Thank you to the publisher for an ARC copy! Even though this review is quite a bit late!
I really love this book - I think Poranek did a fantastic job of harnessing the vibes of Howl's Moving Castle and a little of Beauty and the Beast too and adding a slavic fantasy/polish folklore twist.
There isn't much negative things I can add except that I really need more after that last sentence because excuse me? How dare you! I need answers.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for an early copy of Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek! From the cover to the premise, this book intrigued me right away. However, it fell incredibly short. I think the book had a lot of potential, but all of the parts were just not coming together the way they should have and I'm sure not the way the author intended. The writing was clunky and there was not a lot of depth to the characters or plot. Maybe I will give this author another chance but for now, this just isn't for me.

DNF @ 27%.

I truly did want to love this but I just can't get into it and maybe that'll change if I read just a bit more, but my current reading mood is feeling on the verge of a slump and I really don't think I can😭 I do want to pick this back though at a later date hopefully!! But as of now, I don't think I can handle the slow pacing😅 The characters did seem off to a great start and potentially me loving them as I went further into the story though!! And with such beautiful writing this seems like a great debut, it's more of a "its me, not you", just picked this book up at the wrong time, but I will most certainly be trying this book again <3

(And by the way, what a GORGEOUS cover???)

Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Holy freaking shit. Okay so I’m not gonna lie, it took a bit of time for this book to grab my attention. The beginning was a bit slow, but the second it clicked, IT CLICKED. Studio Ghibli meets the fantasy book of my dreams with the PERFECT AND I MEAN PERFECT balance of romance and whimsy and pain. Maybe a little too much pain. The writing was a bit awkward at times, but it was like in an endearing way, so that’s completely fine I loved all the characters and the imagery and the plot and I really just need yall to understand that when I say cozy fantasy, this is what I mean. This is what we want. It was perfect, I love it. I have some minor little things that bugged me but those are all reader preferences and I don’t want them to distract from how freaking wonderful this book was. Overall this book was delicious and wonderful and please read it.

5 ⭐️

The ending of this book hurt me, in the best way possible.
A.B. Poranek is now one of my favourite authors. The way she wrote Where the Dark Stands Still was amazing, i couldn’t put this book down.
This is going to be a book i never stop thinking about. Literally everything about this book was great. Please read this book.
I also kinda got Howls Moving Castle vibes? So even more reason to read this book

Thank you to Netgalley and McElderry Books for allowing me to read this book.

Unfortunately I didn’t get very far in this book. It felt very slow paced, the Leszy wasn’t very interesting, and I didn’t really like the protagonist. I was getting irritated with how Liska was constantly thinking back to whatever happened with her cousin but didn’t reveal what actually happened.

Not the book for me, it seems.

I was so excited to read this based on the description and the folklore it was based off of. Unfortunately it fails to deliver what the premise promised, as many YA fantasy romances do. This started off strong, but the character development just wasn’t there to keep me interested in the story.
Thank you netgalley for my copy!

This was a lush dark fantasy romance brimming with eldritch magic that kept me up reading it into the night! I loved how while there was romance present, it wasn't the central focus, which was a refreshing change from a lot of fantasy these days.

Liska grew up in a small town, believing that her magic made her a monster. She flies into the very thick of the demon-wood except she’s daughter by the forest’s warden. The Leszy offers her a bargain, 1 year of servitude in exchange for a magical flower which could rid her of her powers.

A magic wood setting should result in a promising atmospheric read. It was certainly whimsical and quiet but it just didn’t live up to my own expectations. It was slow to the point where for most of it I was disinterested. I really struggled to make it through the book.. It certainly had its moments where the action picked up. Primarily towards the end and overall I was interested in the folklore the story is based on. The tense in which it was written comes off as so far removed from the story. The way it's told in the third person narrative felt like Liska walked into the house. Liska moved to the table. Liska lifted a glass. Liska drank the water. What was the house like? How cold was the water? Why was Liska driving it? Big scaled events would happen and it never felt like Liska or Leszy never sat with the emotions.

This is also just a personal preference but referring the Leszy throughout the book by his “role” rather than his birth name began to bother me. Doing so is comparable, at least to me, if I just called a major or principal by their role instead of their names. It just made me feel that much further removed from the story.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an ARC through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

A highly atmospheric read!

The writing was perfect, lush and atmospheric.

This story has a small cast of characters, including a sentient manor. It’s very much plot driven, with a new mystery at every corner.
The pacing is relatively slow and take times to build, but the climax is highly satisfying.

There is some romance and while it plays a big part in the story, it’s not the main focus.

Third person point of view

I loved the lush prose and the vivid portrayal of Polish folklore in Where the Dark Stands Still, especially the dark, foreboding forest and the sentient, crumbling house, which seemed to possess a life of its own. However, while the atmosphere was captivating, I couldn't shake the feeling of restlessness during the middle portion of the book, where the pacing seemed to falter.
The ending also left me feeling unsatisfied & yearning for more closure.
Nevertheless, the enchanting setting and the tantalizing premise kept me turning the pages, eager to uncover the secrets hidden, especially the last third of the book.

3.5⭐️ round up to 4

Thank you to NetGalley & Simon & Schuster Canada, Margaret K. McElderry Books for an e-arc!

3.5

“He has been dead a long time, and she is his resurrection.”

Some of my favourite things include sentient houses, enchanted woods, mysterious plots and the most lovable and strange found family, and Where the Dark Stands Still certainly checks all those boxes.

It’s so mystical and a bit gothic and spooky. Centred around Polish myth and legend, it’s a unique story about finding belonging and setting to rights old wrongs.

The pacing in the beginning is a bit slow, and the organization of events didn’t always feel like the most effective for me, but this story has so much character and so much magic to unveil, it kept its hooks in me enough to push through to the end and I’m glad I did.

The found family in this book and its deep roots in Polish folklore are the shining stars of this story. Where it lacked in pacing for me, it made up for in its characters and the curiosity it inspired in me to find out more about them and their stories.

It was an enjoyable debut read overall, and if you’re a fan of Margaret Rogerson or Naomi Novik, you should pick this up!

What a beautifully, whimsical, magical story! Strong characters, magical elements, and world building, with hilarious banter between Liska and the Leszy that kept me entertained. Their relationship a beautiful one, but gut-wrenching. Overall, it was a wonderful folklore.

I read this in a day, so I think that should temper how I feel about this book.
Throw me a dark fantasy, tied with folklore and legend and I'm leaving no crumb behind.
What's not to love when you have a howl-coded male character, an equally as loveable female lead, and a sentient house?
I could perfectly envision every setting, and every character, the banter was alive and so was the atmosphere. I could practically zoom through their dialogue.
The ending? I cried. So there's that. I'm just too soft for all of it. As a warning, it is an open ending, and my fragile heart can't take that. I'll be imagining closure in my dreams.

I'm so sad that I didn't like this! I was so excited for this book. I love magical forests and sprawling houses that feel like characters themselves. I really thought I was going to love this.
But unfortunately I just found it to be so boring. The pacing is very very slow for most of the book, and seemingly nothing happens until like 70% of the way through. It's just Liska being concerned that something sketchy is going on. For pages and pages. And yet somehow we jump right into the bargain? It felt so weird to go into the book and have the bargain be made not even 10% of the way through. It felt very rushed, and then the book immediately slowed all the way down.
I don't think the writing style helped this. This isn't necessarily a fault of the book because I don't think it will be a problem for everyone, but third person present tense is my least favourite POV/tense combo. It feels so detached, and it always comes off as really telling and not showing. I think the author probably made this choice because it's reminiscent of the way fairytales are written, but I found it made the already kind of boring plot that much harder to get through.
Also, this is more a small complaint: I wish we would leave the "teenage girl and over 500 year old man" relationship trope behind. It's so weird and uncomfortable. Liska is at most 18 or 19 (and I personally think she's more leaning towards 16), and I just hate that. It created a weird dynamic between the two, where he knows basically everything and she's a naive little girl. It's just odd and it definitely made me uncomfortable.
I think the overall idea of this is so cool, and there was a lot of really lovely writing. Particularly, the way the author describes the setting (the forest, the manor etc) is so interesting and you can really visualize what she's saying. I liked the magic system and the idea of using magic as a gentle guide for nature. I liked Liska's arc of coming to accept her magic and not fear herself anymore. I liked the little found family we get in the latter third of the book. I think this had a lot of potential, but for me it just didn't hit the way I wanted it to.

This book was a lusk dark world with so much intrigue and mystery. The main character meets the LI pretty quickly off the bat and from there we are thrown into an incredible world and story. This authors writing is stunning.

“Now, my dear not-so-clever-fox,” says the wood-demon, “the fun begins.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A dark, twisty, romantic fantasy with a forest full of demons, forbidden magic and it’s inspired by Polish folklore?!? Haha FIVE STARS.

Liska Radost has been raised in a small village near the spirit-wood, where those with magic are thought to be nothing better than monsters. After Liska reveals her own forbidden powers, she escapes to the spirit-wood in search of a cure. There she is caught by the demon warden of the wood who offers her a bargain: one year of servitude in exchange for a wish. Seeing no other options, Liska agrees and goes to live at his crumbling manor in the woods for one year.

Liska will soon learn that not all who enter the wood will always return…

Where the Dark Stands Still is a gothic romantic fantasy, with a little horror, a lot of heart and a bit of a Beauty and the Beast feel. If you enjoyed For the Wolf, A House of Salt & Sorrows, or Crimson Bound I would definitely add it to your list (but fair warning, I cried).

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada, Margaret K. McElderry Books, and NetGalley for an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review. Where the Dark Stands Still comes out on February 27th.

This book was really hard for me to get into. I had to reread the beginning multiple times and it was still quite difficult to understand the world and why this character was on the run.

I think the atmosphere of the book was really fun and I liked it a lot more once I was able to fully get into it!

Thank you NetGalley for this early copy in exchange for review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
0/5🌶️
“He is a demon, and he has done monstrous things, but he makes her feel whole. Perhaps that, more than anything, is what got them here—a boy who loves too little and a girl who loves too much.”

Liska is just a normal village girl, who happens to have magic. Magic has ruined her life and in desperation makes a deal with a demon to rid herself of it. She must serve the Leszy for a year within the Driada (a magical forest filled with demons). During her time she is faced with mystery after mystery, unable to piece them together. She feels as though everyone is keeping secrets from her, but Liska has a few secrets of her own…

At the beginning I was worried. It sounded like every other book, but boy was I wrong. I was invested at every turn and there were many. Everything was simply perfection. The twists, the heartbreak, the emotion, the revelations. I was completely taken by surprise at the ending. I was filled with so much hope, then it was ripped away from me. Of course, everything ended as it should have. It felt like everyone was where they were meant to be, even if I didn’t like how we got there. THEN you had to rip my heart out again! I’m left with more questions than I started with, but am content to let them linger. I have been left irrevocably broken.

I cannot put into words how truly beautiful this book was! A.B. Poranek is a wondrous, evil genius.

I really loved this book. I grew up in Poland so I really appreciated that the Polish culture was so heavily included in this story. I really enjoyed the magical forest and crumbling manor setting and I think the atmosphere was just incredible. I also enjoyed the characters, the found-family trope and the romance was sweet. I always appreciate the conversation about religion vs magic and it was so well done in this book. I think the beginning could’ve been a little bit stronger but honestly by the end, I didn’t even care, I was just loving every minute of this story!