I had super high hopes for this one because, hello, dark gothic fantasy vibes with vampires and assassins? Yes, please! And at first, it was totally living up to the hype. The whole underground arena thing and Violet being a total badass? Loved it. But, ugh, about halfway through it just kinda lost steam. The pacing got all weird, and I was like, wait, what happened to the excitement? 😕

Violet started off all mysterious and edgy, and I was here for it, but girl, she’d spill her plans to anyone with ears, and I was screaming, “Girl, zip it!” By the end, I was just over it. The big showdown? I blinked, and it was done. So anticlimactic.

But, I gotta say, the world-building was still super cool. The dark, gritty atmosphere and the whole lore behind the Leech Lords and witches? Totally intriguing. It just didn’t come together as well as I hoped, but still a super fun read!

Thanks so much, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion! ✌️

I’ve loved everything I’ve read from this author but I found this started out well but got a bit repetitive and boring from the middle point onwards.
I think the writing is still excellent and the characters well fleshed out but this just didn’t grab me

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc

you guys, this started out so promising and i was already seeing solid four stars for it in the future. so to my utter shock and surprise when a little halfway through, it shifted gears and turned repetitive and quickly became very (gasp) boring. like the final battle against the big bad was so lacklustre, i swear i blinked and it was all over.

our main character started the story so mysterious and edgy and not like other girls, but she was worse than other girls and man would she not shut up!! like she yapped her mouth to anyone who would listen about her quest like girl have some decorum & shut your mouth. slowly I started feeling my eye twitch the longer i spent time with her and she started grating on my nerves.

so sad this was a flop for me bc i still find the gritty setting really cool and the lore involved in the world was super interesting, and i would love to read more on it.

many thanks to the publishers and net galley for supplying me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

A.G. Slatter does it again! I adored how, if you hadn't read the other books in the universe, you could read this is a standalone (not unlike Brandon Sanderson whom I love), but if you have read everything else then this turned into a richer, deeper story. Truly delightful and atmospheric AF.

The Crimson Road by A. G. Slatter, while working completely as a stand alone, has cameos from the previous three titles (All the Murmuring Bones, The Path of Thorns and The Briar Book of the Dead). Violet Zennor has been raised to be the perfect assassin/fighter, brutally trained by her Father to survive any situation. When her Father dies she wrongly believes she is finally free to make her own choices, until she discovers she is the only person who could kill an ancient evil that is threatening to destroy the world.
As with all of Slatter's "sourdough' universe stories and novels, traditional fairy tales are wonderfully reworked to form different threads.
While you could read The Crimson Road as your first Slatter book, the story is much richer if you have the knowledge from the previous titles.

A good fantasy and gothic tale. The prose was efficient and good enough but the novel felt a little too long at times. I think maybe the characters could have been more interesting or developed. 3 stars.