BOOK REVIEW : THE GIRL OF HAWTHORN AND GLASS (THE GIRL OF HAWTHORN AND GLASS #1) BY ADAN JERREAT – POOLE

TITLE : The Girl Of Hawthorn And Glass ( The Girl Of Hawthorn And Glass #1)

AUTHOR : Adan Jerreat – Poole

GENRE : YA, Fantasy

FR RATING : ⭐( 1 Star)

DATE OF PUBLISHING :  October 6th 2020 

FR REVIEW

DISCLAIMER : Thank you, Netgalley and Dundurn for providing me with an ARC of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Girl Of Hawthorn And Glass is the debut book from the author Adan Jerreat Poole. This YA fantasy is the first book I completed in October. It was the cover that drew me in, and the synopsis also sounded promising to me. The story is of a young girl Eli who is the daughter of one of the witches. Eli is a trained ghost hunter and comes to earth to hunt the ghosts living among humans. She has lived her whole life with a tyrant witch-mother with the fear of being unmade into her original parts. On of the ghost hunting missions, things go wrong, making her question all the intel her mother had provided. Her knowledge of both the worlds came from her world and the witches. Now she knows differently. With the constant threat of being unmade hanging over her, she decides to join a group of humans and witch renegades to bring down the corrupt coven and steal the Heart Of The Coven. The story is of coming-of-age type of story with a cast of LGBTQIA+ main characters.

I was thrilled to dive into this book mainly because of the synopsis. Unfortunately, once I started reading, I realized that the author’s writing made it difficult to picture the setting and the world. The places described and the characters were equally hard to make sense of with the puzzling descriptions. I wanted the writing to be simpler and easier to understand and not complicated. My main issue was not being able to understand what the world looked like and how everything fits into the bigger picture. The writing style is different, and I found myself not being able to connect as I hoped.

The pacing was ok, and it wasn’t too fast or too slow for me. There was something different happening on every new page. I found that the world-building and magic system kept on expanding with the progression of the story. There were new aspects added to suit a scene or situation, and I found myself not liking the dynamic nature of it. The readers were not given any explanations as to why the rules and the magic kept changing.

When it comes to representations, the author has done a good job of bringing a couple of characters from the LGBTQIA+ community. This is the first book that I read with a non-binary character in it, and I appreciated the representation. The only downfall when it comes to characters and their backstory is that we do not get enough information to make a connection with them. The character development and their motivations for their actions are also unclear. I wished the characters were not one-dimensional, and having a layered nature would have made them more relatable, in my opinion. The reasons for Eli joining the renegades didn’t feel plausible to me, and I found her motivations to do so without making any inquiries unbelievable. The friendships, romance, and other connections happened way too quickly without any emotional development.

Overall I had a hard time picturing the world, the setting, and the plot of the book. I found myself not wanting to continue reading it, but hoping things will maybe improve with the book progressing. But that wasn’t the case with this book. I am going to be giving a rating of 1 star for this story. This book was not for me. The writing and the setting overall failed, and I am disappointed I didn’t enjoy it as I hoped. Do check it out for yourself, as I have seen some readers have enjoyed it. I believe it has potential, but the execution was choppy and way too chaotic for me. I recommend checking it out and see if it’s something that will work for you.

SYNOPSIS

Even teenage assassins have dreams.

Eli isn’t just a teenage girl — she’s a made-thing the witches created to hunt down ghosts in the human world. Trained to kill with her seven magical blades, Eli is a flawless machine, a deadly assassin. But when an assignment goes wrong, Eli starts to question everything she was taught about both worlds, the Coven, and her tyrannical witch-mother.

Worried that she’ll be unmade for her mistake, Eli gets caught up with a group of human and witch renegades, and is given the most difficult and dangerous task in the worlds: capture the Heart of the Coven. With the help of two humans, one motorcycle, and a girl who smells like the sea, Eli is going to get answers — and earn her freedom.