Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as spirits with a ravenous hunger for the living. She would rather deal with the dead than the living, who trade whispers about her scarred hands and troubled past.
I was really looking forward to this one, so much that I even pre-ordered the special Owlcrate edition. Margaret robertsons ‘a sorcery of thorns’ blew me away.
I loved that one so much I couldn’t put it down, finished it in one sitting. So I was excited to see what her next book would bring.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. It took me a while to get really into the story and at some points I even thought about DNF this one but I continued. Yet I’m glad I did because it wasn’t a bad book, just a bit slow for my liking.
The world building was great, very big and vivid, the action was good but at some points in the story I wondered if it really was necessary and the ending was fine but I asked myself at some point if I missed something so had to re-read a part of it.
Do have to mention that there is no romance in this book, which is uncommon for a YA book, which was refreshing in some way.
So readers who prefer their fantasy stories to not include romance will enjoy this rarity.
Overall, I’m sad, maybe a bit disappointed that this didn’t work for me personally, but there’s a lot of material here that I think will please most YA readers.
Giving this book 3 stars