem like a YA fantasy that then turned into a dark adult fantasy with a lot of blood and violence. There’s also magic because there’s three witches we see twice. All that’s clear is that Ollie is a savior that was foretold by a character we don’t really know much about. I’m left with far more questions than answers because the plot wasn’t resolved, but the idea of following Ollie for another book is far from appealing so I’m going to pass on finding out.

“Evil cannot exist on its own,” she interrupted calmly. “It requires a power source. In many cases, the power source is simply…nothing. Doing nothing. Saying nothing. Enabling. Implicitly agreeing by lack of action. All of these feed the abuse, empower it, embolden it.”

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

I’ve just found my new favourite YA Fantasy author, and potentially trilogy!!! Impatiently waiting for book two to release now…

This book made me emotionally jumbled up,it takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions from the start. It mad me sad, it made me laugh, it made me intrigued, angry, and it made me empathetic to the main characters. If I had the time to read it in one sitting I would have, it was just that good!

You never knew what was going to happen next, so much of the story was held in suspense, and Blanchet did an amazing job of writing characters Ollie and Tera. Their back stories made them relatable and feel real. They have so much extra to this story.

I do, however, feel that a warning should be attached. A lot of the background and side stories are focused on abuse, physical and emotional. While there isn’t horrendous detailed scenes, it is one of the main themes throughout, but not front and centre.

If you love young adult fantasy, I urge you to give this one a go! The urban fantasy world of The Neath is my new favourite fiction place!

I thought this was a really good start to a new YA fantasy series, one with such an interesting premise that could do so much. I did enjoy the characters and their developments as well as the journeys they took together. I also thought that the prison concept was super interesting and well-developed - I wanted to learn so much more about it.

However, I didn’t fully connect with the characters and their connections with each other. I also felt that this story tried to do too much which left some parts redundant and some other parts being so “tell-y” that it just led the story and removed all my interest. Overall though, I think this novel has a great premise and was fun to read but there were a few improvements that could have been made for it to truly be great.

TW: fatphobia, assault, sexual assault, murder, gore/bloody descriptions

dnf 20% in. I just couldn’t get into this book as hard as i tried. Really didn’t captivate me as much as I had hoped it would

I tried so hard to be able to like this book. The fact that there is a fat protagonist was something that really appealed to me when I started reading the book. I don't think there is enough fat person representation in a lot of literature or media. However, this book was not the kind of representation that I wanted. The main character spends nearly every other paragraph thinking about his weight or food. As a fat person myself, I know that there are people who have near obsessions with food, but that's not what this book was about and it represents this character as the typical "fat guy." Also, I find that the main character who is definitely meant to be portrayed as a "nice guy" isn't really so nice after all, and just stands by watching what happens to people in his life and doing nothing. I got most of the way through the book and just had to give up because of how irrationally angry the near constant mention of food by the main protagonist was making me.

The story idea itself is amazing and holds so much potential for the future, but not like this. Two stars because the plot has so much promise but the rest is just too much to overcome.

This book had an exceptional characterisation; I was able to connect so deeply with the main protagonist Ollie and even most of the secondary characters. I found myself cheering for Ollie throughout the book and I really hope the author comes up with more books in this world with Ollie as the main character.

I am really forward to the next book in this series.

This book is labelled on Goodreads as a YA read. Now I know that YA can be a bit tricky to exactly pin down – but I was a tad surprised, because this didn’t feel like a book particularly aimed at younger readers. Which isn’t to say that they wouldn’t enjoy it, but there are more mature readers who tend to avoid stories where emotions are dialled up high and the romance is the narrative engine that drives the action. This isn’t one of those.

Which begs the question as to exactly what it is… To be honest, it reminded me a bit of The Pilgrim’s Progress minus the religious component. There is a strong sense of morality running through the book – very bad things happen to those who set out to hurt others. And even those who don’t transgress, but simply are aware and do nothing – they don’t fare all that well, either. I rather enjoyed that aspect, particularly as it ends up being more nuanced and sophisticated as the story progresses. It took me a while to completely bond with Ollie. I suspect that’s because right now I’m significantly overweight after over a year of illness and I found his obsession with his weight rather annoying. However, once he’s up to his neck in all sorts of trouble, he turns out to be a thoroughly endearing hero.

Overall, this is a quirky read that starts off rather downbeat but ends up being inspirational with a strong message for all of us. Recommended for fantasy fans who appreciate something a bit different. While I obtained an arc of Herrick’s End from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

DNF @ 70%

*Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.*

Okay y’all, I have some thoughts. First and foremost we are introduced to the main character (who’s head we are in for the entirety of this story) right away and he is in a weight watchers like group meeting called Lighter Tomorrows. And this is not a healthy group they aren’t trying to teach these people to exercise or make healthier choices NO THEY ARE LITERALLY COUNTING CALORIES. Also, considering the fact that the main character is himself fat, he seems to judge other people for their weight as well. But even worse than that is the CONSTANT non stop thoughts about food and how fat he is 24/7. As an own voices plus sized/ fat reviewer I want to point out that fat people do not think about food as much as this guy does. Fat people have more to their personalities than being obsessed with food and the author should really reconsider the way she wrote this character. It’s giving fat phobia and I don’t like it. Our MC Ollie seemingly has NO OTHER PERSONALITY TRAITS besides “fat and obsessed with food.” I read 70% of this book and I couldn’t even tell you what color hair this guy has all I know is he’s fat. So immediately, from chapter 1, this book rubbed me the wrong way. However I wanted to give it a fair shot so I persevered… until I couldn’t force myself to read any more.

Besides Ollie being a complete caricature of a stereotypical fat good obsessed boy, the plot also goes in a direction very unexpected from the synopsis of the book. Granted we do get the mystery of his friend disappearing and him going on a quest to bring them back but that’s barely even scratching the surface.

Ollie considers himself a white knight. He thinks if he goes to “rescue” his friend Nell that he knows from the weight loss group, whom he clearly is attracted to, that she will fawn over him and be like “omg my hero” and then he’ll get out of the friend zone essentially. However… the reason she goes “missing” is because she’s being abused by her boyfriend and she takes him to a magical underground jail that imprisons abusers (domestic abuse, Child abuse, rapists, etc) and TORTURES THEM for all eternity. Justice? Never heard of her. Becoming kidnappers and accomplices to torture and probably death? Sure thing makes sense. Again, as an own voices reviewer for child abuse and domestic violence I find this premise intriguing BUT executed so poorly. It would have been more interesting if the abusers were taken to some sort of magical justice system but no they’re literally just in a torture dungeon essentially.

Ollie of course goes to save Nell who doesn’t need saving and gets himself thrown in jail because his crime of “not speaking up and saving her from abuse before it was too late” warranted a lifetime of servitude as a slave in this jail cleaning up all the dead bodies and bodily fluids from the people getting tortured apparently. Then the only person of color we have met up until this point, Ollie’s cell mate, is the nicest person and does whatever he can to make Ollie’s prison sentence not so bad… then of course Ollie gets magically rescued by someone and leaves his cell mate behind. Big nope from me.

Then of course while Ollie’s in jail we learn more about his past, his mom died from cancer when he was 17 and his dad disappeared on them when he was like 7 or something…. And oh would you look at that Ollie’s dad is in the prison. Shocker. But he’s essentially a comatose vegetable so nothing comes out of this random ass plot twist like he never gets to speak to his dad there’s no closure there, nothing. Completely pointless extra fluff plot if you ask me lol

Ok so once he’s out so many random things happen that I don’t even know if they’re relevant or not because they’re so far fetched I can barely remember what happened. Something about a statue in a middle of a field but it wasn’t really a statue it was a 300 year old man made of stone sitting still for all eternity but then he randomly speaks to Ollie and then ACTUALLY dies for real. And wow would you look at that Ollie is the chosen one……. Idk what he’s chosen for and I don’t even care enough about the characters to try to ascertain the plot.

Did I mention that once Ollie stops thinking about food 24/7 then he goes to looking down the shirt and ogling the breasts of the love interest (who isn’t the girl he went to rescue btw but the girl who rescued him). And there is absolutely 0 chemistry between these 2 and then all of a sudden they’re kissing. Then of course SHE gets thrown into jail and LITERALLY overnight Ollie somehow becomes a go-getter, a tough guy, a smart intelligent plan maker, and characters who previously hated him suddenly respect and even like him?? It genuinely was a flip of a switch we saw none of this developed and then are supposed to believe his character is capable of any of that. It was just terribly written and poorly plotted.

I think some of the random plot twists and plot points needed to be removed in lieu of making room for better character development. There was way too much going on and someone not enough. Not enough world building or character building but way too many plot points. The plot was like a zig zag and it needed to be a curve.

Anyways I have no idea how this ends because by the time I decided to DNF this I felt like I was ripping my own hair out at the characters stupidity and poor writing.

This was a DNF for me. The opening scene of a weight-loss group reads like a mean-spirited parody and there wasn’t anything to make me think the novel might get better.