Beautiful writing in an epic heist story
The Plot
In short - this is a heist story. It is also a story of magic, friendship, puzzles, and history. There are a lot of themes packed into this book and it moved along at a steady pace, with action followed by development and puzzles, then more action and development and puzzles..... by the end I wished that it was the second book about to be released, not the first! I was so wrapped up when it ended that I just wanted the book to keep going! There was also a baby cliff hanger, where no one was dying or in imminent danger, nothing crazy happening, but a firm hook is set and you know you are going to be eagerly awaiting the next installment!
The Characters
The Gilded Wolves had me wanting to crush on half of the characters before I realized they were all teenagers. I set it in my mind that back in the 1800s, young people were a whole lot different than they are today in maturity level and intellect.... but I still really wanted to picture at least Severin as someone my age. I am not going to go into individual characters here but they are a band of misfits. They are a pretty typical group on the surface - awkward girl, fake girl, braniac, the immature one, the moody leader...but under the surface and throughout the book their secrets are told and they become dear to the reader, or at least to me they did. The point of view switches between four of them -I think - throughout the book, with one exception that made sense at the end. I wish I could have heard his voice, oh what would it say!
The Writing
Chokshi has an unbelievably poetic writing style. My favorite passage was this::
"Kisses were to be witnessed by stars, not held in the presence of stale death. But as the bones rose up around them, Laila saw fractals of white. Pale constellations of bone. And she thought that, perhaps, for a kiss like this , even hell would put forth its stars"
The descriptions throughout the book were flowery almost to the point of excess, but not quite. Her world is full of magic and she did an amazing job bringing it to life. This book is meant to be savored, not skimmed. I only skimmed when the one character started rambling about math and puzzles, those descriptions were not my brain's favorite. I also didn't mind the multiple points of views as it was not repetitive and kept the story moving.
Overall Impression:
As I write this I feel like I should have given it five stars, but it was a little drawn out at times and I was jarred by the last few chapters. I felt like I did when Kristen Britain killed off Yates, just sad and going WHY lady WHY did you do that, you're just cruel to my heart 😂. The book mainly has positive relationships, clean language, and is lgbq+, but it doesn't really read like a young adult book and I think adults can get into it too. In that spirit I would say yes, let your young adults read this (then read it after). Anyway, I give it a solid 4/5 stars and would recommend to anyone who likes heists, fantasy, magic, young adult, fiction, or a good book in general!
In short - this is a heist story. It is also a story of magic, friendship, puzzles, and history. There are a lot of themes packed into this book and it moved along at a steady pace, with action followed by development and puzzles, then more action and development and puzzles..... by the end I wished that it was the second book about to be released, not the first! I was so wrapped up when it ended that I just wanted the book to keep going! There was also a baby cliff hanger, where no one was dying or in imminent danger, nothing crazy happening, but a firm hook is set and you know you are going to be eagerly awaiting the next installment!
The Characters
The Gilded Wolves had me wanting to crush on half of the characters before I realized they were all teenagers. I set it in my mind that back in the 1800s, young people were a whole lot different than they are today in maturity level and intellect.... but I still really wanted to picture at least Severin as someone my age. I am not going to go into individual characters here but they are a band of misfits. They are a pretty typical group on the surface - awkward girl, fake girl, braniac, the immature one, the moody leader...but under the surface and throughout the book their secrets are told and they become dear to the reader, or at least to me they did. The point of view switches between four of them -I think - throughout the book, with one exception that made sense at the end. I wish I could have heard his voice, oh what would it say!
The Writing
Chokshi has an unbelievably poetic writing style. My favorite passage was this::
"Kisses were to be witnessed by stars, not held in the presence of stale death. But as the bones rose up around them, Laila saw fractals of white. Pale constellations of bone. And she thought that, perhaps, for a kiss like this , even hell would put forth its stars"
The descriptions throughout the book were flowery almost to the point of excess, but not quite. Her world is full of magic and she did an amazing job bringing it to life. This book is meant to be savored, not skimmed. I only skimmed when the one character started rambling about math and puzzles, those descriptions were not my brain's favorite. I also didn't mind the multiple points of views as it was not repetitive and kept the story moving.
Overall Impression:
As I write this I feel like I should have given it five stars, but it was a little drawn out at times and I was jarred by the last few chapters. I felt like I did when Kristen Britain killed off Yates, just sad and going WHY lady WHY did you do that, you're just cruel to my heart 😂. The book mainly has positive relationships, clean language, and is lgbq+, but it doesn't really read like a young adult book and I think adults can get into it too. In that spirit I would say yes, let your young adults read this (then read it after). Anyway, I give it a solid 4/5 stars and would recommend to anyone who likes heists, fantasy, magic, young adult, fiction, or a good book in general!