Thanks to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this was a rough read. I really struggled to get through it. I enjoyed the concept of this story though. I love books that deal with magic and witches, so A Hunger of Thorns caught my attention immediately. However, the reason I rated it so low was because of the characters. They are just so unlikeable. There is so much self-loathing and self-hatred that I could barely stand to keep reading. The fact that this book pretty much centers around an incredibly toxic friendship bothered me so much. It was painful to read. Maude is so attached to Odette that it's almost her identity. She is nothing without Odette and bases all of her actions off of what Odette would want instead of being her own person. Odette is a terrible friend, and proves it early on in the book and yet Maude just won't let her go. The amount of emotional abuse that Odette puts Maude through is just ridiculous and I hated reading it.

This book only got 2 stars because of the fact that I liked the concept/theme.

A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson is a captivating, witchy tale that will transport you to a world of forbidden magic and missing girls. The story follows Maude, the daughter of witches, who has lost her own magic and her best friend Odette, who has gone missing. While everyone believes Odette to be dead, Maude believes she can find her inside the ruins of Sicklehurst, an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest.

The world-building in this book is exceptional, and the author has created a world where magic has been reduced to mere glamour patches and psychic energy drinks, and is no longer the powerful force it once was. The contrast between the magical world of Maude's childhood and the bleak world of her adulthood is striking and adds depth to the story.

The characters are also well-developed, and Maude's gift for storytelling is especially noteworthy. Her determination to find her missing friend despite the dangers is inspiring, and her relationship with Odette is touching.

The plot is engaging and full of twists and turns, with a sense of foreboding and danger lurking around every corner. The author's writing style is lyrical and descriptive, and it perfectly complements the eerie and mysterious atmosphere of the book.

Overall, A Hunger of Thorns is a thrilling and enchanting read that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It's perfect for fans of magical realism and dark fairy tales, and it will leave you wanting more. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a well-written, atmospheric, and engaging read.

It was the gorgeous cover of A Hunger of Thorns that caught my eye, but it was the excerpt of Laini Taylor-worthy prose on its Netgalley page that made it a must-read.

And I’m so glad I requested it (and was accepted!) because truly, A Hunger of Thorns is marvellous.

Wilkinson uses lush, rich prose to deftly craft a world just a sidestep or two from our own; one with cars and power plants, but with (strictly regulated) magic in the form of glamour patches and dresses that never wrinkle. Magic used to be a fiercer, wilder thing, but after years of witches being declared terrorists and put in labour camps – where their mettle, which is both life-force and magic, is drained to make aforementioned glamour patches et al – it’s been broken and tamed.

Or so the authorities want everyone to think.

Maude certainly thinks of herself as declawed and mundane; when her own magic dried up at puberty (which, alas, happens sometimes) her best friend Odette dropped her and never looked back. But despite that, Maude can’t do nothing when Odette disappears. Armed with nothing but her imagination and sense of storytelling, she goes after her once-friend – even when that means following her trace into a place that can’t possibly exist, and stories that definitely aren’t supposed to be real.

I’m a complete sucker for gorgeous prose, and Wilkinson’s is rich and sweet, absolutely decadent – but I very quickly grew to love A Hunger of Thorns for a lot more than its writing. The story is twisty and toothed – this is absolutely not a book where you can be confident that every grand idea will work, or that every heroic act will succeed – or even that everything is going to turn out all right. Wilkinson delights in setting up the reader’s expectations only to dash them to the floor; so many times, I thought something was about to be resolved only for the story to buck convention again. The only guarantee was that if I thought the story, or part of the story, was about to be concluded, it wasn’t. And that’s something I really love – even if it also had my blood pressure through the ROOF as I worried for the characters!

I’m a big fan of let-girls-be-wild, and the parallels between the supposedly-subdued magic and Maude herself were a really lovely touch. Maude has tried so hard to be a Good Girl, fairly vulnerable to the disapproval of authority figures despite being raised by two very fierce women – but then, Maude also saw her mother taken away, punished, and ultimately killed for refusing to follow the rules, so maybe it’s not so surprising that Maude wants to keep her head down and her shoes shiny. Whether she wants to or not, though, A Hunger of Thorns is very much a shed-your-cocoon story; Maude has to be Wild, not Good, to face what she faces and survive it – and I thought her difficulties with that were very realistic. It’s hard to stop being a Good Girl, even when your life depends on it!

That being said, I did think the Let Girls Be Wild messaging was a bit heavy-handed; there are a fair few references and flashbacks to things the school principal (a man, obviously) has said to Maude over the years, and I thought that was a bit clumsily done. The sense Maude has of him, as this big important terrifying figure, doesn’t really come through to the reader, because he’s hardly ever on page. So the effect is more why do we care what this old white man thinks? rather than feeling the pressure to conform.

But if those parts are a bit heavy-handed in the middle part of the book, the climax is flat-out magnificent, and there we really feel the exultation and triumph that comes with flipping the bird to the patriarchy. That was just *chef’s kiss* So I can very much forgive the disjointed be a Good Girl flashbacks, when it all comes together so beautifully and powerfully in the end.

It’s not an easy journey to that end, though. A Hunger of Thorns is surprisingly (and delightfully) complex, far from straightforward, and one of the things I massively appreciated was the way this book is a sharp, thorny reminder that young people are still people. It’s something a lot of adults (bizarrely, imo) forget, and the adults around Maude are very quick to make decisions for her without her input – without even considering that they need it. Even the grown-ups who ought to be in her corner – even the ones who are in her corner – fail or betray her in ways that are all-too-believable, and although it was heartbreaking, it was part of what made this book so powerful. Maude is her own driving force, the driving force of the whole book, and while she does collect friends and allies eventually, I was still struck by how much she felt like a real teen making real, tough, scary calls because she has to. And because she can, and will, and does, because even if she is young she is still a person who can make those calls and determine her own story. She is not incapable because of her age, even if too many adults think she is.

(For the record, as best I can work out, Maude is sixteen or so, maybe a bit younger. She does read more fourteen or fifteen than sixteen to me, but most importantly, she reads as real. I don’t know how to put it better than that.)

And Wilkinson really does go hard when it comes to the failure of even the most well-intentioned adults; of how sometimes you need protecting from the ones who are trying to protect you. That struck a deep chord, and it hurt, and it was true.

It was good.

I think this is the start of a series, which is wonderful, because there were a few bits of the worldbuilding that I really want more clarification on – the kingdom of birds??? – and it’s very clear that this is only the beginning of Maude’s story. Honestly, the ending really gives the impression that things are about to go – ahem – nuclear, and I am so very here for it!

This is a beautiful, unexpected, twisty book, with sharp thorns and soft petals. It was not a book I knew to anticipate; it snuck up on me like a secret and a surprise, and it delighted me utterly.

I can only recommend it to you in the strongest possible terms.

I likes the premise of this, but I had issues with the characters that I couldn't get past. Still good for middle grade audiences.

I really enjoyed the dark fairytale vibe of this book, but unfortunately nothing else really stood out to me. I never really liked any of the main characters or felt invested in the story itself. The worldbuilding was also confusing and I still didn’t have a good grasp of much by the end of the book. Overall I didn’t hate this, but I don’t think it’s worth the read.

I was so happy to find when I was searching GoodReads to write my review that we are getting a sequel to this amazing book! I really loved this book, and once it was all finished I looked at the cover in a whole new way!

I loved the world, its magic was so fascinating, and written so vividly I could picture everything that was happening, and when Maude ventures into Sicklehurst it all really goes to a whole other level.

I loved the fairytale aspect, all of the amazing things that were conjured up straight out of Maude's imagination. I loved the characters, Maude and Rufus being favorites, with Ginny and Winny coming in at a close second. Sicklehurst was bursting with life of all kinds, and with its dark and corrupted vibe, I couldn't and didn't want to put it down.

Wilkinson really brought this world to life, and I can't wait to see where it's all going to go from here!

Magic has been restricted to harmless glamour patches and energy drinks sold in every day markets and malls. Simple parlor tricks that make those without it feel less threatened. However, Odette has always been drawn to dangerous, forbidden magic since they were kids. Maude had always been able to satiate her friend with her gift of storytelling, which she brought to life by her own magic. When her magic ran dry, Odette began distancing herself and, eventually, disappeared in search of magic. Everyone rights her off as dead, except Maude, who tracks her down to Sicklehurst, a place where powerful magic has gone awry.

The magic system is very unique and very botany heavy, sometimes to the detriment of the story. However, some of the basic knowledge included is important to the continuation of the plot line. I also feel like the book had a slow start before things got interesting. I do not regret reading A Hunger of Thorns, but I also don't think it is a story I'll pick up again.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

DNF @ 40%

This was, unfortunately, a stylistic mismatch for me. There is nothing inherently wrong with this book or the writing of it, but there is a lot that simply doesn't work for me.

I was initially drawn in by the gorgeous cover. Then, the promise of a missing girl, lost magic, and an ancient magical forest had me all in.

The writing for A Hunger of Thorns is evocative of old school fairytale, which I like, and the odd drifting whimsy which I have seen in The Night Circus and Strange the Dreamer. I actively dislike that writing style, unfortunately. It is a molasses-slow pace that says a lot of words but ultimately moves the plot no where. Combined with a bit of a surprise portal fantasy aspect, which has always been a mixed bag for me, and I don't have any issue cutting my losses early. I cannot imagine giving a rating higher than 3 stars if I did continue and I keep finding excuses not to make progress in this book. The excuses are as severe as starting the next book in the Wheel of Time, which I have managed to read one book per calendar year. But the wheel weaves what it will and A Hunger of Thorns just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a DNF for me. By 14% I was already confused, annoyed, and bored. Any attempt at a plot is bogged down by superfluous descriptions of things that really make no impact on either the characters or the story (do I really need to know how Nan acquires her tea in bulk, how she brews it, how she adds what first or last for whatever reason?). I see the toxicity and borderline abusive nature of the "friendship" between Maude and Odette from a mile away and I'm not here for it.

There's apparently some attempt to throw in a "girl power, down with the patriarchy" message, but it's so hamfisted yet simultaneously sporadic that it just seems like a few seconds of preaching; it pops up when it's convenient, otherwise it's drowned out by Maude's effort to be a fairy tale equivalent of James Joyce (just more depressing).

Maude wants to be this girl that "rails against" what "nice" girls are supposed to do or not do; how can she fight against anything when she's little more than a doormat to everyone around her - her grandmothers, her school's head dude (was he the principal or the superintendent? Idk, idc), Odette, literally everyone. I already hate her, I came very quickly to hate Odette, the grannies are fine, and Rufus seems okay. That's it.

The constant back-and-forth from past to present is irritating. Please pick one portion of time in the story and stick with it. Some books can use this to great advantage; this is not one of those books. It's just annoying.

Also, where/when tf is this supposed to take place? Earth? An alternate Earth? England? Ireland? US? Today? The future? The fifties? You can't just throw in the trio of stereotypical means girls wearing gingham dresses and not expect me to question it. There's a power plant, so it's gotta be sometime after the 1880s. But nothing else makes sense in this book, so why should the setting, I guess.

Maybe it does indeed get better, but I'm at 18% and already have so many problems with it, so I guess I'll never know. I can't spend any more time on this one; I don't have the strength nor the interest to try.

I really enoyed this book. I think this book had elements of horror that really worked for me. I also ust thought this book really took you on quest/jounrney that focused on friendship and saving "your person" in life. I also thought the world was really unique and diffrent ad had some many elements that i did not expect. I also thoughtt his was either a great spring read or a early fall read. I really loved the main character. I love a good bookish side characer and tha occured. I also liked the seemless lgbtq+ elements in the read!! Def would go back and read more by this author in the future!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for providing me this arc in exchange for an honest review*

I will be honest. I didn't like it as much as I wanted to like it, since it was one of my anticipated reads this year. The premise was really good. The execution though not so much. Even though I hate magical realism it didn't even try to change my mind. I still hate it. Not the point, I know.

I mean yeah, the magic system was really good but I would prefer it, if we could see a bit more about it. Maude's magic was to weave stories. If you used too much mettle (the substance that witches recognized magic) you would get addicted and actually die. See? The premise is really good. Bad magic, bad people, good magic, good witches. It's there. And it's not. The back to back stories between present and past, in the beginning was good (story weaving remember?) but then it became really repetitive and boring.

Did I like this book? Yeah, it was ok hence the 3.5 stars. Would I re-read it? No. Not my cup of tea, although I really loved the LGBTQ+ representation (lesbian grandmothers-I loved that aspect) and weirdness of this book. Would I suggest you to read it? Yeah if you like weirdness, you should definitely read it.

A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson is a novel that encapsulates all the anger every woman has ever felt at the patriarchy. As the name implies, it is a prickly, sad, intense story. It is the type of story that makes you want to go out and fight every person who has ever held you back, told you that women should be more demure, or said that you would be prettier if you smiled more. In short, it is a novel perfect for today's political fights.

Like many authors before her, Ms. Wilkinson uses magic to embody women's knowledge and strength. In A Hunger of Thorns, there is no potent magic anymore. If that weren't bad enough, a council manages all those capable of using magic, even going so far as to create "institutes" wherein those witches do nothing but churn out the everyday, banal magical items approved by the council for societal use. All day every day, women face admonishments to act ladylike, to be nice, to compose themselves, and to remain neat and respectable. It is as sickening as you would expect.

As the main character, we follow Maude as she hunts for her former best friend, Odette. Most of the novel's action is Maude's search for Odette, but most of Maude's introspection circles around her continued admiration for Odette's wildness and the pang of loss she still feels at the rift in their friendship. Herein lies my issues with the story, however slight they might be. The magical world in which Maude finds herself is glorious in its danger and darkness, and the idea that Maude created this world through her supernatural abilities makes me like it that much more.

However, Maude has two trains of thought. Either she is mooning after Odette, searching the deepest, darkest parts of the supernatural world for a girl who stopped acknowledging her presence years ago. Or, Maude worries about following in the steps of her mother, a woman executed for using too much power and, therefore, too dangerous to allow to live. The latter obsession is something I understand. After all, losing your mother in any capacity at a young age is traumatic. In Maude's case, the people who killed her mother sent back her mother's body in a coffin, a vicious psychological ploy that would cow even the strongest revolutionary.

I struggled with Maude's obsession with Odette and insistence that she rescue Odette from her unknown fate. Odette literally dropped any pretense of friendship one random day, and the two haven't spoken to each other in years. Yet Maude decides that she doesn't agree with the rest of the town that Odette is dead and, therefore, the only one who can rescue her. It's a bizarre attitude, even when counting the fact that Maude is or was in love with Odette. It reeks of an abused person crawling back to their abuser, asking for forgiveness for making them angry, and it made me angry.

Despite this one issue, I enjoyed A Hunger of Thorns. While reading it, I found myself on an emotional rollercoaster, angry at Maude, furious at the men in power, happy with all the ways women flouted the rules and used their true power, sad at Maude's family history, and inspired to continue fighting against men and women who continue to espouse the belief that women are inferior to men. Mostly, my heart ached for Maude, and all the girls Maude represents, as they try to find the strength to remain wild girls amid all the pressure to conform to the "sugar and spice and everything nice" view of women.

This book is an enchanting story about witches, magic, and the complexities of friendship. The main character, Maude, embarks on a journey to rescue her best friend and discovers more about herself along the way. The author does a fantastic job world-building, though all the descriptions and places can be overwhelming. Nonetheless, the storytelling is engaging and will make you reflect on your own place in the story. This book is perfect for those who love a coming of age story, with representation and witches!

As the daughter of witches, Maude ran wild with her best friend Odette. When she lost her magic, she also lost her best friend. In time, magic became more about glamour patches and psychic energy drinks. Odette wanted forbidden, dangerous magic, and two weeks ago she went searching for it. Maude is the only one that doesn't think she's dead. She’s sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of Sicklehurst, an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest. No one else remembers it or what might be inside, and most stories about those kinds of places include a monster.

The world-building from page one is fantastic. The world not only has magic, it's been the cause of battles and constrained by laws and conventions so that it's become commonplace and sold in malls. The commercial lure of these charms, disposable and cheap, drives the business of the large magical companies. There's also a dark undercurrent, one that leads school principals to oversee magical children like Maude and all but herd them into desired paths. "But if you stay home all the time, stories never happen. Sometimes you need to break something in order for the story to leak through the cracks." I love that line, and how it perfectly encapsulates fantasy stories.

Maude for the longest time is caught up in saving Odette, even though they aren't friends anymore, even though she has no magic and doesn't feel brave. But she knows stories and the logic of them, and that someone needs to save the princess. Everyone has a gift, even if they don't realize it or know how to use it. She goes on her quest, making mistakes even though she should know better. She loses track of what she's meant to do, of how others have tried to help and failed. Her realization in the finale is quite a doozy, and I absolutely adored it. The individual responsibility is there, as are the talents of each person involved. Constraints choke off function and healthy responses, and there's no way to heal from the past just by sealing it off and pretending it was never there. It's such a great representation for so many things, tucked into a fantasy tale. Maybe endings aren't quite what they expected, but it fits and had me grinning in the end. The novel is beautifully written, lyrical and full of longing, grief, and the need to belong.

3/5 ⭐️
This book reminded me of the tone and aesthetic of Nettle & Bone but with the feminist message similar to When Women Were Dragons.
Overall, I enjoyed this story. I love the fairytale like quality ands it’s connection to nature. For me, the message about not reining girls in to be meek and quiet was slightly heavy handed. I also felt like it could have been stronger as a short story or novella rather than a full story. It felt like it should’ve been a short story.
It was cute and enjoyable and I would recommend this book to others.
Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Children's for providing an advance reader copy for my honest review.

Review Posted: April 3, 2023
Goodreads
Storygraph

I was really looking forward to this book, but honestly, I was disappointed every step of the way. I went in thinking that the concept was unique and different, but none of it was executed well.

The main character was one of the most obnoxious characters I think I have ever read about. Being inside her mind made me want to pull all of my hair out. I kept waiting for some growth, but it just never came. I also think the author wanted this to be a female empowerment story, but once again, it was just not done well. You can defiantly see the bones of the idea, but the way things were fleshed out and the way they progressed didn’t actually give that feeling.

The magic and world-building were also lazy at best. I found myself constantly confused and having to go back to the start to make sure I hadn’t missed reading information. The world and magic constantly contradict themselves and don’t actually seem to adhere to any of the rules that were originally set out. I am usually all for world-building that you have to figure out along the way, but there were just so many loose threads that were never explained in any form.

Also, why was every little thing described in agonizing detail? In the first three chapters, I kept wondering if the endless cats the author named would ever be important again or if all of the random characters the author names don’t ever show up again. So much of what I read was unnecessary and didn’t do anything for world-building, plot, or character development.

“Sometimes you have to break something in order for the story to leak out through the cracks.”

The story follows Maude, a daughter of witches, who grew up with her grandmothers. They live in a society where witches have to be regulated and are only allowed to use covenant magic. Magic, however, is wanted by all with small glamours to make you more beautiful or more reposed, herbal remedies, good luck charms, etc. Maude's Nan follows the covenant closely and peddles her magic in these charms and remedies, and she worries that Maude will do something that will bring the Auditors at their door and take her away. Just like what they did with Maude's mother. Auditors make sure you're upholding to the covenant. If you don't, you go off to a detention camp (which is conveniently also owned by one of those three corporations).

“Ahead of us, there were parties and kissing and glamorous and periods and all the other terrifying obstacles on the hard road to gray adulthood, every step crowded with grown-ups telling us to be nice, nice, nice. It was far more terrifying than any imaginary horror I could dream up.”

Maude once had magic, but for four years she has not. She's only been able to see the mettle- the magical threads that are in all living things. Maude also once had a best friend named Odette. Odette had this wild energy within her that could only begin to be contained by Maude's storytelling. So Maude would weave these magical tales to help calm that raging storm brewing within Odette. But then one day, Maude's magic ran out. She could still see the magic, but she no longer could weave the mettle. And that next day, Odette was no longer her friend.

“I was the one who had to make sure she always got found, who brought her back from the dark paths, who would sprout wings in order to rescue her from her tower.
But I didn’t.
I was too busy playing nice.”

Only now, Odette has been missing for two weeks and everybody thinks she's dead. All, except Maude. Now she must go against everything she's been told to help rescue Odette from a place brimming with magic.

This book was beyond my own imagining! It was dark and, at times, gross- all wrapped up in lush storytelling. The first chapter of the book had me captivated, but then we got to Sicklehurst... Oh goodness! What a ride! Redheads are immune to magic?!

If you love books on witches and aren't afraid of bugs, then this is the one for you!
If you want to see LGBTQ+ representation, then what are you waiting for?!
If you want to see a YA book properly talk about toxic relationships/friendships, then be sure to pick it up!

There comes to be a bit of a Swan Lake retelling mixed in, but it's on the light side. (I mean, Odette?!)

Overall, I was just blown away by the storytelling. What would YOU do if you were in a story? Would you be the hero? Would you try to be the narrator? Or would you be the prince/princess in need of saving? Do you even know?

Well, Maude has to find out who she is in the story. Because princes/princesses need saving all the time, and heroes get themselves mixed up in trouble. And she's too nice and good and polite for all of that. But storytellers? Now, that's different... They can rewrite the story.

Thank you, NetGalley, for giving me access to A Hunger of Thorns!

This was a beautifully written story with witches and magic. It follows Maude as she discovers her magic and mourns the loss of the relationship with her best friend. If you’ve ever lost a friendship, you’ll relate to this. When she realizes that her friend has gone missing, she goes against all to rescue her. The story gets a little bogged down with descriptions at times, but the world building is well done. It was an enjoyable story.

This is an outstanding demonstration of a very in-depth modern tale of beautiful magic with a deeply moving plot. This story had me in all my emotions. I was cheering on the main character and crying with her all at once. Like i said, this sincerely deeply moved me in the best of ways.

Maude has never really had the perfect life, but her childhood was pretty good. She had a great friend, Odette, and years full of magic and story-telling. Creating dolls and monsters from within her own imagination and Odette's joy. But things get lost as one grows older. Children often lose their inner magic and even the best of friends don't always remain close. In this case, magic seemed to flee from Maude's grasp. In the rest of the world, it became something fake. Something easily bought and used by anyone and not very respected anymore.

Even though Odette and Maude are no longer close, Maude still feels a responsibility for Odette when her friend suddenly goes missing. A lost girl. But Maude knows she can find her. And, even more so, save her. She knows she can slay the dragon herself, however necessary.

This was inspiring and beautiful. Sad and yet, hopeful. I really enjoyed this.

Out April 18, 2023!

✨4/5 ✨
This book gave me Secret Garden vibes right off the bat. I live for any fantasy novel that includes witches, and this delivered. Maude's discovery and storytelling of her discovery of magic was fascinating. Sometimes when reading YA I don't connect withe the characters because of the age difference, but Maude made me feel young again and made me forget I'm a 31 year old muggle.