This was messy and chaotic in the best possible and most brilliant way – what a ride!
These Shattered Spires is now available to buy, click below:
In a world that is clinging to life by its shredded fingertips, the sky is filled with teeth, undead nuns crawl across stones that literally bleed, and four human familiars, magical sources of power to their arcanists, fight to stop a daily apocalypse. But, as you can imagine, life is not easy for them, especially when the Thaumaturge, their ruler, is killed and a new one must be crowned from their arcanists.
The magic system is very well-built – each familiar has a different discipline, botanical, bones, blood and stone. It’s explained at the beginning in a sort of handbook for new Wyrdos to the Pit (sorry, university) so the reader is immediately clued in. I liked having the reference to be able to flick back to if needed.
The story is told countdown style, each chapter showing how little time they have left which adds to the sense of urgency and pacing. Speaking of which, the pacing was excellent – it was gripping enough to keep you moving forward, but the breaks between each character were well-handled. I was worried I’d struggle with switching between 4 characters’ POVs, but I needn’t have been – each character was so distinct.
The world at large…what can I say? This is the work of a brilliant imagination. Full disclosure, the author is another of my best friend’s best friends – what can I say, I have a fantastically creative wider friendship group! Nevertheless, as always with something I’ve read from someone I know, I try to remain impartial, but I genuinely don’t think I’ve read a world that’s quite so stunningly imagined before. It’s gory and gruesome and often quite scary, but it’s so immersive – you can practically feel the walls melting around you. I read it slowly to savour the deliciously disgusting (or disgustingly delicious?) descriptions. They’re so nonchalant at times and so unexpected. I loved how these broke you out of fast-paced moments with a touch of self-effacing or dark humour.
And despite this crazy, quirky world, the characters retain enough level of humanity for the reader to understand and empathise with them as young people figuring out their world but also their place in it. Elliot’s strange desire to love and kill, Alis’s longing for a past relationship – I loved this line (from an ARC copy): “She hated Nixie. She missed her even more.” There is a history between them all that we’re only just unravelling and I can’t wait to know more about.
I read this as an ARC but I’ve pre-ordered a physical copy, and I’d suggest you do the same. I’m a Kindle girly through and through, but this is one book that I actually ended up reading on the Netgalley reader (I so rarely use this) because I needed to see the brilliant illustrations and chapter headings properly – my Kindle just didn’t do them justice!
I’m very excited for my physical copy to arrive later today – I’m tracking the postman right now!
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for an ARC of this book.
