Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc!
In The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass we follow Eli, who is a creation of witches: she's a young girl, not entirely human, made for the sole purpose of guarding the secret of the witch-world and hunting ghosts in the mortal realm.
Really appreciated the queer and non-binary rep here! However, it was hard for me to get the hang of where things were going.

his story was so imaginative, so creative, I am struggling to find the words to give it justice.
Our teenage main character Eli, is not your average teen looking for her place in the world. She has been made, of what she isn’t completely sure. Over her lifetime as an assassin for the witch mother whom made her, she catalogs the items she comes to realize are part of her. Stone, blood, glass, etc. The items that sum up her form are what allow her to travel between the City of Eyes, Earth, Wastelands, and other magical places. She is part of all of them. She is from everywhere and thus she belongs nowhere.

Eli’s past mirrors the struggles of her new friends.
Eli has been taught that her human “part” is the weakest of her. Once she fails in a mission for her first time, she stumbles into an uneasy alliance with humans. Humans are easily killed by comparison, but they’re stronger than they seem. Like Eli, Cam and Tav have their own trouble finding where they fit in the word. Cam is a gay man, and Tav is a queer boi. In reading The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass, I learned that these terms are not one and the same.

One of Tav’s struggles in the story is that much of society can’t accept them. Tav has purple spiked hair, and a strong desire to right what is wrong with the world. Tav is the only character referred to as they/their. It took me a few sentences to keep up with this difference in storytelling, but otherwise it wasn’t a distraction. It was rather eye-opening to be honest. This element left me further impressed with Adan Jerreat-Poole for their writing talent.

A formidable trio traveling between worlds.
There are so many detailed worlds to keep up with. Earth we are familiar with, but on Earth there are still a few ghosts, and witches in hiding. In the children’s lair their are child witches who appear sweet and doll-like but are definitely dangerous. The Wastelands are filled with long forgotten tools and items, and a deadly red win that can kill you. Time has no meaning. Nothing and no one can be trusted. If you’re given a gift, you must take it. If you’re helped by anyone, you must give them a token of thanks. Trees have feelings. Dreams are dangerous and can hurt everyone around you… There’s so much creativity in this book. Even the books in this story are dangerous!

Overall, I was fascinated with the sheer details and feelings from Adan Jerreat-Poole in The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass. They’ve explained that this story was written at a time of deep emotion for them in their personal journey and it truly gives this book so much life. The friendships are complicated, the relationships and love are complicated. Nothing is as simple as it seems, and isn’t that just so human?

Fantasy, magic, witches, and humans of stone – readers will love The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass.

More like 2.5 stars! The overall story concept was interesting but the writing tripped me up at times. I also found myself a bit bored at times too which kinda sucked. Pretty cover, boring book.

DNF

I think this book was very well developed however it simply wasn’t for me. I found it slightly confusing and dense but this is completely on me and not a critique of the book itself.

This book for me was very hard to read. I ha a hard time connecting with the characters and story. The story premise, all though intriguingly, failed in it's presentation. Sadly, I was unable to finish this one.

it's a nice book, I liked the characters and the plot, but i feel like the world could have been more developed and described, sometimes it was difficult to grasp how everything worked. maybe it needs a bit more work on that.

I want to say I loved this book but honestly it just wasn’t for me , I couldn’t connect with the story or the characters throughout this book, I’ve seen many great reviews and was really looking for to reading it when I got accepted for this book but I was disappointed in meself as I just couldn’t finish it or enjoy it.

I Dnf at 60%

I was drawn to this novel because of it's cover but that is the only thing about this book that I found interesting. Nothing about this book proved worthy of my time and towards the end I found myself skimming through it. There were too many aspects of this story that didn’t make sense, and the story was all over the place.

I really wanted to like this book. Reading the excerpt, it sounded interesting and fun and the cover is absolutely beautiful. I just couldn’t get into the book though. The writing did not flow well at all for me and there was so much information missing. The world building is almost non existent and nothing was explained well at all. I had so many questions I thought would be answered by the end of the book that never did get addressed. The prose was painful at times trying to slog through. The one thing I did like was the characters, but that just isn’t nearly enough to carry a book through with. Overall, I give this 1.5/5 stars

I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

To me this book was sort of a weird, acid trip, drug-induced dream.

The writing is weirdly poetic. They all speak in short sentences, and moods shift so quickly it’s hard to keep track. The visuals change with every paragraph. They writhe and morph, turning dark so often and with not much sense at all. Several times, she “tastes bile in her mouth” and then spits black goo? At one point her mother gets impatient so she says “let’s go already,” and spits on her face. In another part she morphs into an alligator-like monster?

The characters were okay, at least Cam was. The story just kind of moved along, but so much weird was mixed in it was hard to stay on track with what was happening.

With my opinion said, I feel like there could be a lot of angsty teenagers who would probably really like this book. It was obviously not my cup of tea but it also reminded me of a couple of books I’ve tried to read in the past that some people raved to me about. You would definitely have to have a poetic profound type of taste. It’s not bad, per se. It’s pretty hard to write a book that’s “bad.” It just caters to a specific taste. There were some parts that I enjoyed, but overall I just felt like it was a bit weird.

When I saw the cover of this book I immediately loved it, I couldn’t wait to start it because the summary sounded magical and the cover just aided it. But.. getting past three chapters was SO hard.

I’m usually such a high rater when it comes to new authors especially with their debut novels but I just couldn’t get through the first couple chapters let alone the rest of the book. I adore any storyline with witches at its center but I spent the majority of this book so unbelievably confused as to where the characters were even going.

If I was rating on the cover only it would get a solid 4/5 but the cover is just the outside and the inside has to support such a good cover but for me this book just wasn’t it.

A huge thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for prividing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

What I Loved:
This was a wonderful debut set in a richly imagined fantasy world.
It features both POC and gender neutral characters, and has an extremely diverse cast of characters.
The magic system is complex and has a unique dystopian element.
It is an action-packed coming of age story.

What didn't quite hit the mark for me:
The world-building, although unique, seemed too cumbersome for the plot at times.
The plot became a vehicle for the author's platform, instead of a natural evolution. While advocating is necessary, the plot became unwieldy because the author tried to address too many injustices for the length of the book.

This books shows great promise, and I will definitely read more from this author.

I'm sorry. I wanted to like this book but while this book has a great cover and a lot of LGBTQ+ representation, sadly, it failed to deliver a good fantasy plot (in my opinion). The world-building was lacking if non-existent. The idea of having a world of witches above our own with a vortex to go from one to the other was interesting but it wasn't enough for me. I needed to know more and things happened but it felt weird and not a lot were explained.

About the characters : Eli is a girl being created by witch magic to perform assassinations. When she ends up killing a human instead of what she thought was a ghost, we're left wondering why she would be sent to kill him. Tav is non-binary and I liked them. Cam as well but I didn't care for them enough to enjoy reading this book.

Overall, while I appreciate the efforts put into writing this story, not a lot made sense to me and unfortunately around 30-40% I was ready for it to end. I wanted to like it but it was all over the place.

I really wanted to like this book. I tried to push myself to read through it but I just couldn't.
This fantasy book was not what I was expecting, and it surely wasn't for me.. It might be for someone else though..

This sounded right up my street, I love a bit of YA fantasy. Unfortunately it didn’t keep me wanting more, it was a book I could easily put down & not as easily pick back up again. It seemed to start in the middle & it took a while to really work out what & who everyone was.

** I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

I wanted to like this book. The synopsis sounded like something I would love, the cover is beautiful, the characters seemed interesting... but I couldn't get into it. I put it down a couple times and would pick it up again to try, but I have to mark it as DNF at just over half way through. I just wasn't able to feel any compulsion to keep reading. I would have loved some more world building. This was a fantastic idea for a story, I think it just needs some work to make it an engaging and enjoyable read.

Thank you Dundurn and NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. My review is my own and not influenced by others.

When I saw this book on NetGalley it got my attention because of the cover which I like very much. The description hold my attention so I was glad I got the opportunity to read this book and write a review. Eli is an assassinate who follows the rules, but when an assignment goes wrong, she starts question the things she learned.

When I started reading this story I had the feeling I started in the middle of the story and had no idea who all the characters were. The more I got into the story, the more I got to know the characters and started to like them and the interaction between them.
The worldbuilding I didn’t like, I just couldn’t get a clear picture of the world and the setting, which made it very hard for me to get into this story.

This book ticked a lot of books for me on paper, YA, Witches, dystopian. So I was hoping that I was on to a winner.

The central character, Eli, is the girl of hawthorn and glass, having been built by witches to be an assassin. The book starts well and really captured my imagination, as Eli seemed to be a Buffy like figure, hunting and killing ghosts on the orders of Coven. Why she has to kill the ghosts is unclear, and Eli is very aware that as a creature of magical creation, she can very easily be undone by the same magic.

Eli is then sent on a mission which goes wrong and from here, the book also started to lose pace for me. There is a vagueness throughout the whole book, the purpose of the characters quest wasn't quite clear to me and it felt difficult to cheer them on. Some of the points I felt were missing were wrapped up by the end of the book, but the world building wasn't compelling enough for me.

With the first few chapters of the book I felt as though I had stepped into a movie midway through. Who are the Coven? Why do they need an assassin? What are they hiding? I yearned to know the story of Eli’s making and to save her from the COven’s manipulations. The author did not disappoint, The changing timelines allowed Eli’s story to unfold as she struggled with her own inner demons and turmoil. The authors use of genderless names and fluid sexuality gives the reader the freedom to imagine the details for themselves. I found the character of Eli and her personal narrative to be the heart of the story. Her inner dialogue and drive to understand her place in the world mirrors the anxiety felt by many. The characters of Tav and Cam are perfect in their role of friend, the author giving them enough detail and depth of storyline to Make the reader care about their fate. The ending suggests an opportunity to learn how Eli, Tav and Cam will fare on Earth in the future (I hope this is true!). I would recommend to those readers that enjoy Deborah Harkness or Kelley Armstrong.

I enjoyed this new world and am eagerly awaiting the second book to find out what happens next! The book has several LGBTQ characters who know who they are and are accepted for that. Some discrimination and violence associated with that is mentioned but it happened before the events of the book. I like that they attribute the nastiness in the world to magic gone wrong. Much better than the current reasons everything seems messed up.