This is a tale of friendship and magic. One that will be hard to put down and even harder to forget. This fantasy comes to life is an addicting read that will invoke the imagination to spin an epic tale. Such an amazing read!

The world building and characters were great but I found the story to be a tad bit too slow paced for me that it *felt long*.

Wow.

This book was not what I was expecting the world building is stellar and the way the author describes things makes you feel like you are in the Sicklehurst woods. I could imagine everything so vividly and I could imagine the sensory smells and tactile items as she described things. Woah!

This wasn’t a feel good book for me, but it’s beautiful.

My heart hurts for Maude- she has been used by so many people. This is her journey of self discovery. She doesn’t know how to trust and her thoughts and emotions betray her. What’s real and what’s not real? Who can she truly trust and rely on?

Wow- give this book a read!

So, I really loved the story of this book. Girls are wild and when you try to force them to hide it away, whether as a tool for control or misguided attempts to “help”, it hurts them until they can accept and thrive with it.

Maude has a long frailly history of witches. Both her grandmothers are witches. Her mother was one and because of the actions she took against a world that wants to control magic and decide who gets to use it and who doesn’t, she’s gone.

She has a friend named Odette who she was incredibly close with, until she lost her magic when she got her period. Odette no longer wanted anything to do with her. And now, she’s gone missing and Maude feels it’s her responsibility to find and save her.

They’d been close friends as children. Maude would tell her stories, weaving them together out of thin air. Odette has no magic and is jealous about it.

While the book was slow paced for a decent chunk, after about the 50% mark it really picks up. And I couldn’t at all figure out how it was going to go. It was a wild ride.

Things I liked: the characters. They were gritty and real. They made mistakes that cost lives and suffered because of it. They felt like actual people who were struggling to try to fix their mistakes. This book also shows the lengths that someone will go for someone they care about. Even if that person no longer cares about them.

Odette and Maude’s relationship took a turn and while I understand it, I hate Odette. She’s the kind of girl who never apologizes. Never admits when they’re wrong. Maude had a hand in all of the things that went wrong. And Odette was right to be upset about it. But the fact that she couldn’t see past herself, I truly couldn’t stand her. Go Rufus for constantly being on her. Loved him.

Things I didn’t like.

Why was one of the cats named after the Korean language? Literally the cat’s name was Hangul and that was odd to me. Then there was a cat with another Korean name, although that was an actual name. And with Maude’s two grandmothers. Nan and Halmoni. The Korean word for grandmother. And it’s not translated. So you use context clues to know “okay, that’s what she calls her other grandmother”.

But then we have her mother. Mam.

The namings were odd to me because I couldn’t picture the country. Her mother’s family immigrated to the one they live in now. I can’t remember the name of it. Anglyon? There is a good chance I’m wrong with that name. But we don’t see much of their culture. Just the way that one of her grandmothers makes tea. That was it. So we’ve got a cat named after a langugae, a grandmother called by the Korean word for grandmother. And no real hint of the culture of her mother and grandmother’s culture.

That bothered me a lot.

Does the culture matter? Was it just because she liked the words? Was she trying to be inclusive because if so she failed. The entire cast is white and then Maude with her mixed heritage. That’s it. And when you do it wrong, it’s not good inclusion.

So I’m split. On the story portion, I really liked it and give it a 4 out of 5.

When it comes to the worldbuilding, she didn’t focus much on anything other than the magic, which yes was a massive portion of the story. But you don’t just use words from another language, claim these characters are of that culture, then not show the culture.

So, I’m giving it a 3.5 out of 5.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to them and the publisher.

A Hunger of Thorns is a unique dystopian-esque fantasy tale that follows Maude, a witch skilled in telling stories.

This writing in this book was fresh and interesting, and perfect for those ready to sink into an inventive world. While I found the writing style left a little to be desired, the book comes full circle, leaving readers off with a sense of conclusion in spite of some unresolved emotions. This book is perfect for YA readers looking for their next jaunt.

Maude's friend Odette is missing. Maude, once the purveyor of wildly imaginative stories is left without her best friend and without her magic. But she knows she can find Odette in the ruined Sicklehurst, and abandoned power plant in the midst of a magical forest.

Where to begin here? I love the diversity in this book. You have a bisexual main character who lives with her lesbian grannies. Love that. But Maude. Sigh. Maude is really unlikable and impossible to relate to. I appreciate the message this book is trying to send, but Maude is such a pushover. It's hard for me to believe she's girl power charging into battle. Don't even get me started on Odette. Secondly the world in this story was more complex than it should be for a YA book. Were there random jumps between worlds? Was this one world? I still can't answer that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. I wanted to love this book, but it just wasn't for me.

I loved the world in this book. It was a great mix of fantasy and modern, with magic incorporated into everyday life. I'm always up for a fantasy set in a version of our time, it makes things easy to understand and I feel like we're only one step from living a fantastical existence.

The main character Maude goes through an interesting journey. She's obsessed with her ex-friend Odette, even though she dropped Maude years ago. I liked how Maude went discovered a lot about herself and learned to be her own person and take control, but I was frustrated with her feelings for Odette and wanted her to get over it already. That girl was awful and I hated the things she said and did.

I got a bit lost in the middle, everything was happening a bit fast and I still didn't quite understand Sicklehurst, but I worked it out and thought the action in the last bit was very cool.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the copy.

Storytelling has always been Maude’s gift, so she knows all about girls who get lost in the woods. She’s sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of Sicklehurst, an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest—a place nobody else seems to remember is there. The danger is, no one knows what remains inside Sicklehurst, either. And every good story is sure to have a monster.

This has a lot of potential. Overall this is a very thoughtful story of a young woman focusing on her own acceptance and drowning out the parental and societal pressures of what she "should be." I really enjoyed the introduction to Maude and her grandmothers and how the magic was woven into the real world. The middle of the novel was a little struggle to get through, it just seemed like a lot of traveling for not a lot of payoff.

Thanks to Lili Wilkinson, Random House Children's, Delacorte Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

It is a fantasy tale, about a world where witch power has been commercialized, and the real power has been banned. Meaning - if you want to create a hex, you can't. But if you want to create a beauty spell that can be sold, go ahead. Or forget about using your powers and become a simple housewife.

As a young powerful witch, who's power is telling stories, Maude creates this fantasy world where all her frustrations, loves, hates, etc come alive. She thought it was just a kid's game, but realized that it is a real world, and something has been hidden there by her own mother. She goes on the hunt for it, as well as trying to save her childhood friend who seemed to have disappeared into that world.

I loved this book, for the first half that is. It drew me in with very strong writing and commentary about girls, and how we keep them contained. I just wanted to hug this book and all the beautiful words it contained. And then I got bored with the quest. It felt very drawn out and repetitive. Maybe because it was not as action filled, and just a lot of pondering of her own creation.

There are a lot of unresolved emotions, a lot of family secrets, and a lot of growing up to do. The writing is fantastical and lulls you into the fantasy world easily. It will be loved by many YA fantasy lovers. Can't wait to see what this author creates in the next installment.

What happens when a girl who can’t let go of her lost friend and lost magic gets sucked into a rescue mission in an abandoned magical powerplant? Probably a lot! Let’s find out!

Read if you like: YA paranormal romance, LGBTQ romance, childhood friends to enemies, unrequited love, secrets, mysteries, government-controlled magic, the resistance, female rage, justice, flashbacks, the power of stories, finding your power, finding your identity, dark whimsy and adventure.

Maude grew up entranced with Odette; weaving stories into reality with her magic to help keep Odette’s strict and tedious real life at bay. But as Maude matured, her magic left her and with it took Odette’s presence. Now Maude is left longing for the past while faced with a limited and magicless future. That is until Odette shows up at her door demanding help shortly before going missing. Maude realizes that Odette has gone in search of magic in an abandoned power plant and that no one else is still looking for her once friend. As she goes to save Odette, she finds a lot more than she expects and answers for long forgotten questions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lili Wilkinson for an electronic review copy of A Hunger of Thorns. This book is a lot of things but it is above all extremely entrancing for a daydreamer like myself. What you get is a story about the expectations of conformity thrust upon young girls that’s so wrapped up in mystery and wild magic that you get ensorcelled by the characters knowing that everything will be deeper than even they expect. You see the effects of suppressed identity and how this affects the individual as well as society. This particularly storyline is complete but it is obvious that the story is only beginning.

Maude’s journey is multifaceted, nuanced, and ultimately centered around finding her place. We go back and forth from past to present, magic to mundane, and from dreams to reality in a dazzling world where everything is uncharted and live altering. What bumped it down from 5 to 4 stars probably was more in the formatting than the content. The beginning chapters were quite long and sometimes wasn’t clear when the flashbacks began and ended in the text. It might be a NetGalley App functional issue. I needed more clear stopping points to gel with all the information and world building. But as the story goes and things become clearer for the characters and reader the chapters were more manageable and I didn’t find myself getting lost like in the first 40% of the book. I eagerly await book two!

Maude is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend, Odette, weaving stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. Then Maude grew up and lost her magic—and her best friend.

These days, magic is toothless, reduced to glamour patches and psychic energy drinks found in supermarkets and shopping malls. Odette has always hungered for forbidden, dangerous magic, and two weeks ago she went searching for it. Now she’s missing, and everyone says she’s dead. Everyone except Maude.

Storytelling has always been Maude’s gift, so she knows all about girls who get lost in the woods. She’s sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of Sicklehurst, an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest—a place nobody else seems to remember is there. The danger is, no one knows what remains inside Sicklehurst, either. And every good story is sure to have a monster.


Great YA book. When Maude loses her magic she feels abandoned by her best friend. Magical realism meets fantasy in this great YA fiction.

I'm having a hard time putting to words my feelings. I enjoyed the dark whimsy of this book, but I did find I zoned out through some of it. The premise is fantastic and the execution is good. Characters were flawed and real. The strong female presence is something I crave more of and this book gave it all with a sprinkle of WLW rep (albeit one sided). I may reread this later, and perhaps I'll have stronger feelings. For now it was a very down the middle read for me.

This book had potential. Im not sure I would have picked it up if I knew it was a retelling (ish) of the swan prince, to be honest. I REALLY enjoyed the first 20% and then just made myself power through the next 50% because I felt like absolutely nothing was happening. I wish we had spent more time on the history and world building and less time pining for Odette. I enjoyed the concept, but the execution was mid to me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. While the premise was interesting I didn’t connect with the characters or the story in a meaningful manner. The first chapter had so many flashbacks it made me lose interest in the story. Some books just aren’t for us, and that’s alright.

I struggled with this one and wasn't really getting into it or connecting with the characters, so I've decided not to finish it.

This story was so amazing! It captivated me from the very first page and I was so consumed by it! I devoured the whole thing!

4.5 stars.

Magical and dark modern fairytale. I loved the world that Wilkinson created in this novel and I am so happy to know that this is only the first in a series. There is so much interwoven into this story. There is a great journey of self-discovery amidst the fantastical world, perfect for lovers of an Alice in Wonderland style tale. The characters are fun and flawed and the world is creepy and wonderfully weird. The storytelling is excellent and though there is a lot wrapped up in this story the pacing stays on point and kept propelling me deeper and deeper into a world that I couldn't get enough of. Excellent female protagonist, some great inclusion, and a bit of a disorienting feeling to the narrative. I really enjoyed the experience of this one and look forward to the sequel!

I really like a dark and twisty fantasy story that really digs into the darker aspects of magic and A Hunger of Thorns very much satisfied that. This was a  young adult fantasy, but I do think it was definitely geared toward the slightly older young adult crowd just based off some of the themes and graphic content. Like, this got pretty dang dark and I appreciated that aspect of it!

This is set in a world where magic is a known thing, but it’s been highly regulated and capitalized upon by corporations. Witches can only perform spells from an “approved” book, which as the characters point out, are mostly fluff rather than substance. Maude, the main character, had magic as a young girl but upon hitting puberty it fizzled out and this has kind of devastated her. Since this happened, her childhood best friend Odette has basically moved on to more interesting people, which has also devastated Maude. Odette has jumped headfirst into some delinquent behavior and has gone missing, so Maude sets off to find her because she’s pretty sure Odette went into an abandoned power plant called Sicklehurst which was built on top of a magical forest called Sticklegrass Wood. There are deadly beasts and deadlier secrets inside Sicklehurst and Maude bravely, but rather stupidly, runs right into the maw of the beast. 

This book is as trippy as Alice in Wonderland and as twisted as a Grimm fairytale. It focuses on the magic of stories and how truly awful a fairytale can truly be when it hasn't been romanticized. This is further emphasized by how awful Maude and Odette really are. They have a horribly toxic friendship - Odette craves power and attention and Maude is not so secretly pining after her like a lost puppy. Even when they were very young and spent nearly all their time together, they were just two unhappy girls using escapism to cope with their lives. And then there’s poor Rufus, who is pining after Maude but she treats him terribly because she’s still longing for a friendship that’s been over for years. I did like the pushback on the idea that “nice girls” were quiet and did what they were told, but it was such a small theme in the scope of things.

Overall, I can appreciate what this book was going for and the twisted whimsy of the Sticklegrass Wood. I did not care for Maude or Odette and watching them spiral was kind of a hot mess and both these kids needed some serious therapy thanks to all that childhood trauma. The book felt infinitely longer than the 432 pages it clocked in at, and I wish the pace had felt a bit snappier. A Hunger of Thorns is not a new favorite but it certainly wasn’t a bad story at all.

Magic, a mission to rescue an old friend, and discovering the truth behind forgotten memories. Maude is the daughter of witches and spent most of her childhood with her best friend Odette, telling her stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes who turned into swans... but when she entered into puberty she lost her magic and the moment her magic was gone her best friend dumped her. Maude loves Odette, she doesn’t know who she is without her, she would give her anything, despite the fact that Odette wants nothing to do with her. Odette craves forbidden dark magic, and when she suddenly appears at Maude’s door all these years later asking for some, and Maude refuses her? She suddenly disappears and has been gone for two weeks. Upon discovering that she’s been gone for so long Maude feels responsible since she turned her away and is convinced that she has to save Odette. But saving Odette means facing her childhood stories, facing the magical land she thought she only made up in her stories but is in fact very real and that there is something much more dangerous here. Can she save Odette and by saving Odette will she finally get her friend back or is her codependence clouding her judgment. This was a not so great time for me unfortunately. I really don’t get why Maude was so obsessed with Odette and despite the fact that most people point out just how codependent and toxic Odette and Maude’s relationship was, Maude is blind to it. Maude goes on and on about how she has to save Odette, how she misses her, how she’ll win her over despite the fact that Odette has made it very clear she doesn’t like Maude and has moved on from her. Maude goes on about how she’s so pathetic for wanting Odette and wanting their relationship back and that she just have to be the savior. Honestly it was kind of annoying and the whole dark fairytale aspect was giving me Alice in Wonderland vibes but other than that I truly wasn’t invested in the characters or story at all, none of the characters were actually likable. Overall, this one was a let down for me, however if you like young adult fantasy stories about girls who really want to save their friend and go on alice in wonderland inspired esque world then give this one a go.

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson was an interesting premise, but just an ok read. I didn't find myself connecting with the characters or the world, so it became slow and I got bored quite often. Otherwise though, it was interesting enough.