An intricate, compelling fantasy
The Gilded Wolves is one of those books that I've been anticipating for so long now and have been seeing so many wonderful things about that my expectations were pretty high. I always try not to let the hype influence my expectations too much, but I still had high hopes and honestly, they weren't quite met with this one.
This book follows a diverse group of characters who regularly embark upon a variety of 'acquisitions' (aka heists), in which the leader's main goal at the end of everything is the reinstatement of his inheritance. The Gilded Wolves is a lot of a fun and makes for a highly entertaining story, but it's also one that felt oddly paced and a little difficult to get through at times. I found the beginning of the book in particular to be exceptionally slow and difficult to get into. It wasn't until at least a hundred or so pages in that I really started to be able to enjoy the story more and follow along with the world. The magic and world felt rather confusing to me at many times, almost as if we'd been dropped into a sequel or part of an already-established world.
One of the strongest points of this book, however, is the cast of characters. Chokshi truly did a remarkable job of including well-developed, vastly diverse characters, from race to sexuality to religion and more--and all with fantastic personalities and great humor. There are racist elements discussed in productive manners, sexist elements (this is 1889 Paris, after all), and many people consider one of the characters to be on the autism spectrum (I don't feel knowledgeable enough to fully comment on that, but I feel it is important to note that that seems to be a common thought). All of this really made for interesting and authentic experiences. My only struggle with the characters was that it seemed like some (not all!) of the witty dialogue and banter was a little forced, as if Chokshi wanted her group of characters to be so amusing that she ended up trying too hard and was left with some unnatural dialogue and interactions.
Our main character group consists of Severin, Laila, Zofia, Enrique, and Tristan. Severin is basically the leader of the group and is a very determined, passionate person. He likes to act as though he's tough and hard-hearted, but he's also pretty vulnerable as well; he also makes a lot of extremely frustrating decisions that annoyed me quite a bit throughout the book. Laila is a lovely person who is exceptionally considerate of others and always feeding them, and I particularly loved the close attention she paid to Zofia's preferences and how she always did her best to always accommodate them. A+ as a good friend and person! Zofia is a character I really liked. I think her personality was expertly done and I found it interesting to see her experiences with all of the different characters, especially in regards to her intelligence and struggle to understand some types of humor. Enrique is the wittiest of the bunch and is the type that is always around to make jokes and make things more light-hearted--or complain about things. Lastly is Tristan, the more serious brooding one of the bunch at times, but who also has a soft spot for animals, particularly large spiders, and who can easily turn up his charm and big eyes to win people over.
If you like solving different puzzles and riddles (especially ones including math), then you are going to love this book. If you don't, well, there might be a lot of places you'll want to skim. I unfortunately happen to be in the latter half. I love a good puzzle, but I don't love reading about people solving them and doing math so much, so those extensive sections tended to be a bit much for me.
Overall, I'm really unsure what to rate this book. Part of me thinks of this book with fondness for how entertaining and imaginative it was, but part of me is also bored and frustrated with a lot of it as well. The characters and diversity inclusions were awesome, the sheer imagination in this world and magic system was fascinating, but the execution was all a little unimpressive. I do still highly recommend this to you if it sounds interesting because so many people seem to be adoring it and I wouldn't want you to miss out on that potential!
This book follows a diverse group of characters who regularly embark upon a variety of 'acquisitions' (aka heists), in which the leader's main goal at the end of everything is the reinstatement of his inheritance. The Gilded Wolves is a lot of a fun and makes for a highly entertaining story, but it's also one that felt oddly paced and a little difficult to get through at times. I found the beginning of the book in particular to be exceptionally slow and difficult to get into. It wasn't until at least a hundred or so pages in that I really started to be able to enjoy the story more and follow along with the world. The magic and world felt rather confusing to me at many times, almost as if we'd been dropped into a sequel or part of an already-established world.
One of the strongest points of this book, however, is the cast of characters. Chokshi truly did a remarkable job of including well-developed, vastly diverse characters, from race to sexuality to religion and more--and all with fantastic personalities and great humor. There are racist elements discussed in productive manners, sexist elements (this is 1889 Paris, after all), and many people consider one of the characters to be on the autism spectrum (I don't feel knowledgeable enough to fully comment on that, but I feel it is important to note that that seems to be a common thought). All of this really made for interesting and authentic experiences. My only struggle with the characters was that it seemed like some (not all!) of the witty dialogue and banter was a little forced, as if Chokshi wanted her group of characters to be so amusing that she ended up trying too hard and was left with some unnatural dialogue and interactions.
Our main character group consists of Severin, Laila, Zofia, Enrique, and Tristan. Severin is basically the leader of the group and is a very determined, passionate person. He likes to act as though he's tough and hard-hearted, but he's also pretty vulnerable as well; he also makes a lot of extremely frustrating decisions that annoyed me quite a bit throughout the book. Laila is a lovely person who is exceptionally considerate of others and always feeding them, and I particularly loved the close attention she paid to Zofia's preferences and how she always did her best to always accommodate them. A+ as a good friend and person! Zofia is a character I really liked. I think her personality was expertly done and I found it interesting to see her experiences with all of the different characters, especially in regards to her intelligence and struggle to understand some types of humor. Enrique is the wittiest of the bunch and is the type that is always around to make jokes and make things more light-hearted--or complain about things. Lastly is Tristan, the more serious brooding one of the bunch at times, but who also has a soft spot for animals, particularly large spiders, and who can easily turn up his charm and big eyes to win people over.
If you like solving different puzzles and riddles (especially ones including math), then you are going to love this book. If you don't, well, there might be a lot of places you'll want to skim. I unfortunately happen to be in the latter half. I love a good puzzle, but I don't love reading about people solving them and doing math so much, so those extensive sections tended to be a bit much for me.
Overall, I'm really unsure what to rate this book. Part of me thinks of this book with fondness for how entertaining and imaginative it was, but part of me is also bored and frustrated with a lot of it as well. The characters and diversity inclusions were awesome, the sheer imagination in this world and magic system was fascinating, but the execution was all a little unimpressive. I do still highly recommend this to you if it sounds interesting because so many people seem to be adoring it and I wouldn't want you to miss out on that potential!