I loved the idea of playing with the trope of "the chosen one" and putting an elderly woman instead. But the execution wasn't as good as the pitch: the main idea and character felt under-exploited (a teenager takes over mostly), and I could see no real evolution in her. Some characters weren't very useful and some lacked depth, being just a bit more than a name, while becoming important in the end. The writing was good enough, but there's only so many "fidgeting with the hem of their t-shirt" or "hugged herself" or "her hip hurt badly" that I can take.
All in all, some nice and fun ideas, but maybe it could have gone really into parodying the genre, or on the contrary, be more serious about it all, avoiding cliches, repetitions etc.
A touching & emotionally realistic story, set in the modern world but with magic.
5 stars
I very much enjoyed this book, despite all the dark elements that the characters face. It is indeed funny, and the narrative phrasings made me laugh out loud more than once. It's also sad, even heart-wrenching at points. I personally really enjoyed seeing someone with a bad hip/other physical ailments that genuinely seems to affect them all the time, not just when it's convenient to the narrative. And when characters get injured, those injuries matter. And of course I appreciated that there's M/M and F/F relationships in the book, and was glad that if there was more than cuddling going on, it was off-screen and undescribed. She, and all the other characters we get to know well, have moments of strength, and moments of weakness when they rely on others to be strong for them.
I loved how she completed the quest, and I loved the glimpse into her life, …
I very much enjoyed this book, despite all the dark elements that the characters face. It is indeed funny, and the narrative phrasings made me laugh out loud more than once. It's also sad, even heart-wrenching at points. I personally really enjoyed seeing someone with a bad hip/other physical ailments that genuinely seems to affect them all the time, not just when it's convenient to the narrative. And when characters get injured, those injuries matter. And of course I appreciated that there's M/M and F/F relationships in the book, and was glad that if there was more than cuddling going on, it was off-screen and undescribed. She, and all the other characters we get to know well, have moments of strength, and moments of weakness when they rely on others to be strong for them.
I loved how she completed the quest, and I loved the glimpse into her life, and the lives of her travel companions, afterwards.
The author's note, quoted below, contains some very helpful content warnings. "[T]he story involves loss, grief, and unresolved trauma for everyone involved. Some of the characters have anxiety or PTSD and suffer from panic attacks, nightmares, and flashbacks on the page. Some scenes involve physical violence, fire, injury, blood, and death. Additionally, while physical abuse does not occur on the page, it is discussed frequently throughout the story."
In addition to this list, there are a couple of things that are usually big bugaboos of mine, but which were written with such empathy that I was actually pretty okay with them. Spoilers below, so I'm giving a little space if you don't want to read them.
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1) Named character death: There's a lot of death, including the on-page death of people we've actually gotten to know a bit. (No-one whose POV we've seen dies).
2) Betrayal: One character does betray the group, but since it's known from the start that he's a plant from their enemy, it's easier for the reader to be emotionally braced by it.
