This review contains no spoilers.
Rambling and Raving:
I have been absolutely, positively mind-fucked. I don't think I even have the proper words to do this book justice, and to describe how much this book has damaged my already-damaged heart. I am broken, but I'm also hopeful; I'm sad, but I'm also joyful. Sorcery of Thorns planted a seed in my heart, and I wish I could rip it out because it just hurts so much and I'm not ready to face this pain.
I just want to fucking scream because I've had this on my shelf for eight months now and I have finally, finally gotten to it. Yet I'm glad I decided to pick this book up now, out of all times, because I really needed this...not last month, not last year, but now, right at this moment. Today was the perfect day to read this.
I haven't criedSOBBED over a book in...a really, really long time. And this book just had my chest heaving and my eyes blurry and my heart feeling like it was going to cave in and burst at any given moment, because that ending was just not it. That ending was absolutely flawless and I can't stop crying.
Characters:
Elisabeth Scrivener is a student apprentice at the Great Library of Summershall. She yearns to be a warden someday, taking after a woman she loves and admires very much, Director of the magical library. She wants to look after and protect the grimoires (books) from the sorcerers, who she has learned her entire life to be evil. However, her dream is brought to a holt when she is forced to battle a rogue and dangerous Malefict in the middle of the night -- and she is suddenly caught in a web of lies someone has spun in order to force her hand to play a part in a dangerous game.
I love Elisabeth with my whole heart. She reminds me so much of Cordelia Carstairs; she's kind, understanding, forgiving, but at the same time, don't ever think you can take advantage of that kindness, because she won't take your shit. She is such a beautiful character; bold but not fearless, kind but not a pushover, afraid but not meek. She is everything I needed in this book.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is the reason I exist. Beautiful, powerful, witty, and sarcastic, he is just that character in this book. He brightened up this novel like Christmas lights during the holidays, and I love him so much because he just does not know when to shut the fuck up. Especially when he is in mortal peril. The constant teasing and joking with Elisabeth, and watching his relationship with her progress is definitely one of the best things about this book. The only thing I would say about Nathaniel that I didn't like would be how he continuously tried to push Elisabeth away. I understand he had an extremely troubled past and he didn't know how to not hurt her, but stop pushing her away. Stop making that decision for her. If she decided that she didn't want to be with you, that she didn't want to love you, then she would leave. But telling her to get out your house to put some distance between you two is just going to make her angry. You can't make those kinds of decisions for her. If she decides to love you, let her. And if she gets hurt in the end, then at least she had a choice.
The final "main" character is Silas, Nathaniel's demonic servant, AKA the love of my heart. He is not a man, he is a demon, and in Elisabeth's world, you can't forget that demons have no emotions and only seek to form a bargain with their master in order to gain years of their life.
And yet.
Silas seems so emotionless, and his face is always incredibly blank so you can't ever tell what he's thinking, and yet there's something in the decisions he makes that lets you know you can trust him. I love Silas because he doesn't try pretending to be anything than what he is; he's a demon and he never once tries to get Elisabeth or Nathaniel to forget that and lay their trust in him.
Elisabeth knew she shouldn't be this relieved to see Silas -- that he was evil, a murderer, a warden's worst enemy. But he didn't pretend to be anything other than a monster. In that way, he was more honorable than most of the people she had met since leaving Summershall.
Silas is a badass in a very quiet kind of way. He's the most powerful demon in the city, quiet, sturdy, clean, and precise. He's a demon and yet he's so sassy that you just can't help loving him. He constantly has to pick up the pieces that Nathaniel leaves behind, save Elisabeth and Nathaniel's asses when they're in trouble, and look after them. And in the beginning it seems that Silas is just another demon, carrying out the orders of his master until he can reap the rewards from Nathaniel, but as you get further into the story, you can start to see slimmers of caring beneath the small things Silas does, and it's just so precious. And no matter what bullshit comes out of his mouth, he truly loves Nathaniel and Elisabeth. He just doesn't ever say it. Not in the obvious ways.
Character Development:
Elisabeth's character growth is another part of this book that I loved. She's absolutely lovely, and bold, and gracious, and respectful, and I look up to her because she had a goal and she followed it, but when she realized the truth about what being a warden in the Great Library truly entailed, she hesitated. And hesitation is good, because it means that Elisabeth has an open heart and is willing to put aside everything she learned as a child in order to take in the new.
But Elisabeth's oaths meant nothing if they asked her to forsake people she cared about in their greatest moment of need. If that was what being a warden required of her, then she wasn't meant to become one. She would have to decide for herself what was right and what was wrong.
And another:
The Collegium's teachings held power over her still; perhaps they always would. Elisabeth had grown around them like a sapling around a nail, taking the foreign part into the core of herself, no matter how poisonous. But she had not been through everything she had, fought and suffered, to yield to this man's will like a chastened apprentice.
World-building
This book is set in the early 19th century in the year 1824, and that's actually one of the main reasons why I love this book so much. Sorcery of Thorns has this old-school, old-fashioned vibe to it, extremely similar to Harry Potter, that uses books and magic to suck you into its riveting world. The way characters spoke and acted and dressed was of course very different from today. I've always been exceptionally fond of books that were set in a past age, one where I could visit an entirely different world and be able to experience what living in a different time period felt like.
Additional Points:
The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and if that wasn't enough to lure me in, then it's definitely the "magical library" aspect of this book that was an automatic yes for me. I fell into the setting immediately, and did not struggle at all to understand what was going on. The book was perfectly well-balanced with magic, character interaction, and plot.
Books like Sorcery of Thorns are the reason why I hate standalones. I hate falling in love with them because one fucking book is just not enough. How is 453 pages enough to satisfy my aching, trembling, burning soul? (I'm being dramatic, someone push me off a cliff.) The ending hurt my heart, and I already mentioned that, but I'm just trying to find some way to cope with all this pain in my chest. I know exactly what the ending implied, but I still want more. So badly.
These were not ordinary books the libraries kept. They were knowledge, given life. Wisdom, given voice. They sang when starlight streamed through the library's windows. They felt pain and suffered heartbreak. Sometimes they were sinister, grotesque -- but so was the world outside. And that made the world no less worth fighting for, because wherever there was darkness, there was also so much light.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing I have to complain about this book. It was absolutely perfect and it is a new favorite book of mine. This is another one of my best reads of 2021.