Well, I hate to bail on a book halfway through, but this YA fantasy novel really doesn't work for me. The general premise is interesting, which is what makes this so disappointing. Eli, the titular girl made of found materials, comes from a witch's world that can access the human world, as she frequently does to kill ghosts at the instruction of the witch's coven that controls her. But, the world building isn't firm enough to bring any of this really to life... The "human city" as it is called is both vague and oddly specific in its modernity - there's Advil, Uber, smartphones, motorcycles - but without a firmer footing, it just never feels very real. And while it's fine that the witch world doesn't follow logic, it simply needs more detail to support the shifting nature of the world itself. A reader just can't find a solid footing, and while that can work in fantasy, it just doesn't here.

The characters are also hard to connect with. Feeling separate from Eli, who is a being made of some human material, witch's familiar objects and works as an assassin, isn't that surprising. She sounds cool, but there's not enough to connect with in her relationships. It seems like some of her history is overly implied and leaves the reader feeling like she is quite unknowable herself. And the witch world characters are so alien that even Eli doesn't grasp their motivations - which aren't intriguing enough as plot points to make me want to learn more. When human characters are joined into the mix, though both come with their own motivations, these are just told and don't really feel actually motivating... One of the characters, Tav, announces upon first meeting Eli that "they/them" is their preferred pronoun. And while I am sure that the inclusivity is greatly appreciated by readers and publishers, when Tav is in a group setting, this preferred pronoun proves quite disruptive to the text and pulls the reader out of the action. This is more of a flaw of the English language, but to add confusion to a YA novel seems to be at cross-purposes. I would hate for a reluctant reader to be frustrated with a text that otherwise appeals. I think there has to be a better way to handle this in fiction!

But there is so much here that works to disconnect the reader from the story, that after making it halfway through, I realized that with the lack of concrete world-building, characters that feel real and motivation and unsupported by a plot that intrigued me, there was just nothing to keep my turning the pages. I couldn't find a reason to continue reading, despite its cool cover and interesting sounding premise. Disappointing.

I really struggled to get into the story line. The style of writing is incredibly distracting; it’s over descriptive in an immature kind of way. The writing is all over the place and the world building lacks clear description, while simultaneously being too descriptive over other aspects.

I had to DNF.

I really wanted to love this book, but unfortunately I just did not. It had potential to be something great - a 'made' being, created to be an assassin of ghosts? But there was so much going on, and the story flipped between current and pasts events without a clear break, and I felt confused a lot of the time.
I did enjoy the characters themselves, I just couldn't get into the story and finished it not feeling a great desire to continue to the series.

There was something about the writing style and the worldbuilding that made it hard to care about the book. I felt removed from the story, like it didn’t matter, even after we finally met side characters with personalities. The book was also confusing, and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t user error—I followed the plot easily enough, just not the rules or the shape of the world. The chapters in the human world were much easier to process, but I still didn’t care. The random flashbacks didn’t help matters. Maybe this one just wasn’t for me 🤷‍♀️

I'd like to begin by thanking NetGalley and Dundurn. I recieved this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This review can also be read on Goodreads.

Where to begin with The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass? It appears to be Adan Jerreat-Poole's debut, and for that reason, I'll try to be gentler, though honest, in the opinions expressed in this review.

I wish, frankly, that I had better things to say about this book. I'd settle for having anything positive to say. Unfortunately, that isn't the case.

Readability - 3/5 Overall, the novel is an easy read. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and misspellings. This took me out of the narrative more than once, in part because I found myself having to pause and reread the sentence in order to make sense of what the author was trying to convey. This is something I would expect from a first draft, not a final, published one.

Pacing - 1/5 The pacing was very poor. The novel immediately leaps into the central conflict. In some cases, this can be a good thing! But only if it's executed well. Unfortunately, in the case of The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass, it wasn't. I spent the majority of the time confused about what was going on, and desperately trying to make sense of the overlapping timelines. (An impossibility, it turned out; especially because there were no customary italics to denote memories/separate the present from the past. This was made worse by the fact that the chapters were generally very short. It left no time to provide context for interpersonal relationships, and the characters were introduced too quickly to form any sense of investment in or attachment to them.

The constant slipping from past/present and from one world to the next without any build up, context, or transition made it difficult to follow the narrative more than once.

Prose - 1/5 I wasn't a fan of the writing style. The Girl Of Hawthorn and Glass is marketed as a Young Adult novel, but I didn't have that sense. The sentences were overly simplistic, and the most description we get about any of the characters include: Purple hair, a waxed mustache, yellow crocodile eyes and glasses. This type of overly simplified writing feels like it should be geared towards a much younger age bracket. That, and the author's insistence on using the term 'boi.' That pop culture/meme-y reference may have worked/felt more appropriate in a non-fantasy setting, but I found it jarring, at best, and cringe inducing, at worst.

Premise - 4/5 I originally requested an ARC because I adored the premise. The premise is fantastic! Parallel worlds? Witches? Demons? Children woven from spider webs, berries, and glass? Underground resistance fighters? Yes, please! Sadly, the book I was promised isn't the one I received. At least, in that sense. Which brings us to...

Plot - 1/5 I spent this novel questioning what was going on. Constantly. I'm sad to report it took 28 chapters to even have a glimmer of understanding as to why Tav and Cam had been sent to the City of Eyes. If that had neatly tied up the plot holes and loose ends, I would have happily scored the novel higher. Unfortunately, it only left me with more questions. The romance between Tav and Eli seemed abrupt. They had a grand total of two prior interactions, making it difficult to feel strongly about their romance, and mostly giving the impression that it had been shoehorned in.

Characterization and world building - 1/5 It was practically nonexistent. You knew little about Eli, and learned even less. The same is true for Tav, Cam, and Kite. Glimpses of backstory were teased here and there, but ultimately, there wasn't enough substance or development for any of them to be memorable or interesting. Which is unfortunate, because they had potential in those glimmers. I'm sorry that potential wasn't fully explored. The world had the material to be lush and rich in lore, but fell victim to flat writing, and the fact that the author didn't take the time to explain the magic or politics of their world.

Overall, while this book had glimmers of a solid fantasy debut, it fell short. It stumbled too often to be an enjoyable read. Like Eli, it tried to be too many things, and ultimately failed.

First off, the cover is really what drew me into this story and the idea of a teenage assassin, well those are my favorite and how I stay as young as I do, but I started to lose interest almost immediately within the story, while the story was developing nicely I was so lost in the many many times we were reminded that her name was Eli, I counted like five times within a page and I felt myself getting pulled out of the story as soon as that happened.
I also had a lot of trouble understanding the world behind this story, the world building was really lacking and I needed that to understand what was going on.
The beginning of this story really drew me in though, so I was excited to see where it was going but I got lost along the way and never really found myself invested again after Eli accidentally killed that man.

Maybe I'll try again when the finished book comes out but I am not entirely sure,

I'm sorry

Thank you to Dundurn Press for sending me an ARC via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

2.5/5 stars. After reading the whole book, I’m left with lots of questions. Not questions about what will happen next, but questions about the magic system, the characters’ motivations, and how the elements of the story work together. My overall feeling after reading is confusion and meh. I didn’t feel a connection with any of the characters. I’m still confused about the Coven, Eli’s role in her world, how magic is used, what purpose Cam served, and what the point of their “adventure” was. While reading, I felt like the elements weren’t cohesive, and a lot of things were under explained. Jumps between past and present threw me off because there wasn’t any warning in a lot of cases.
The only reason I’m giving this 2.5 stars is because I did like the author’s descriptions of the setting, and the voice of the narration was fairly easy to follow. It’s a diverse cast of characters with lots of representation (POC and LGBT) which is pretty cool albeit slightly confusing with the group of characters as “they” and also the non-binary character as “they.”
Overall my feelings about this book were, like I said above, pretty meh and I will not be reading the second one. This book didn’t grip me with a need to find out what will happen next. It was not enthralling or compelling to me. It was just meh.

If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be random. This book was so incredibly random that I could not find a solid story arc. It was jumbled and confusing, almost like the author through ideas into a hat, pulled them out at random, and then wrote them down as they came out. The main character, Eli, has no emotion to her, and therefore, I couldn’t connect with her. There were too many different ides that I couldn’t keep track of the overall plot. I hated that Tav was referred to as “they.” It made the narration incoherent and forced. I kept having to figure out if when every time the author used “they” if it was used as a singular pronoun or if it was addressing more than one person. The characters name were also incredibly random and did not match the characters’ personalities at all (not that the characters had personalities to begin with. They were all dull and undeveloped). The part where Eli lost her memory was useless and could’ve been cut out. Again, too many ideas were meshed together, which made this book very incoherent and not understandable. I was confused for the entire book, as though I couldn’t find the underlying meaning behind the characters’ quest. I also predicted that Tav was the target as soon as the author introduced the character, so that arc was less enjoyable. The metaphors were just cringey and I had no idea what any of them meant. They were ridiculous and random and I could not get onboard with any of the prose in this story. Overall, this book was a huge letdown, especially since the cover is eye catching, but I would rate it 1/5 stars.

Thanks, Netgalley and the author for making it available for me :D
Three stars mean I liked it said Goodreads. And that's exactly what happened.

"curious young women are dangerous - especially when heavily armed."

I liked the setting of the novel, the world that the author build looked very interesting, but there are so many things I still can't understand. Maybe everything will be in its place after the second book of the series, I don't know.

The main character, Eli is a witch-made assassin. Her task is to kill ghosts in the human world. But if you thought, that this is what the story is about you were very very wrong. Anyway, I liked her way of thinking and how she sees the world.

At first, she accepts that she is just a thing, an object, a weapon, but throughout the story, she realises she is much more. She has her own thoughts and feelings and she stands up for them.

"These were the moments she lived for, morsels of stolen freedom."

The side characters were okay, Tav and Cam were cute but they weren't that exciting. But I loved the rock wall part it was so funny, how Cam panicked. :D

The writing style was the most confusing thing in the book. There were some strange metaphors, and skipping back and force in time or people minds.

So this is why it got three stars from me. I liked it, but something was missing. It's okay for one read.

Adan Jerreat-Poole is, I believe, Canadian which may account for some of her "English" spellings of words in this novel - words like 'sombre' and 'glamours'. This shows my ignorance because I'd always thought that Canadians used American spellings. However, it's always good to read outside of one's comfort zone, especially since far too many novels published in the USA seem to take the position that it's the only country in the world and nothing of interest happens anywhere else! I beg to differ!

I liked this novel because it was operating outside the box and far from the beaten path. Far too many novels play it safe - clone someone else's work and turn it into a trilogy. I blame publishers for pushing this boring approach and writers for kow-towing to it. I love the ones which don't comply!

The story here is that Eli (not sure how it's pronounced: E-lie? Ellie?) is less of a person than an object - an assassin 'robot' almost, constructed by witches out of organic bits and inorganic bobs. She can pass through the vortex between the witches' world and the human world, and her 'job' is to take out ghosts. And I don't mean date them!

These ghosts are not the incorporeal remains of a dead human. They're wispy beings which are almost zombie-like in some respects, and which typically occupy a human body. They can't be seen by humans, and the witch powers-that-be detest them. Eli's maker, a witch who is growing in power and influence, hands out her assignments proudly because Eli is the best assassin. She has seven special knives that help her do her work to perfection, and she has never failed. Until she does. That's when things change.

It takes a while for Eli, who constantly grows and evolves throughout this story, to figure out exactly why the ghosts are a problem for the witches, and all the time she is learning and seeing her world in very broader strokes. She discovers she's in a much different world from the one she'd thought she was in. In pursuing her last assassination - the one mission that's doomed to fail - Eli encounters two people: Tav, a non-binary person who is a biker, and Cam, a gay cab driver. These two become close to her - the first people in the human world she's ever been drawn to.

I've seen some reviews of this novel that praise it for including genderqueer characters, but in some ways it's rather overdone here. It's not a problem that they're included, but that they risk overwhelming the story to the exclusion of all others. At times it starts to feel like there are only gender-queer people in this world.

To me, the way to fix a problem where the pendulum has been pushed too far and for too long in one direction isn't to push it forcibly and equally back in the opposite direction, but to weld it firmly in the middle so no one is cruelly excluded or artificially included ever again. As it happens, in this story it wasn't too intrusive despite Eli being apparently non-cis as well. Perhaps I didn't mind so much because I really liked Eli as a character. She's definitely one of my strong-female character icons.

I enjoyed the story and read it quickly. I liked the originality. I enjoyed the different take on witches and ghosts and the magnificent world-building. This was a tour-de-force of inventive thinking outside the box and it was a most welcome read. There were some technical issues no doubt caused by Amazon's crappy Kindle conversion process. I'm not the kind of reviewer who gets to read a hardback print version, so I got the e-version and there was the trademark Kindle mangling in evidence here.

One classic example of this is the embedding of the page header (alternating title and author on even and odd pages) right into the text, so I would read, for example: "She clenched her hands. THE GIRL OF HAWTHORN AND GLASS Took a breath in." The way I avoid this in my own published work is never to include page headers or footers (including page numbers) in the version I'm using for ebooks. I don't even use the headers in the print book version. What, is your reader going to forget what they're reading? I have a little more faith in readers than that.

The book also contained some abstract images that were included between chapters and sometimes as section separators in the text. These images were apparently broken-up and turned into Kindling by Amazon as well, although without having seen the original images, it's hard to tell. In other instances of generic Kindle mangling, the text was missing a line break between speech from different characters, so I'd read it all on one line:
"Hey, it usually works like a charm." "I'll bet." Eli rolled her eyes."

And one final observation: I'm sure that even in Canada, there's a difference between staunch and stanch. I read, "Tav staunched the bleeding" but unless Tav was making Cam bleed in a loyal and committed manner, she didn't staunch it. She stanched it. I've seen this error increasingly in YA novels and I find it sad. The error was repeated later as "one hand staunching the flow of blood." Nope! Stanching! There was one lone error in spelling that I noticed: "you will owe use a thousand glamours," which I think should have read 'us' rather than 'use'. Presumably that sort of thing will be corrected before this is published officially.

But we've all been there and I'm not going to downgrade such a stellar book for some minor issues. I thoroughly enjoyed this and I commend it as a worthy read. I look forward to the next offering from this author.

I really liked the cover. It is very appealing designed. The writing style is pleasant and very fluently to read. The characters are very well described and look well thought out and consistently interesting. The tension is always present. The descriptions of surroundings, feelings and scenes were also very good. The story is told pleasant and it succeeds from the first pages to dive directly into the story. The storyline as a whole is very coherent and it seems very understandable and authentic. A very fascinating story that you won't like to stop reading.

The language of The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass is lush, descriptive, and strangely beautiful like a bizarre dreamscape. Eli is a witch-made daughter, an assassin who travels between Earth and the City of Eyes using the invisible magical tears that connect the world. She eliminates ghosts who live in their stolen human hosts, using an array of semi-sentient knives: pearl, glass, obsidian, thorn, frost. When a mission goes awry, she finds herself swept up in a conspiracy led by an Earth-bound Hedge Witch, a queer non-binary human named Tav, and the coffee-loving, lame joke-telling Cam. The three must travel through the deadly City of Eyes to complete an unthinkable task, discovering more and more knowledge of their own magical; abilities and the dark deeds of the dangerous Coven who rules the City. I really loved the writing in this book and the characters, plus, with that cliffhanger, I really want to know what happens next!

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass is Adan Jerreat-Poole's YA fantasy debut. The story involves all the sorts of things you would hope for in a YA fantasy; witches, assassins, magic, adventure, and more. Readers follow Eli, a witch-made thing turned assassin, as she meets humans who make her feel and help her to understand she can be more than a witch's pet.

One of the great things this novel has going for it is representation. The main character, Eli, is queer. Tav, a human character Eli meets who becomes central to the story, is both black and nonbinary. Cam, the second human character who is pivotal, is of mixed race with ancestry from Vietnam and is also gay. The novel also seems to be own voices representation for queerness and nonbinary people, as it seems Jerreat-Poole self-identifies as queer and uses they/them pronouns.

Conceptually, the things that were featured in this novel were very interesting and were somewhat fresh compared to other ideas that are prevalent in the YA fantasy market. Unfortunately, I was not a fan of the execution.

Jerreat-Poole's writing style isn't one that is for me, though it communicates well an atmosphere of this kind of magical, lyrical fever dream. I also found the story to be a little info dump-y in various places. Readers were directly told about aspects of the world in distinct paragraphs rather than shown throughout the book how the world was developed, which I could usually ignore if it wasn't a recurrent thing that took me out of the story itself.

Overall, strong concepts and just not the book for me, though I wish the author all the success in the future and am sure that this book will appeal to other readers.

“The smell of burnth maple trees bowing before her, cities flattened in an exhale.”

Teenager Eli is the assassin-puppet made by the witches. She hunts ghosts in human world with her seven blades made from her body. But when she is sent to kill a human, something goes wrong.

All characters are queer in different ways. Eli is a badass, assembled from different materials (as bone, glass, stone, pearl, thorns,..) which is reflected in her blades. Her magical crocodile form is an unusual one. I liked almost all witch-world characters but not the ones from human world. I couldn‘t even visualize Tav and Cam, which is not a good sign for me (& I like to think I have great imagination). They were too random and hipster looking to me. As a good YA fantasy, there have to be romantic triangle. Unfortunately I haven‘t developed any rapport to the relationship between Eli and Tav, her co-partner-in-crime. And every main human character is a teenager addicted to coffee (even human Eli).

The story is in two worlds – magical City of Eyes, human City of Ghosts. I was absorbed in supernatural world with witches, brutal magic and where everything is alive and dignifiable. But sometimes there were too many details in the scenery that I’ve lost a track of the plot for a minute.
Adan‘s writing reminded me the writing in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (which I love). Rich metaphors, lyrical narrative. Some of it was imaginable, some of it not, but it was the most compelling anyway.

„Eli felt her heart move strangely, like a fish newly released into the ocean.“

Overall, reading the genre you don‘t usually read can enrich your horizons. Queer YA fantasy isn't a genre I usually read, so this may be the review of a newbie to it. Despite the fact that I liked the world of magic and descriptive writing, I won‘t be continuing with the series. 2,5*

2.5 stars

this was a very promising concept, but unfortunately I felt it was very lacking. while I loved the characters and their dynamics, I had a hard time connecting with the rest of the story. the worldbuilding had so much potential to be interesting, but it did not capture my attention enough. I would have liked a more thorough explanation of the city of eyes and the like. honestly, I just felt very confused half the time. I was intrigued at some parts, then other times i was just scratching my head. I really did like the dynamics of the characters enough that I will try and read the sequel of this though.

Unfortunately, the writing style for this book was not for me. I didn't find myself connecting with the characters very much either. I think the premise of the book sounds really great and I am sure someone else will find something special within this book.

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass
Adan Jerreat-Poole
3.5/5 Stars

I got an ARC of this book for an honest review so here it is! This book had an amazing beginning, I was instantly hooked by the characters, what our protagonist Eli had just done, and who she was. I was very pleased with the beginning of what could be a great story.

Before I address the issues I have with this book, I would like to say that I love the cover and how it can stand out in a crowd of other books. I love the colour palette used and I would definitely commit cover-buy for this book!

Secondly, I love how he brings what normally would be considered as ugly and disgusting into art and beauty. The descriptions of slugs, burnt maple, glass, dried bark- etc, it makes us see the beauty in things that we don't normally consider as beautiful, and that really is amazing. Another thing I love in this book was how it discussed (although only briefly) queer discrimination. I am a sucker for books that address issues that pop up in our society because this way, people will come to read it and become more aware of it.

Thirdly, I love the world-building in this book so much! It made me fall in love with earth all over again as Tav showed Eli around. I love the City of Eyes and how mysterious time works in that world. I love the Children's Lair and how it was a place of sanctuary (sort of) for witches. I also love the Labyrinth and how Eli and Kite came across it. Everything about the Witches world was amazing, The world is dark, luscious and makes me want to drown in it.

Now, this story has so much potential but I feel like it wasn't fleshed out enough to be a page-turning phenomenon. Some parts of the book just made me feel like it was filler and dragged on so much, and maybe that was why it took me so long to read it. The world-building was amazing and the relationships between characters were also so realistic but just the way the plot carried itself was not ideal. Don't get me wrong, I loved it and loved my time in Eli's world but in the end, it didn't make me crave the next book or feel like I needed to know what happened next.

The ancient folklore of golems gets twisted in The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass by Adan Jerreat-Poole.

Meet Eli, a teenage girl made from inanimate objects with a specific intent. She is formed by a witch and expected to carry out tasks, namely assassination, in the name of the witch. When things go wrong with one assignment, Eli's world is upended.

The adventurous tale of a young person coming into understanding themselves and the world around them is well-honed in The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass. Our protagonist uncovers something secret about herself and the witch she calls Mother. She then spirals down the rabbit hole to free herself from the confines of what defines her, gathering a ragtag group to help along the way.

The addition Jerreat-Poole makes to this coming of age tale brings the non-binary community to the forefront, offering a well-integrated but not forceful look into the LGBTQ+ community. While the cast of characters is variant, and the writing poetic, the book needs some refinement. Perhaps it is the poetry of the writing that gets in the way. The base needs of descriptions are ample, but the characters lack self-identification.

The absence of personalities made it difficult to latch on to the story. Eli comes across as the only character given flesh, making this more about her instead of about the plot. Not that the plot isn't a brilliant and unique idea. What could have been a fast-paced ride into a strange world of spirits and witches, ends up a slow, dull drag into a story falling short on purpose.

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass lacks a sense of urgency. Even as the final chapters unfurl, there is no building dread or thrill. Jerreat-Poole has brilliant prose and a non-binary character that is not stiff or difficult to comprehend, yet The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass falls short on addictive reading. In the end, the story feels bland, where it should be exhilarating.

I wanted to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with this advanced readers copy of The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass.

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass is a new Young Adult fantasy book. This book follows the story of Eli, who is a teenager girl. She isn't an ordinary teenage girl, though. She hunts down ghosts in the human world. When her mission grows wrong, she begins to question things about herself. I really liked the idea of this plot and the given synopsis. However while reading, I felt that the world-building was missing something for me. Same with the characters for me, while I did enjoy some of the character development of Eli throughout the book, I just was missing that connection/like for the characters in the book. I really liked the descriptions in this book and I absolutely think this world has great potential.
This is not to say that others will not enjoy this book, but for me it was missing some elements to pull the story together.
I am sure others will enjoy the characters and story and I could definitely see more of this world in the future!

Note: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass, written by Adan Jerreat-Poole, is a YA fantasy book with a few hints of LGBTQ.

The novel follows Eli, a teenage girl who is created by witches with the purpose to hunt ghosts. She has been made and accepts her nature obediently. To the Coven, the Witches, she is the best “tool” they have ever had. But then her mission goes wrong and she starts questioning herself and her superiors. Is she becoming more human?
In the human world, the City of Ghosts, Eli meets Cam and Tav who introduce her to the humans and run-away Witches. While Eli agrees to work with them so that she can find the answers she needs, she does not know that their plan will eventually lead to the making of a different world.
Eli’s character develops through the book from being the obediently ‘tool’ for the Witches, to the girl who falls in love and becomes more human every day. The author incorporated several LGBTQ characters, which was interesting.

The story seems unique and interesting at first, however I found that it lacked some proper world-building aspects. There were few details, the writing style and language were not the best, and the book seemed rushed and not well thought. In my opinion, the book has an interesting premise and it could work if the author put a bit more thought into it.

Although I think that The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass is entertaining and can be a good book for some, I did not enjoy it. At the end of the book, I had to force myself to finish it.
Personally, I would not recommend the book.

Thank you to the publisher, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel before its release.