Review: The Language Of Thorns - Leigh Bardugo

Genre: Fantasy

Published: 26th September 2017

Length: 228 pages

My rating: 10/10

Overview: A collection of six gothic fairy tales set in the Grishaverse. Travel into the Thorn Woods or down into the deep, but beware, not everything is as it seems.

Can we just take a minute to appreciate how goddamn beautiful this book is? I wasn't the hugest fan of the Six Of Crows duology and I haven't read Leigh Bardugo's other series yet, but I bought this book anyway just because the front cover is so gorgeous in hardcover. I then opened the book and WOW! Coloured font, a mysterious border for each story that grows as you turn the page, and a beautiful two page spread at the end of each story. The artist was Sara Kipen I believe, and she did a magnificent job of bringing this book to life and making it into such a lovely collection. The pages were also thick and so smooth and unless you're a proper bookworm you have no idea how satisfying that is! And then we get to the actual stories and oh my god...many of them are inspired by classic tales such as Hansel and Gretel but Leigh adds such dark twists to them.

So I was planning on writing a small paragraph about each story...but guess who got swamped by revision and forgot to do this review and has now forgotten most of what they intended to say? Yep, that would be me. Instead I'll just give a brief overview of each story and my thoughts on what I can vaguely remember.

Ayama And The Thorn Wood - this story is inspired the Greek Minotaur (and I also got some Cinderella vibes from it)! Ayama is a great protagonist and this story features many memorable quotes, my personal favourites being: 'interesting things only happen to pretty girls; you will be home by sunset.' This story is all about putting new twists on traditional tales and really sets the tone for the rest of the book! The ending was satisfying too.

The Too-Clever Fox - I am not 100% sure what this tale is inspired by but it did feel familiar! A crafty fox escapes many difficult situations but may be outsmarted by his own game! The artwork for this was one of my favourites and I loved all the forest creatures. Once again, a dark plot twist but a happy ending too.

The Witch Of Duva - I'm pretty dumb because this story is so obviously inspired by Hansel and Gretel but I didn't even realise until afterwards! This is definitely one of the more morbid stories, and when the identity of the killer is revealed its pretty messed up...I would say this also has a slightly sinister ending.

Little Knife - This is one of my favourite tales in the books. It is inspired by the generic 'complete these stupid tasks to marry my princess daughter' vibe and the main character is a whiney git trying to marry the princess. By this point in the collection I knew to expect a plot twist somewhere and I found it hard to believe that the sweet hearted girl was going to marry this annoying guy so the ending was a little less surprising. I also love the low key gay af double page spread at the end!

The Soldier Prince - This was definitely the creepiest story! I find nutcrackers kinda creepy anyway but like...yikes. The ending as well was so sinister! I don't even want to talk about this one, it scared me man!

When Water Sang Fire - Probably the longest story in the collection, this was also one of my favourites! Based on the Little Mermaid, Ulla, a mermaid unlike the others, uses the power of song to create magic. However ambition is the downfall of more than one character in the story. The betrayal near the end really upset me to be honest, and the ending itself wasn't particularly happy for any of the characters! The art for this one was also beautiful.

If you love fairytales then I can't recommend this book highly enough! Don't just borrow it from a library, treat yourself to buying it in hardcover, it's worth it I promise!

#review #leighbardugo