Told in first person, Metal from Heaven is a record of the life of Marney Honeycutt. Orphan, bandit, murderer, seducer, lover but never beloved, friend, lustertouched, and survivor. She survived the murder of her family at the order of the factory owner; she became a recognized member of the Choir — a bandit group romping merrily across the world — and there learned to turn her gift of magic from an accident to a skill. She fell in love with a girl who loved someone else. She learned to fight, to smoke, to drink … but all of it, every bit of it, was just Marney biding her time until she could kill Yann I. Chauncey, the man who had her family put to death, and in so doing, killed the person Marney loved most in the world.

And now Chauncey will die.

This book, when I finished it, had me go “huh.” Not in a bad way, not in a good way. It was more an acknowledgement that the book was over. There’s noting vast and grand about the ending, no big culmination of events or character work, no cliffhanger, and I had no anger at the ending. Honestly, I really wish the book would have been either worse or better, or left me with some reaction I could easily use to structure a review around. Instead, it’s a book of almosts, and I hate that. I feel infected with Marney’s placid acquiescence.

Marney, as a character, isn’t really there for much of the book. The writing is so heavy on style, so enamored with its conceit that the characters never develop beyond being names and pretty faces, with brief identifiers like this one smokes, this one’s mean, this one smiles. Even Marney herself feels like nothing more than a collection of statements and a drifting emptiness of apathy and resignation. She talks of vengeance, but that’s all it is, with little action. Instead, the plot is a whirling, chaotic stream of ideas and Marney feels like a leaf drifting from one moment to the next, never bothering to pay more than a cursory attention to anything, inured against any and all feeling. She — and the book — are a directionless stream of consciousness. It’s frustrating because Marney drifts by so many interesting things! This is a world where people ride boars instead of horses, keep otters instead of dogs; there are several religions that I would have loved to have seen more of, countries on the verge of war, an industrial age threatening to destroy the world, magic and politics and rich cultures, and Marney doesn’t seem to give a shit about any of it. Reading between the lines at the hints dropped by other characters adds a certain mystery to things, making me want more of the world.

Marney is gay — or a crawly, as they call them here, linking homosexuality with something disgusting and unpleasant — and loves women. And this is a world rich in women. Bandits, prostitutes, a noble class where a woman can be a Baron and not a Baroness, where two women (or men) can wed. One culture has five gender roles: Male penetrator, male penetrate-ee, female penetrator, female penatrate-ee, and those who do neither. Marney dresses in a masculine fashion of braces (suspenders) and trousers, while others wear slinky dresses or lush gowns, but this isn’t just a queernormative world; this is a subculture in the greater world, which is marvelous. The ideas on gender and sexuality were very well done, as is Marney’s own sexuality. She loves women, loves giving them pleasure, but doesn’t want to be touched. She doesn’t want to feel physical release in that way. It’s something she’s unsettled by, something she’s never wanted. And it’s interesting, and something I would have like to have seen explored, the idea that sexuality isn’t just about sex, but about the person and the emotions and desires they both feel and don’t. But that’s just a moment in the story.

There’s a wedding plot, where Marney has to pretend to be someone else to win Chauncey’s daughter as a bride, hinting at the plot showing up again, and a cast of interesting and difficult people are introduced. But Marney’s off in her thoughts again, leaving the motives, personalities, and politics of everyone else off page. All Marney does is think about “you,” her lost love, and herself, and it’s an entire book of almost 450 pages of this drifty, aimless, leisurely stream of consciousness. And it goes on and on and on and on and then the book’s over. The writing is good. While I dislike the style, I can’t deny that it was consistent, but it is also so very monotonous. Every now and then something would show up — a religion, some politics, some commentary — and I would be caught, only for it to become an insubstantial nothing. It felt like the book had something it wanted to say, but because the author leaned so heavily on the style, and so heavily on this idea of Marney and her madness, it wasn’t able to do more than raise a point, glance at an idea, or ask a question before it was back into Marney’s thoughts.

This book isn’t for me. I don’t mind the lack of plot, because the world building is so strong, but that’s all the book has. It feels like disjointed scraps of truly interesting world building with no connective thread, a story with no plot, and a character with no agency. This book is the author’s debut, and I will be curious to see what else they write.

This kind of reminded me of Red Rising at first, but I will say the story was so much more interesting for me than Red was. The characters had such depth and the world was so rich and well thought out. Fantastic!

Absolutely outstanding even if at times it was incredibly hard to get into or understand due to the complexity of the prose. I thought I knew where the book was going at first and was absolutely shocked at the ending, though I wouldn’t say it didn’t fit or didn’t make sense. Masterful and unapologetically queer.

I had a great time with this book. I enjoyed that our narrator was unreliable and I loved the dynamics between our MC and the rebels. I thought that the themes explored in this book were well incorporated, and the world was well-realized. This was a really compelling read from start to finish, and really isn't like much I've ever read. Awesome stuff!

Metal from Heaven is a book that demands your full attention—and that’s a good thing. I ended up restarting it twice, once after reaching 60%. On the third attempt, I was able to appreciate it for what it is. Initially, the comparisons to Gideon the Ninth led me to expect a shift in tone as Marney aged up, so moving past that expectation positively changed my experience!!

The narrative is in first person, with Marney as a sometimes unreliable narrator. To me, that is where the Gideon the Ninth comparison ends. She is “lustertouched,” a condition brought on by her exposure to ichorite. As a child, she is the sole survivor of a massacre that occurs when workers at the ichorite factory strike for safer conditions to combat the illness. After the massacre, Marney joins a band of rebels known as the Highwayman’s Choir, who introduce her to a life of resistance and revenge.

I am glad I didn't give up on it. I think if you clear your mind of comparing it to anything else, you can enjoy the creative way this book explores the cost of defiance in a world driven by greed and power. The writing style took some getting used to, but I was hooked by the end!

Metal From Heaven is my top book this year, full stop. It was an easy five stars, I would like to rate it six out of five stars if possible. I want to thank NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and Erewhon Books for the ARC. It was...the best. I cannot be more grateful.

The prose was beautiful, the characters where tragic and powerful, the world was rich and full. Everything about this book was tailored to me, specifically. The blurb is incredibly accurate - if you want an anticapitalist, pro-environmentalist, feminist, Sapphic, pro-labor story full of tragic lesbians and suffering, this is for you.

All the pain in this book has a purpose - it isn't trauma p*rn and it isn't lip service to suffering. It describes complex loves, it describes dedication, it describes family. Despite all the pain, it is an incredibly hopeful book. So filled to the brim with hope and love.

If you can't handle the pain that comes with a deep love, this book is not for you. If you can't handle suffering that breeds radical hope, you shouldn't read this. The prose is oftentimes a little strange, it can take a few chapters to really understand what's happening and who our characters are. It never really becomes clear. If you're looking for a front to back, third person, plot driven book that easy to engage with, you should skip this.

This book will take some effort from you but it will be some of the best effort you ever put in.

11/10 no notes.

Marney was born as a 'luster touched' child with the ability to manipulate the metal ichorite that makes up the foundation of her world and also is forced to work in the factories that turn the metal into various goods. Her family and best friend are killed in an attempt to organize to strike and Marney is taken in by a group of outlaws. Once she reaches adulthood, she sets out on a path to assassinate the man responsible for her family's deaths.

This book is incredibly unique and definitely does not hold your hand in terms of explaining the world or the plot. Clarke has a disjointed writing style that still manages to be lyrical. It almost makes you feel like you are in a fever dream while reading. (I mean this in a positive manner, this book was gorgeous). That said, it did make the reading process slow so this may be one I wouldn't reread. Yet, I do think everyone should read this at least once.

First off, so many of the characters are either lesbians, genderqueer or both and it's great. I thought that Marney's aversion to her own sexual pleasure was such an important part of who she is as a person (as in she gives so much of herself without asking for anything in return).

The descriptions of Marney's luster touched fits were so well done that I felt like I was having the fit, just hats off to Clarke. They have a way of bringing the world to such vivid life without over explaining anything. There is a plot twist about 80% of the way into the book and it was so masterfully constructed that I didn't see it coming until about 20 pages before. (Was it frustrating that Marney didn't pick it up at the same time, yes but it is established that she's not the brightest crayon in the box so, that's in character). And the ending was just incredible and both predictable yet unpredictable at the same time.

Long story short, this book needs to be read as it's an experience that all scifi/fantasy readers should have.

Reviews going live on Goodreads, Storygraph and Fable on 10/26 and on Tiktok 10/27.

Absolutely spectacular in every way. I think I've been waiting for this book my whole life. Clarke's writing was fresh, beautiful, daring, and I didn't want to put this book down. I will be recommending it to all my friends and look forward wholeheartedly to future books by this author!

I'm really tired of books being described one way in their dust jacket summary, and reading an entirely different way. I guess I was expecting a really cool sapphic sci-fi fantasy written similarly to other current SFF and this read like a literary novel. That's not what I signed up for. Also, it was written almost as if it was simultaneously one long letter to someone as well as the main character badly narrating her movements to herself. Idk, I was lost from the get go and after a while, when I still couldn't figure out what exactly was happening, I gave up. Definite DNF, however, I want more Sapphic SFF so three stars.

Ok. I'm here. I finally crossed the finish line crawling on my hands and knees. I slept on it and honestly I am still having difficulties parsing my thoughts on this.

I was extremely excited for this and I think I made too many assumptions based on the blurbs and taglines and all that fun stuff to the point where it really hurt my reading experience A LOT, which is what contributed heavily towards my rating. This is why:
1) I would peg the setting as a fantasy steelpunk sort of setting, but make it fantasy steel instead, which was GREAT. I loved that aspect so much!! Not so much 'punk-rock' because it felt too western for that?
2) It's advertised as a political call-out, however I was expecting more political commentary - or at least more than: "capitalism kills and is evil but socialism is worth dying for". I was not expecting it to lean more into the constructs of religion and nepotism and really it got super muddled at that point as to what the author's intention was with this.
3) I could see where the comparison to Gideon the Ninth came from in the sense of the frenetic prose that almost seems to riff on the English language. Do I feel like it's on the same tier as Muir? Not really, but it's unique enough to keep interest.
4) The comparison to The Princess Bride is absurd. This book isn't even a romance, unless you consider an obsession with a dead girl romance. Either way it doesn't have the easy humor, Inigo Montoya character, or really anything that made TPB unforgettable. And you can't label anything that's vaguely second chance romance as being similar to TPB, that's just silly.

Anyway to try and sort my thoughts I'll just make my list:

Pros:

⛏️ The beginning of this book! Wow! What a bang of a start! I was hooked almost immediately! You've got labor strikes, death, escapes, banditry, train robbing!!! Almost a wild-west vibe filled with comradery and lesbians! It was great!

⛏️ The varying degree of identities of the characters. Not just gender, which comes up a couple times, but within the scope of lesbianism and thoughts of dysmorphia/dysphoria.

⛏️ The last 10% of the book. Look, with all the religious allegories going on, I was expecting a Jesus Has Risen moment. Glory and all that! I was not ready for <spoiler>the hatching of sentient, hive-mind metal kaiju</spoiler>. Plus, the very last sentence was perfect. It made the second person story-telling angle turn the entire book into a repeating cycle, which would tell the creation of the world, industrialization, and the end of the world over and over. It was a nice touch.

Cons:

⛏️ World building in general. There's a lot of it, but it feels like it's all in the wrong places? Or too little or too much all at once? There is no real balance. Example: At like 80-ish% I found out there are TWO MOONS in this setting. This feels more important than an offhand after the book is almost over?? But I do recall, after a lot of thinking, that a character mentioned a moon phase of "waning gibbous" towards the beginning, which would indicate one moon, right?? There are a lot of religions, I think maybe... 4 or more distinct ones? Only 2 of them do I have any general idea about what they are about and even then that's being generous. I think the author has a very good idea about their separate distinctions and founding myths and beliefs etc, but it doesn't really come across the story with any real clarity.

⛏️ Confusing cast of characters. As in their names and who is who. Everyone has at least 2 names, with the exception of only a few characters in a cast comprised of ugh idk somewhere in the 20s? Example: "Perdita Perfection" being called Perdita, Dita, Perfection, and sometimes even Princess Whatever Her Last Name Was - interchangeably, sometimes within the same sentence. Some characters change their names from childhood to adulthood and MC doesn't bother making the switch and uses both names whenever bc why not.

⛏️ Mid-book slump. I feel like something was lost just at the halfway point. There is the very important plot point that is supposed to rocket Marney into the second-half of the book to accomplish her page 1 goal, but it suddenly goes flat? Marney just sort've stops doing things and there is a massive focus on graphic sex scenes (that's cool but where did the plot go??). The prose loses the edge that the first half of the book had, like the author found it difficult to keep it up? I almost DNFed several times between 55% and 91%.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for a copy of this book.

I am really sad to say that this book is not a good fit for me, and yes, it's not it, it's me. I loved the idea of it, and the world sounds fascinating. To be honest, the characters we meet (up until the point I have read, at least) sound cool and fascinating, too. I think that fascinating can be a good word to describe what I have read. But the writing wasn't right for me. It's not that it is bad, but to me reading it felt like a chore more than a pleasure. Mainly it's because it has some dreamlike quality to it, and I know that for someone the right word here would probably be "lyrical" but nope, for me it is "dreamlike quality" and this does not work for me, simple as that.
I tried because I was interested in what I was reading but... I didn't really want to work for it. So I decided to let it go, but if dreamlike vibes can work for you, then by all means, give this one a try, because it can be phenomenal if it works for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for letting me read an e-ARC of Metal from Heaven by August Clarke! I've rounded up my rating from 4.5 to 5 for the purpose of this review.

Marney Honeycutt is luster-touched. After spending her childhood working with ichorite, she cannot stand to be around the substance without also being in pain and experiencing hallucinations - it seems to slowly eat away at her body from the inside out. Marney witnesses the death of her entire family when they’re picketing the ichorite factory that is completely decimated by Yann Chauncey, and she’s the only survivor.

The entire book is written in an almost stream-of-consciousness format with Marney frequently addressing the reader as “you” (their childhood friend and would-be lover, Gwyar who was killed in the attack). We are thrown right into this world of child labor, capitalist greed concerning ichorite (a toxic substance stronger than steel), and Marney, who wants to avenge her family and friend’s deaths by single-handedly killing Yann Chauncey, herself. We witness her journey as an orphan taken in by the Choir (a group of bandits) to an undercover socialite trying to win the daughter of Chauncey’s hand in a series of marriage games. The plot twist at the end got me really good (loved it and audibly gasped) and the final chapters were a mind-boggling experience that took me 10 minutes to adjust to (just read it and you’ll see what I mean), but I cannot emphasize enough how much I just LOVED the journey.

The story is an absolute fever dream tinged in pink hallucinations and consistently bloody and brutal undertones. It is not a fantasy tale for the faint of heart. It took about 50% of the book to feel completely immersed in the world and to understand the jargon, and then the last 50% of the book is a mad dash of chaos to the bitter end. I have to add that I was surprised this is a standalone novel, as I think a duology may have served it well and would’ve presented an opportunity to flesh out some key characters more. Overall, I loved this book. I would absolutely recommend it to fans of The Locked Tomb series for its lesbian shenanigans, scheming games, and butchy revenge. This novel was just so HOT and outside of my normal fantasy reading experience and every bit was worth it!

So: this is a book which is wildly and unapologetically itself. Don't come to this book expecting it to make space for you. It proudly takes up its own space, and it's up to you whether you're along for the ride.

This is a fantasy novel set during a faux-Industrial Revolution which stars a tattooed queer motorcycle gang, in which basically everyone is a lesbian and almost every combination of characters has had sex (symbolically or otherwise) with each other. "Be gay, do crimes" doesn't begin to cover it. It is not about characters changing or growing or doing a little hero's journey or anything cute like that; it is a punk anarchist anticapitalist dyke manifesto.

So settle in, don't fight it, munch on the crunchy yummy and occasionally experimental prose, roll with the sweeping sometimes-disconnected vignettes and bursts of ideology, embrace the symbolism and the rich embodied sensual style, and you'll have a ball. I did and I am a very different person than August Clarke.

A couple of things I think METAL FROM HEAVEN does really well:

- I loved the portrayal of religion, particularly the way faith can entangle with your life and sense of awe/desire and how you conceptualize yourself, long past the point where you're orthodox or observant. Given the whole punk burn-the-world-down vibe, I was really surprised to discover that - in many ways - this is a nuanced story about someone finding a richly meaningful place in her usually very gender-essentialist and homophobic religion. Also the way the Torn Child riffs off the Trinity/the suffering Jesus/the Church as Christ's body/...imma have to get back to you on that one. Really good stuff.

- The second person pays off, trust me. (I am so here for my two nickels: bizarre sapphic second-person SFF novels about bodies, cf HARROW THE NINTH.) Also the way it connects to all the other worship and awe and desire and lust...The thematic/symbolic throughline in this book is just so well done.

- There is some fabulous representation here of how gender and sexuality can be intertwined in complex ways. This is definitely representation of a very specific kind of messy nonconformist queer experience which not all queer people share, but it is so rare to find and well done and I felt lucky to be let into it.

- This is also a book which is constantly curious about community, care and softness, the slippery boundaries of what love can be. There are no "normal" relationships here and quite a big cast of characters (most of whom have 2-4 names to boot...), so it can be a lot to keep track of. But even that feels intentional. It's almost baiting you: why DO you have a problem with a big messy network of characters, huh? Why DO you want one protagonist to have all the flashy agency?

Some other things METAL FROM HEAVEN is not trying to do:

- Many fantasy novels spend a lot of their attention on plot, magic, worldbuilding puzzles, complicated explanations and reveals, etc. IMO this book has a solid plot throughline, but this is not Metal From Heaven's preoccupation. You are here for the vibes, the characters, the politics, and the embodied symbol world. Don't get impatient when it pauses the plot throughline for character vignettes or sex scenes, you will drive yourself nuts.

- Yes, the ending is weird, but our protagonist does have hallucinatory out-of-body magic. And it pays off a ton of the magic, character, political, and thematic throughlines. It follows. Just remember: this is a not a story about people changing, it's a story about people being and wanting. Roll with it. Soak in the vibe.

- This is not Queer Rep 101; this is Queer Rep 301 at least, made for the gays first and everyone else second. This book is not going to apologize for Making Things Weird or being problematicTM.

- This is also probably not the book for you if you get bothered about historical accuracy, or about being preached at. This book has opinions, it has a point, and it is not embarrassed about it.

Great read. Highly recommended if you're here for it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Metal from Heaven is a high-stakes revenge story set in a fantasy world moving through its industrial revolution. It's topped off with political intrigue, the highs and lows of high school football -- I mean organized banditry for a cause, secret identities, the precursor to the L Word, and unadulterated intimacy (physical, psychological, spiritual, and everything in between).

We follow Marney Honeycutt, an ex-child worker and sole survivor of the Yann Chauncey Ichorite Foundry strike massacre and her self-imposed destiny to kill Yann Industry Chauncey, and the radical love she experiences along the way.

This book is bloody, dramatic, capitalist, and horny. One of my favorite four combos. And it is absolutely brutal.

In the best way, of course.

The titular "metal from heaven" is an azure luster-y substance called **ichorite**, named in the same vein as ichor, blood of the gods. Marney is one of many luster-touched, a person exposed to ichorite for prolonged periods of time (usually from a young age), but she also holds a unique ability to feel and meld ichorite to her will at the cost of potentially deadly "fits".

I saw this book pitched as being for fans of Gideon the Ninth and The Princess Bride. While I can see the similarities between Metal from Heaven and The Locked Tomb series (mostly their absolute manic, almost chaotic, lesbian energy), The Princess Bride felt a lot less on the nose. The Traitor Baru Cormorant feels like a more apt comparison in my opinion.

*Metal from Heaven* is probably more explicitly in your face than both of the above novels, so if you liked Gideon the Ninth and The Princess Bride this might be in your wheelhouse, but it's just something to keep in mind.

---
Writing-wise, Metal from Heaven is 50% punchy, 20% headache inducing, 30% gripping, and 100% feeling.

The propose is so so so beautiful. Not in a slow and a poetic way; moreso... sharp. It's stark and clear like a gut punch that knocks the wind out of you and leaves you feeling it hours after.

The pacing... is weird. Personally, felt very off. The introductory section of the story felt too slow and too fast at the same time. Marney is a questionably reliable narrator, mostly in part due to her idol worship of <i>you</i>. Stylistically, the prose feels very stream of consciousness. There were a good chunk of times where it felt like there a big skip, or some significant thing happened, and the dots just weren't connecting at first read. Reading this book felt like I was hallucinating almost, which, in all fairness feels appropriate given Marney's ichorite fits.

Everything starts to pick up around halfway through the book, once we're introduced to the core premise of how Marney will actually carry out her plans to kill Yann Industry Chauncey. Up until that point, it feels like a big lore / backstory drop (which, it technically is), and that's when the story really starts.

The reveal felt a little heavy handed to me, but I did love the idea that she inexplicably tied into Marney's fate, even if it wasn't the way Marney thought she would. I did love the two of them were foils to one another in the way that processed and internalized their trauma and grief, and the way justify themselves so similarly.

---

Marney herself is a compelling character. She is a big, fascinating mess, who has clung onto her perception of the idea of <i>you</i>, her childhood friend and... everything? It feels like a disservice to only describe her as a friend or a crush. To Marney, <i>you</i> is her reason for everything.

Throughout her life, she is solely driven by her desire to kill Yann Chauncey. There is this, powerful almost itching feeling that Marney's narration brings. Her desire and determination is palpable and heavy and you can feel every bit of it.

Other main characters and side cast are equally as interesting. There are of course the scattered here and there characters, but Marney's core circle are all incredibly well-written and interesting in their own right.

I myself adored Vikare and Sisphe in particular, and felt just so much feeling that I cannot describe for Gossamer Dignity Chauncey.

---
I would argue that Metal from Heaven is a happy story in many ways, depending on your definite of happy. It celebrates the love, grief, and worship that make us human in an all too human way. It explores oneness with the world, trauma and how we cope with it, the systems that chain and cage us, perceptions of self and the lies we tell ourselves, the hard and painful road of self-discovery, and the friends and family we find along the way.

More than anything, it's a story about you. About you, me, and us. About what it means to just be, in the best ways and the worst ways.

Metal from Heaven was weird, aching, and beautiful. It has good bones, even if it is sometimes a little too ambitious for itself. August Clarke aimed for the stars, and while they didn't quite get there, they at least reached the moon.

“A bloody lesbian revenge tale and political fantasy set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change – and simmering class warfare.” – When I read this in the synopsis I was like SAY LESS! I knew this was going to be a good one, and it absolutely delivered.

First off can I just say that it’s criminal that there isn’t a special edition of this book because I would buy it in a heartbeat! This story is a brilliant mix of revenge, revolution, labour rights, environmental destruction, and class conflict. It’s messy, it’s bloody, sexy and it’s unapologetically bold from the very start (you’ll know what I mean if you’ve read it).

I enjoyed the story, but I have to admit it took me a minute to get used to the writing style. There’s a lot packed into each page, with LOTS of descriptions, intricate worldbuilding, and at times, paragraphs that seem to stretch onto page long descriptions. But once I got accustomed to it, I couldn’t stop reading to the very end. The political systems, the religious factions, the magic, it was all of it very well-thought-out and woven together brilliantly. I just wish there had been a detailed map and glossary to help me keep track of everything. My pen and notepad were sick of me 😂😭.
The story is set in a dystopian world powered by ichorite, a toxic metal that fuels the nation's growth while poisoning its people. Our MFC Marney Honeycutt, is a child worker who survives a massacre orchestrated by industrialist Yann Chauncey's strikebreakers. Ten years later, Marney embarks on a dangerous mission to avenge her people and family by infiltrating the elite Chauncey family, pretending to be one of their own.

I especially loved reading Marney’s character arc. Growing up in ichorite factories left her with “luster-touched,” a debilitating illness that causes her body to slowly shut down and her mind to hallucinate. Her journey from a tragic childhood to becoming a part of a choir (cough *gang* cough) and eventually a bandit was truly a wild ride. 👀

Overall, I ate up Metal from Heaven, even though the writing style sometimes had me struggling to keep up but that’s just me living on two brain cells that were struggling to survive, lol. If you’re looking for a revenge story with complex, morally ambiguous characters in a Victorian-style political fantasy world, you need to read this.

A huge thank you to Erewhon Books and Kensington Publishing Corp for providing an e-ARC and a finished copy in exchange for an honest review!

This piece is a beautiful evaluation of revolution from multiple nuanced angles. The multicultural landscape depicted all reference facets of a single significant event with a brilliance. The protagonist is a compelling representation of disability well supported by a network of mutual aid. I will be thinking about this work for a long time.

Rounding up from 3.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review..

If you like sapphic revenge tales that read like a Fever dream, this is the book for you! I loved the opening, the overall idea, and world building so much. Our main character, Marney, becomes a bandit with The Choir after her entire family is massacred.

Where I disconnected from the book was the writing style. It felt a little too dreamlike and I get that it’s from Marney’s perspective and she hallucinates all the time, but it did make things a bit hard to follow and I wasn’t as invested as I’d like to be. Overall a fun read of this is your vibe.

I’m so sorry, but this book was not for me. I found the narrator’s point of view exhausting, even though I’ve enjoyed other books where the protagonist seems to experience psychosis such as Harrow the Ninth.

The last 10% of the book was a complete puzzle, and not in the good way. It felt like this book wanted to be a series but was forcefully shoved into a standalone and suffered greatly for it. I added a star for this odd decision that I assume was imposed from the top down, and not a choice of the author.

As I had a negative experience, I’ve chosen not to repost elsewhere, as to not prejudice readers against this book. It wasn’t for me, but authors I respect have given high praise for it, so maybe it’ll work for you.

I know some people will love this, but I can't. The energy is non-stop over the top, which means there isn't any variation, everything is extremely important, but also, everything is the same. It is just tiring.

There are transitions that are hard to follow, needing re-reading, new slang that takes several pages to make sense, and world building without any real support. All those things bounced me out of the narrative.

I am unfortunately going to join those that did not enjoy this. In theory, this has everything I like - a FMC full of trauma trauma ready to avenge those that she lost, lots of women that aren't pretty and perfect and Only Good, lesbians, and a really cool world with cool magic and incredible worldbuilding. But I could just not get through this at all.

Something about the writing for this book was just so incredibly vague. It felt like reading someone's diary that they wrote as they were going through a fever dream or on some kind of hallucination - a few moments of clarity where I was like, "oh wow, I know what's going on" only to be thrown back into an incredibly dense paragraph full of description that, other than looking poetic, really did not tell me all that much about the characters, the plot, or what was going on. It also felt like the entire time was just going forward through snapshots, with nothing really linking scenes and to me that made it even more difficult to understand what was happening and who was present.

I also just could not get myself to care for the main character. The first 10% I was rooting for her, but I gave up and DNFed around 28% in when I could not get myself to focus after a pagelong description of something that just put me to sleep, and I zoned out after that. I tried skimming through it, but I think it is just not for me.

Would recommend this for those of you that like a bit of a vague, densely descriptive and flowery language all while not truly being all that proper, and if you honestly love a bunch of cool lesbians doing cool, at times unethical shit (or so I heard). Please don't let my review keep you from picking this up, because all my friends recommended this to me and loved it, so I think I am just not intellectual enough for it, but truly, do give it a shot!