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452 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2022
"Power is pain, Shadow Queen, and monsters in the eye of the beholder."For the Throne is Neve's story and picks up right where For the Worlf left off, so you may want to re-read the first book before diving back into the world. Hannah Whitten's writing is just as atmospheric and evocative, transporting me to the nightmarish realm of the Shadowlands.
"A Terrible, twisted grove, blood on white branches, darkness dripping."The Shadowlands is a place of nightmares, an upside-down devoid of color where no one can truly die. The Five Kings aren't the only danger: there are monsters great and small, as well as the Old Gods. This is a darker tale where Neve not only battles the darkness of the Shadowlands in a reluctant alliance but also with her morally gray tendencies. What defines a monster, and is she one herself?
"Heroes and villains and the spaces between, a prism that changed reflections depending on the angle you turned it."I wasn't sure how I'd like a Neve-centric book because I didn't resonate with her as much as Red, but I found myself drawn to her chapters and darkness. The pacing was a bit uneven for me and I found Red's chapters largely uninteresting and a bit repetitive, bogging down the plot overall. Barring the trip to the Rylt and a couple of other scenes, the Red & Co. chapters didn't do much to move the plot forward or increase the reader's understanding of events. I love Red and Eammon and would happily read a book of them just being Domestic Together, but not like this. I'd rather the pages went to expanding on the worldbuilding (fact versus fiction and the truth of the Five Kings) than just chronicling everything on the other side.
"I acted like I cared because I fucking did. [...] You're easy to care for, unfortunately."The romance somehow both played more and less of a role in this book. I am a sucker for rivals turned allies who catch feelings and gleefully sent screaming gifs to Amanda. The limits of what we are willing to sacrifice and how that line shifts is a joy for me to read, and Hannah Whitten did this well. I just wish that more had been done to provide Solmir's true backstory and his obviously fraught relationship with the other four kings. There are countless references to his villainy but also to his weakness, but more could have been done to bridge the gap between what we thought we knew in For the Wolf and who he turns out to be. I feel a little cheated from character growth?
"They all knew that love made monstrous things necessary sometimes. They all knew their own capacity to burn worlds down."At its heart, the Wilderwood Duology is a story about sisters and the lengths they will go to save each other. Their matched love instead of a romantic interest touched my heart in ways I couldn't express. While I didn't quite love For the Throne as much as the first book, I truly love this duology and wholeheartedly recommend it to fans of atmospheric adult fantasy where romance plays a prominent role.
"You are good."