I want to thank Netgalley, the publisher and Lili Wilkinson for giving me a chance to read this book.

I felt it had a slow beginning but the end was interesting, for a dark fairytale.

For a daydreamer like me it did have some entrancing moments which is what the stars were for once i got past the first few chapters I was able to see myself in the story.

This was a fun read! I enjoyed it. The characters were well developed and the plot was engaging. I would recommend this book to New Adult Fantasy readers.

I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. It bills itself as "perfect for fans of The Hazel Wood" and it very much reminded me of that book. I wasn't the biggest fan of that one, but I know it is beloved by many. I think A Hunger of Thorns veers into the strange a little more and felt a lot more macabre. It had some elements that I really enjoyed, especially the all-around creepy vibe. But I found myself frequently confused about events and the plot in the story. That being said, I could see lots of people enjoying this. So I feel like this may be a case of "it's not you, it's me." I would absolutely recommend this to those that enjoyed The Hazel Wood.

I tried to start this book at least two different times but really I just could not keep reading, the synopsis seemed good but it just wasn't for me

This was just plain strange. The cover really grabbed my attention but the writing was poor and the idea was meh. Overall I am not impressed.

First of all the writing here is whimsical. I truly enjoyed reading Lili's writing style. The story gives off fairytale vibes, which I can always get behind. As well as magical elements and witches all while being extremely atmospheric. This is the first in a series and I look forward to more!

DNF at 50%

At first I enjoyed the witchy vibes and the hints of weirdness. Then things kept getting stranger and more sensuous, something I do not enjoy. Additionally, the characterization of the main character also made absolutely no sense. I decided around 38% to DNF but read until the 50% mark so I could read enough to feel comfortable with leaving a review. I saw nothing to indicate that things would turn around.

Once upon a time there were two girls: Maude and Odette. They would spend their childhood days weaving stories of females that slayed dragons and saved princes. But they both grew up and one lost their magic, which ultimately broke the friendship,

Maude has always been great at telling stories and is a daughter of witches, but she was the one that lost her magic. Odette has always craved the forbidden, dark magic and ends up going out and searching for it. However, Odette goes missing and everyone thinks she is dead-minus Maude. Maude personally thinks that Odette is stuck in the ruins of Sicklehurst, which is an ancient magical forest with an abandoned power plant that was built over it. No one remembers Sicklehurst, but Maude does, and she will do anything to find Odette and save her.

I was given A Hunger of Thorns as an eARC from NetGalley and Delacorte, so thank you to them. I actually did not get around to reading the eARC, but I did get the audiobook off of Libby, so this review is based off of the audiobook and not the ARC.

As I was listening to A Hunger of Thorns, I just kept thinking to myself that it reminded me of The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert, which came out in early 2018. Then, as I went to go look at the book details on Goodreads prior to writing this review I saw that it is indeed marketed as "perfect for fans of The Hazel Wood," so I am glad to see and say that they are reminiscent of one another.

The biggest reasons on why A Hunger of Thorns and The Hazel Wood are really similar to one another is because we have a normal world, but then have a secret world that was either forgotten or no one knows about. Plus, the main character in both books have someone that they love dearly taken away from them, which transpires them to put themselves in harm's way to rescue said person from the magical place.

When it comes to both books, I read them at two different time periods in my life. I read The Hazel Wood in 2018 when I was 22 years old and for A Hunger of Thorns, I read it as a 27 year old. So, five years apart and as a person and as a reader I do have to say my views on things and my reading tastes have changed. When I think about The Hazel Wood, I think it was just meh and probably was a 3-star read, but I looked, and it was an actual 4 star read. With A Hunger of Thorns, I gave it a 4-star rating. I personally liked A Hunger of Thorns more due to the storyline being executed better and I thought the writing was better and more engaging. However, both books towards the middle/end had pacing issues to where it felt like everything dragged on a bit.

A Hunger of Thorns touches a lot on friendship and caring for those even if they have left our lives or not in our lives the same way as they used to. Maude does a great example of this and because she feels this way, it ignites her to go looking for Odette.

The writing and world building were well done. I loved how Lili Wilkinson showed us the world and the flawed characters. Her prose was beautiful and makes the reader feel immersed in the world. This book feels like it is a modern fairytale and I just loved Maude with her weaving stories. Like I said earlier on my review when I compared The Hazel Wood and A Hunger of Thorns is that A Hunger of Thorns does have a pacing issue towards the middle/ending area and that did take me out of the story for a while.

The thing I have been liking a lot in fantasy and definitely in YA Fantasy is that authors are creating characters that emulate girl power and shows female readers that you can do things and do not need a man to come and do it for you. Then, on top of all of that having the girls supporting one another. When I was a teenager in the late 2000's/early 2010's a lot of YA fantasy/paranormal/romance books were almost always centered around the female main character needing a man to help her out of situations, save her, or do things for her. So, it is really refreshing in my opinion to see this change for these teenage readers.

If you are wanting a well written book with beautiful prose, girl power, and to feel like you are reading a fairytale that has dark themes to it, then you will enjoy this book. If you thought the Hazel Wood was meh, then I think you may like this book more.

Are you the hero of the story? Or are you the storyteller?

A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson is one of the best YA fantasy books I’ve read this year. It’s a perfectly dark fairy tale, reminiscent of Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood with the feminist magic of Megan Giddings’s The Women Could Fly.

Maude had always been a storyteller. She would weave stories of adventure that she and her best friend Odette would lose themselves in day after day throughout their childhood. Maude also had strong magical abilities that Odette coveted. When Maude suddenly lost her magic, she found herself rejected by Odette as well. Years later, when Odette goes missing, Maude is determined to risk everything to find her.

I loved everything about this book - Maude and her faithful friend Rufus, the magic of storytelling, the societal commentary of good girls vs. wild girls, the evil of industrialized Big Magic, and the pure adventure of it all.

A really great story! I really enjoyed the world and characters. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC giveaway!

I very much enjoyed this book. It was darker than I anticipated going in but I didn’t mind. While some parts were hard to read, I didn’t feel like anything was too far or even unnecessary to the book. I really enjoyed the protagonist’s growth and I look forward to seeing where the author takes this world if the story continues.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my digital ARC

Thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of A Hunger of Thorns. This was such a good sweeping fantasy novel! I am excited to read more from this author and will have to get copies for my shop

The magic in this world was not very well described, but eventually you can pick it up. The main characters are very annoying and childish, even taking unreasonable courses of actions to get what they want, and not telling the adults. How can a character who is not a witch practice magic? The pacing of the writing was all over the place, making it hard to keep my attention. I do not think I will be reading the next in this series, one was enough.

I want to thank Netgalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for an ARC of this book.

I DNFed this book at 30%. I really gave it my best try, but it just felt too repetitive and childish for me. The main character was annoying, and there wasn’t enough plot for me to grab on to and enjoy enough. I really thought it was an interesting story, but I need a reveal earlier, and one that I didn’t expect from the very beginning. All in all, it just felt very annoying and predictable

This was a fantastic gritty book about magic, the things we do for the people we love, self-discovery, and going against "the big man." I appreciated the LGBTQ+ representation in her grandparents and herself. This magic is really rooted in nature and sometimes the descriptions are gruesome, but I think that's what sets it apart and the author did a great job painting the picture.

Friendship knows no bounds, when you love someone you will truly do anything for them no matter the cost. Which is honestly a very very lovely sentiment, but this book just somehow doesn't make it feel lovely? The characters are truly annoying. This takes 'I'm not like other girls' and mixed it with 'I am never wrong ever.' Even with all the plot points and normal scenarios that should have character growth it just never happens.

All in all, this reads very sloppily with very annoying characters, which is saying something with a YA book.

I loved this one! The magic, beautiful descriptions, and the Alice in Wonderland vibes. I really loved the storytelling and immersion you felt while reading. I can't wait for more, and I hope there's a bit more romance!

I really wanted to like this book, but between the erratic pacing, the flimsy and undeveloped main character, and the lackluster worldbuilding, it was impossible for me to get more than a third of the way through before I had to DNF.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Cute book for young adults about magic and friendship. It really was a sweet tale.

There were some pacing issues and it felt slow at times but it was still a good read.

DNF: 21%

I was shocked to discover this was Lili Wilkinson’s eighteenth novel because it read like a debut. The execution of backstory was clunky and didn’t flow into the story; rather, it took me out of the narration every time. Despite there being an abundance of details—that bogged down the pacing—they felt cumbersome and told, not showed, the reader what was happening. Overall, the story was weakly constructed and oftentimes confusing.

I define novels, such as this one, as being a case of “pretty cover, interesting synopsis, and poor execution.” The cover and the synopsis piqued my interest, and I was intrigued by the magical realism aspect, despite the setting being a fantasy world. However, the world-building was confusing and info-dumped on the reader. The author was reaching for a timeless feel, but it made the details feel vague and untethered. I couldn’t tell you what time period the story was set in (despite it seeming like an alternate Earth?) or how the magic system works. All in all, the story details and execution needed developmental refinement.

I want to touch on the backstory for a moment. Backstory is a necessary piece of story building. But, in the case of this novel, it was clunkily written into the novel. Nearly every backstory piece was an entire scene—and was granted scene breaks—and poorly transitioned in and out of. (Honestly, the backstory writing is why I’m shocked this is Wilkinson’s eighteen novel. It read amateurly.) I found myself craving other forms of backstory (such as short summary or in dialogue) outside of fully-fledged scenes. Alternatively, I wish this novel was written in dual timelines. It would have given the present and past moments an opportunity to breathe, and it would have been a diverting way to explore Maude and Odette’s relationship.

If there is one pet peeve of mine, it’s this: a young adult novel where the main character is obsessed with their best friend. The catch? The best friend is an awful person who doesn’t deserve a lick of the main character’s time or energy. Surely, there are cases where this can be done well—this novel is not one of those cases. If anything, this obsession stole away any of Maude’s agency. She was a textbook example of a people pleaser and even in the early chapters, did not give much indication of being willing to change to those ways. And if a character has an unwillingness to change and/or a lack of goal (in this case, Maude’s goal was to find Odette), the character loses its agency. I would argue that Maude didn’t have much agency at all.

In the end, this was a clunky novel that needed further refinement prior to publication. I found it difficult to connect to the main character or to sink into the story by any means. Unfortunately, this means I will not be reading any more of this author’s work in the future.

Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.