Book Review: Sorcery of Thorns
Book Title: Sorcery of Thorns
Author: Margaret Rogerson
Purchase: Amazon
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Description from Goodreads:
All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.
Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.
As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Sorcery of Thorns stands apart from recent YA novels with a unique premise, fresh perspective on magic, and beautiful writing style. Unfortunately, those qualities didn’t completely save the novel from a few glaring errors, namely pacing issues, a main character I found largely indistinguishable from most YA heroines, and a surprising bout of insta-love.
Sorcery of Thorns falls into the recent category of books I’ve been reading that are just about 100 to 200 pages too long. Are editors becoming a thing of the past in book publishing? I don’t really see the need for every new YA book to be 400+ pages — can’t we get a little variety, here? With that said, this novel started off fast-paced so I was able to dive right in. The initial descriptions of the Great Libraries were at once haunting and comforting. I felt like I’d traveled back in time only to be confronted by a dear, old friend. The plot kicks off immediately as we’re introduced to brave yet trouble-making Elisabeth, an orphan who grew up in one of the Great Libraries and can’t wait to one day protect the grimoires within as a warden.
One evening, Elisabeth wakes up in the middle of the night to discover a powerful grimoire has transformed into a monster known as a Malefict — a corrupted grimoire made of ink and leather — and is heading for the closest village, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Elisabeth fends off the Malefict alone, only to be accused of trespassing and awakening it in the first place. She’s sent to the capital under the supervision of wunderkind sorcerer Nathanial Thorn, where she searches for the true culprit in an effort to exonerate herself. In so doing, she uncovers a much larger malevolent plot at hand. Unfortunately, no one except Nathanial is willing to listen to a seventeen-year-old nobody, so it’s up to the two of them and Nathanial’s trusty demon sidekick, Silas, to stop the big bad.
Margaret Rogerson can certainly spin a beautiful turn of phrase. You can tell this book is written by a bibliophile, in the best way. She is particularly adept at crafting sensory descriptions, along with weaving witty dialogue with additive inner monologues (read: not too blatantly exposition-heavy). The descriptions sometimes erred a little on the long side, but I don’t think I’d feel the same if the book were just a little shorter. The world-building was top-notch — I loved learning about Austermeer and its history, especially around the Great Libraries and sorcery. I would’ve liked to understand the sorcery even better, as I don’t think this book is intended as a series and we only received a tantalizingly small amount of magic lore.
While I likely could have overcome the length of the novel, my main concern was with our protagonist, Elisabeth. I kept trying to put my finger on what was holding me back from fully investing in her, and I think what it came down to was a lack of personality and the nagging feeling that she’s unexplainably “special.” Elisabeth is brave, loyal, book-smart, and exceedingly tall. Those are all traits of her’s…but they don’t a full-fledged personality make. She falls for Nathanial because he’s...there? He falls for her because she’s also…there? I didn’t find myself invested in their relationship and would’ve happily ignored it except that the insta-love reared its ugly head. I honestly didn’t see the L-word coming and it kind of soured the entire relationship for me.
Elisabeth’s height is mentioned throughout the novel. While I liked this distinction at first, it later became a plot device to explain away Elisabeth’s sudden proclivity with a sword. She has no weapons or strength-based training, having spent all her life reading in a library, yet she can suddenly best any enemy with a sword due to her “superior height and strength.” Sorry, but I’m just not buying that. I was also let down by the reasoning for her special “power.” No spoilers, but it seemed like a convenient out that we never received a real explanation for, which was rather surprising given the attention to detail in the rest of the story. Overall, she was fine, but I didn’t find myself rooting for her. Nathanial and his demon, Silas, were more well-rounded and nuanced characters — I would be interested in reading the same events from Nathanial’s point of view, or learning more about his backstory.
After finishing the book, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that the stakes never felt high enough, so I didn’t particularly care how the story ended. While Sorcery of Thorns is well-written and Rogerson crafts a story and world we haven’t seen before, I can’t see myself rereading this book. I would definitely read another book by Rogerson, though. And for those interested by the synopsis, I’d still recommend giving Sorcery of Thorns a try. It may just be that it’s not my cup of tea.
