Io is a cutter, a descendant of the Greek fates who can see and cut the threads that bind together people and things. She lives in the sinking city of Alante and works as private investigator. After her latest investigation goes awry, she’s enlisted by the mob queen to investigate some murders being committed by mysterious beings with severed life-threads. To complicate matters, the guy she’s been partnered with, Edei, is her life-thread—someone she’s destined to have a close relationship with. Edei and Io race through the city trying to prevent more murders as things continue to become more complicated in Io’s life.
The world-building in this book was incredible. It was clearly based on Greek mythology while still being a society with many modern amenities. And, while it wasn’t definitively a place in our world, it was hinted that it could be a post-apocalyptic version of our world, as they kept referring to some undefined cataclysm that changed the world. I might have liked a clearer explanation of how the different types of magic worked, but I think the author chose to make it somewhat ambiguous to make the plot of the story work better.
Hatzopoulou did a phenomenal job of creating interesting characters. Lately, I’ve read too many stories with extremely flat characters. Io, her sisters, the mob queen—all the characters seemed to have different aspects to them, some good, some bad. Io in particular was interesting to me because she seemed to want to be good but had a few defining instances of what she saw as selfishness that bothered her. It made her both likeable and relatable.
I was honestly surprised to discover that “Threads That Bind” was published by a YA imprint (Razorbill). Given the complexity of the characters and the relationships, I initially thought it was meant for adults. The issues the characters face aren’t as flat as what I see in most YA books, and the originality was off the charts. While I do think that a teenage audience could enjoy this book (there was nothing terribly graphic in any sense), I definitely think that adults could love this book too, regardless of whether or not they normally read YA fiction.
I can’t express just how much I loved this book. From the interesting characters to the beautiful world-building, this book has everything I could possibly want in a good fantasy novel. About the only problem with it is that I have to wait for the sequel to find out what happens next!
The world-building in this book was incredible. It was clearly based on Greek mythology while still being a society with many modern amenities. And, while it wasn’t definitively a place in our world, it was hinted that it could be a post-apocalyptic version of our world, as they kept referring to some undefined cataclysm that changed the world. I might have liked a clearer explanation of how the different types of magic worked, but I think the author chose to make it somewhat ambiguous to make the plot of the story work better.
Hatzopoulou did a phenomenal job of creating interesting characters. Lately, I’ve read too many stories with extremely flat characters. Io, her sisters, the mob queen—all the characters seemed to have different aspects to them, some good, some bad. Io in particular was interesting to me because she seemed to want to be good but had a few defining instances of what she saw as selfishness that bothered her. It made her both likeable and relatable.
I was honestly surprised to discover that “Threads That Bind” was published by a YA imprint (Razorbill). Given the complexity of the characters and the relationships, I initially thought it was meant for adults. The issues the characters face aren’t as flat as what I see in most YA books, and the originality was off the charts. While I do think that a teenage audience could enjoy this book (there was nothing terribly graphic in any sense), I definitely think that adults could love this book too, regardless of whether or not they normally read YA fiction.
I can’t express just how much I loved this book. From the interesting characters to the beautiful world-building, this book has everything I could possibly want in a good fantasy novel. About the only problem with it is that I have to wait for the sequel to find out what happens next!