Reviews

First off, this book has vivid imagery, including the plague, heaven and hell, fantasy, religion, and historical themes. All of these things should make me love this book... but I just didn’t. The dreams just didn’t work for me. They were meant to be impactful, but they didn’t carry the weight I was hoping for. Because of that, some of the climaxes felt rushed and underwhelming. That said, it does pick up toward the end in a massive way. I couldn’t put it down once it hit that final stretch. This one left me torn and has me worried about exploring more of Buehlman's works.

I was extremely excited to read this book, but lost interest the longer it went on. The horror was somewhat interesting, and it’s certainly like nothing else I’ve read. However, I struggled to connect with the MC, and the way the horror and “magic” were developed just left me scratching my head. For anyone into somewhat mysterious writing, horror set during the time of the Black Plague, or religious commentary, this might be a good fit. Wasn’t my favorite but I rated it high-ish because it’s objectively well-written.