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A review by tilly_wizard
The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The entire way through, I was thinking this book was worth a very unremarkable 3 stars, but the ending saved it.
You’d never know that the setting was inspired by the court of Louis XIV, without having been told by the author.
The setting is mildly interesting, and is reminiscent of those late-2000s-early 2010s books I always remember as “dude fantasy” (Malazan, the Kingkiller Chronicles, Locke Lamora…you know the type). More than anything, it reminds me of Thedas, with its Evil Fantasy Catholic Church, and a seemingly endless network ofBlight Mortem-ridden tunnels running deep under the earth, and imprisoning the not-quite-dead remnants of ancient gods (also evil, of course).
What it isn’t very reminiscent of, however, is 17th century Versailles (read Irina Kermong’s review on Goodreads for some great details about that).
The story also has all the typical hallmarks of YA (plot structure, character archetypes, etc), but the characters are slightly older and there’s mentions of Drugs and Sex, so you know it’s for Mature Adults who read Adult Fantasy (as opposed to those degenerate adult children who read Young Adult Fantasy).
I want to havea knife fight to the death a pleasant exchange of views with whoever in the publishing industry decided recently that it’s time for love triangles to make a comeback.
This one is a particularly egregious case, because Hannah Whitten is a Known Reylo, and presumably intends to cater to other Reylos (the majority of whom harbour a strong disdain for love trianglesexcept when it's Breylo, I guess); in this book, we have Lore, the Chosen One commoner who turns out to be the avatar of the goddess of darkness and death, and Bastian, the Chosen One prince who is the avatar of the god of light and life…and Gabe, who must be the squeakiest third wheel since Mal Oretsev himself.
A lot of people seem to be mad about the instant connection between the three main characters, based on a feeling that they know each other, which turns out to relate to some kind of reincarnation prophecy. I actually like love at first sight/reincarnation romances, etc, so I was down with it,
however
You’d never know that the setting was inspired by the court of Louis XIV, without having been told by the author.
The setting is mildly interesting, and is reminiscent of those late-2000s-early 2010s books I always remember as “dude fantasy” (Malazan, the Kingkiller Chronicles, Locke Lamora…you know the type). More than anything, it reminds me of Thedas, with its Evil Fantasy Catholic Church, and a seemingly endless network of
What it isn’t very reminiscent of, however, is 17th century Versailles (read Irina Kermong’s review on Goodreads for some great details about that).
The story also has all the typical hallmarks of YA (plot structure, character archetypes, etc), but the characters are slightly older and there’s mentions of Drugs and Sex, so you know it’s for Mature Adults who read Adult Fantasy (as opposed to those degenerate adult children who read Young Adult Fantasy).
I want to have
This one is a particularly egregious case, because Hannah Whitten is a Known Reylo, and presumably intends to cater to other Reylos (the majority of whom harbour a strong disdain for love triangles
A lot of people seem to be mad about the instant connection between the three main characters, based on a feeling that they know each other, which turns out to relate to some kind of reincarnation prophecy. I actually like love at first sight/reincarnation romances, etc, so I was down with it,
however
“Lore, tell me I’m not alone here.”
And wasn’t that all she’d ever wanted? Not to be alone?
She stared at him across the dark and the torchlight, the rocks and bones. “You aren’t.” It came out hoarse; she swallowed. “You aren’t alone, Bastian. I feel it, too.”
I cannot believe she had them Say The Lines, and yet somehow still expects me to regard Gabe as any kind of legitimate love interest.
It’s interesting that Gabe is developed a lot earlier and in more detail than Bastian (who is pretty but disappointingly bland until the last few chapters, much more of a Nikolai than a Darkling), but I and plenty of other reviewers remain pretty lukewarm towards Gabe, and even unconvinced that he needed to be in the story at all.