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I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley for an honest review.

It took me 11 months to read this book. Why? This book is full of essays regarding Supreme Court cases fought by the ACLU that, for the most part, defend freedoms under the U.S. Constitution. It's heavy reading. It's thick reading.

Some essays are so well written, the pages turned themselves. Others did not flow as well or reveal as well and made the book harder to get through. In the year 2020, January was quite a bit different than nearly-December. Quite a bit different. This book was published in February of this year, just before the decade that is 2020 started. This entire time, every essay feels so pertinent. I thought maybe after the results of the 2020 US Presidential Election, the essays would feel less important. They still feel just as relevant.

The essay on Brandenburg V Ohio (1969) inspired me to recommend this book to a few different groups I'm in.

So even though it took me 11 months to read my ARC, I recommend it for others to read as well.

This book was recommended by a poet friend, though she recommended it to all her writer friends, not directly to me. 

The book seems to me a review of many books that tell a story non-linearly and categorizes them into their non-linear style. A bunch of reviews wrapped into 200 pages and sold.

It's supposed to be a book about writing, and as such, I would expect some discussion of how to go about this non-linear story-telling in a successful way rather than just a discussion of books that have done non-linear story-telling in a successful way. Perhaps I am simply not comprehending what I'm supposed to get out of this book.

It is interesting to read. I haven't read a single story in it though I have some of them sitting on my TBR pile.

Overall, if you are looking for a meandering, spiraling book about story-telling, this will be an interesting read. If you are looking for a good story or something more akin to instructional than this won't be for you.

Most of my thoughts about Wandfasted are better expressed in my reviews of The Black Witch and Ironflower, which are yet to be posted.

I'm reading these books for my book club.

Forest writes a good romance. While many readers do not like insta-love, it has never bothered me. In fact, I quite like the insta-love trope. However, the main character saying things like "This side of him was new to me" is a little odd when the main character has known the love interest exactly a week. Everything is new at that point!

There's more dining scenes in this story. Dining scenes are commonplace in romance, but Forest's remind me strongly of GRRM. It makes me feel like Forest is trying to prepare readers to read GRRM. Little does she know....

As I mentioned above, many of the issues in Black Witch and Ironflower are continued here. I don't think she's improved any of those and this is too short of a place to get into it. Her "everybody knows everybody" that bothered me in Black Witch is made worse here.

I have not read book 3, so this was my introduction to the full description of what Gardnerian marriage ritual is like. I found it helpful.

Overall, this is worth reading if you have read or are reading the accompanying series. It's a nice little romance embedded in all the other problems of the other books.

Summary of tl;dr book review: I was disappointed in this book, except for the love story.

I like that the Part 1 Prologue picks up nearly right where The Black Witch ended. This is very like [b:Red Queen|22328546|Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)|Victoria Aveyard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1449778912l/22328546.SY75.jpg|25037051] Red Queen and unlike my more usual trilogies I read.

While I had some problems with [b:The Black Witch|25740412|The Black Witch (The Black Witch Chronicles, #1)|Laurie Forest|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1487956992l/25740412.SY75.jpg|45580046] The Black Witch and rated it as okay (which is not bad for my critical reviews, honestly), I am interested in Elloren's story. I want to see how romances unfold, because I like a good romance. I was happy that none of the characters died at the end of The Black Witch. I would have been upset if any of them died in that Black Witch SPOILERS: dragon freedom scene.

Iron Flower started out fairly strong, and then slowed quickly. It was frustrating. Then, it got on my nerves. What Yvan was, was apparent from whenever the scene was that he moved so fast in the kitchen to attack one of the Banes in book 1. And it takes so long for him to reveal or Elloren to figure out his origin that I almost quit reading. I don't know if that was an editorial decision but it makes the book so much worse. It isn't cliff-hanger-y. We already know. Elloren looks unintelligent, which we've been shown she isn't, just naive. This is a plea to authors and editors to consider such decisions. I understand mechanics of story-telling and why this decision may have been made. It wasn't a good choice. I also hated that Yvan's nature was the climax for this book. What a let down.

Other than the world-building holes that get slightly patched but not fully in book 2, I find that Forest's story is all about religion, but the way she tied it to races is a little bit sketchy. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I see that it could be pushback against some old fantasy where religion and races are intertwined. Besides how on-the-nose religion and race can be to our own world, she continues with her Messages.

While WHAT Yvan is was apparent in book 1, WHO he is was really interesting to figure out and I only figured that out when he went to see his mother in book 2. SPOILERS: Again, I understand storytelling, but Clive would have said, "Your going to bring the daughter/granddaughter of the person who killed your father to your mother's home and think it's going to be okay?" I know why he didn't say it. But leaving that sentence out for those of us who realize with Mom's reaction and Yvan's "I can't take a lover" is one of those reader loses suspension of disbelief.

I LOVE that rather than revealing who Yvan is and that's why they can't be together, which is quite frankly a really good reason, Forest uses the Gardnerian religion and what happens to those who break those laws. Because in that moment that Yvan and Elloren are so mature and help keep the slow-burn romance going, either reason would work and knowing that there's both means that their love is so much more than Romeo and Juliet insurmountable. This is the most compelling part of both books up through this point.

In the middle of reading this book, I was preparing for a book group discussion and read more about the controversy surrounding the first book. I learned that Forest said she hadn't read a lot of fiction prior to this. It shows in her lack of world building. I think that's my biggest irritation with the series - the world is poorly built. It has a lot of holes and some conflicting information, which I as a reader should not be confused by at this point in the story.

One other huge issue I have with this story is that the Lupines are supposed to be all-accepting - except they can't accept you unless you become one of them. That's horrible. And I'm unsure through book 2 if Forest realized this massive ugly misstep she'd made. Additionally, the flip of treatment of men for only siring babies by the Amaz is interesting. It's been done by stronger authors. This is a place where Forest could have read more in the YA and fantasy genres to learn how its been done and improve within her own story.

I cannot roll my eyes hard enough at a binding kiss. First, how would Yvan know that his kiss binds them together? Second, it is 100% unnceccesary. Additionally, there is a lot of "not all men" in this book. So, while Forest writes a book that has some forward movement, she continues to misstep with regard to social issues.

I moved onto the two novellas and then the third book after this, so even though I found this book disappointing, I kept going.

I'm still in writer/editor mode but I hate the first sentence and I heard my critique partner just tearing it apart if I had written it "The woods are beautiful."

The prologue gives the reader the engaging "why?" Why did her uncle make the forest hate her? And what is going to happen because of it?

As I read, I'm going to think about something I read on Twitter recently. Adults can still read and love YA, but at some point, we have to stop reading and reviewing it as if it is written for us.

There are many tropes in this story. I probably would have enjoyed it at the right age, and I don't think I'm the right age or target audience. The Wand of Myth somehow combines HP with LoTR, only so far with a 17-year old heroine rather than a hero. The writing itself reminds me of Ever the Brave and would appeal to those who like that story.

The Selkie introduced the religion of the world, or at least of this race, and it's clear that it is a bad thing. It's a bit heavy-handed. But, I wonder if I were a young girl in a religion that had similar beliefs if it would come across as more believable. Unfortunately, I think those girls would not be allowed to read something called The Black Witch with religious overtones as presented. Now the entwining of religion and politics is interesting. The allegory to our current governments is more subtle, possibly unintended. There are a lot of Messages in this story.

It seemed to me Forest was preparing readers for GRRM's long meal descriptions. There's a strange disparity to the way she's made her gender dynamic. I had a bit of spoilers as to what was going on, but it was still hard to get a handle on. Aunt Vyvian and the four teenage girls discuss boys and handfasting has though boys were objects to be obtained, yet clearly girls being handfasted and assigned to a single boy somewhere between the ages of 13 and 19 was exploiting the girls.

There are things I understand and things I do not understand within this book. First, she needed slightly better critique partners or editors because some things are in an order that leave me as a reader wondering why it was mentioned for this one short chapter and never before or after. Like pinching shoes. The shoes should've pinched from the start, right? Another thing I do not understand is how everybody knows everybody, except Ellenor doesn't know anybody. In some ways, it makes sense if this country is like North Dakota where the population is small enough and nosy enough that they had enough contact tracers for covid-19 outbreaks - because everybody already knows who was with who, when, and how long. (This is a joke from a former resident of ND.) But, Forest seemed to be writing a big world - with five distinct races. Though obviously her geography is not big. These are the things I don't understand. Her populations and their personal knowledge of each other combined with the geography stretch the limits of my disbelief.

When Lukas Grey is introduced, he seems too good to be true, but then he takes her off to a deserted hallway to kiss her without proper consent. Maybe I'm just tired of stories for young adult where consent is so poorly presented. The MC finds no harm with this, but that doesn't make it okay.

Knowing that there was some controversy about this book when I picked it up, but having avoided reading what exactly the nature of the controversy is, I see where the narrator is not to be relied upon and where her own presentation of facts may be inaccurate. It's interesting that what she and her government see to be history and "right" is definitely how history has been written and presented in a very specific and narrow way. But, if you read without a critical eye, thinking we are dealing with an MC who knows what is going on, then you might read all of this wrongly. Additionally, there are some missteps with race. Forest made several races very different than anything on earth and even tweaked from mythology. But then she has one that a human race that has stereotype descriptions. Really? That should not have gotten past editing. Additionally, there is a scene where a character comes out as gay and it's... not well done. I can see it being triggering for those who had poor acceptance from family members.

The University is so like high school that I find it off-putting. I've read a few too many stories where authors have chosen to call what is not much more than a secondary school university because it fits their narrative "better." Especially as schooling prior to University is never discussed in this world.

Keeping in mind that I am not the target audience for this book, I think I would have liked it back when I was the right age. This book has a very narrow target audience. Too many people who have had to deal with actual abuse and inequality may struggle with the many slights and microaggressions. However, for those who think they are open-minded, but then become defensive when they become attacked in the slightest could very well learn a thing or two reading this book. Because that's exactly what happens with the main character. She's raised by someone who is not religious but has absorbed cultural religion and beliefs and read their religious text with little-to-no guidance outside regular church services. She doesn't especially consider herself open-minded, but she was raised not to promise to marry at the age of thirteen but rather waiting until she's 20. (This isn't the enlightened view it seems to be. The author is still tripping over patriarchy.) The main character is treated harshly by her family, fellow Gardnerians, and people who have suffered at the hands of her government. Under that, she lashes out. This is painted as understandable. It takes her causing a deep hurt for her to learn her lesson. This allows people to cause deep hurts before they learn their lessons. Hopefully people who would be inclined to be like this can read the story and realize this before they engage in such behavior, too.

Overall, I rank this in the same area as Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave by Erin Summerill.

I'm frustrated that I was working on a review and Goodreads lost it when I finished the book.

On the recommendation of a friend, I started this book via audiobook. I listened to the first 45% in 4-hour chunks. It's about a 33 hour listen. It had a big learning curve and information to absorb and was giving me headaches. There were a number of contributions to that - including reading the book at the start of the covid-19 pandemic. When my library loan ran out, I didn't continue.

However, my friend runs a book group and said we were doing our online meeting and gave a week's notice. So I checked the e-book out of the library and finished it in about 6 days.

While the first half is a lot and somewhat difficult to get through, the second half really gets going. There are a lot of characters and some of the introductions really irked me. It had some of the "why is this person here now? why were they introduced this way?" But then some of those characters became ones that I grew fond of.

Wendig did his homework for the fungal pandemic, as evident by his acknowledgements. Some of it is similar to Mira Grant's Parasitology. I wondered if Wendig read any of that or if both authors just follow the science.

Wendig's presentation of depression via Daria Stewart was a good representation. There are so many problematic presentations of mental illness in literature and I was pleased with how this one was. I liked how they discussed how Shana, who is not completely likable as a character, has some of those same attributes. There's a lot of on-the-nose for the current day politics and pandemic presented, as though Wendig is prescient or at least has a strong handle on human behavior and logical conclusions.

While the first half of the book was via audiobook and so much information, and the second half then zoomed along, overall I enjoyed the book. The things that are different in Wanderers from today's pandemic make the book readable, even small things like a fungus rather than a virus, and the AI aspect, and what the AI does. I have a concern that people will not want to read this book as time goes on because they've already lived through a pandemic and the fictional story is less interesting and escapism for them.

As an aside, Wendig is fun to follow on Twitter.

This is not quite the review I wrote in the first place that Goodreads lost, but it gives some of my thoughts while reading this story. I'm glad my friend recommended it. I'm glad I read it.

I "ran" right out and bought this book when Nic Stone recommended it for writers during an online BookConline panel (during stay-at-home orders so in actuality I found the one online seller who had it in stock and wasn't special order.) Oh, ALL bookshops need to carry this! ALL OF THEM!

Yes, this is a children's picture book. I don't know what the target age is, but you could start reading this to your baby and give it to any aged human being for the beauty of the art and the inspiration of the story. This book will be going to the top of my recommended reading list and gift list.

This book will especially appeal to traditional image artists and writers since you don't have to go much into analogy to catch the inspiration, but I believe that all creative people and even people who do not consider themselves creative will enjoy and gain inspiration from this book.