ARC acquired by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book by Ed McDonald and I’m sad that it let me down a bit. The premise seemed interesting and the book held my attention pretty well for the first 80 or so pages. The author made some choices regarding the main characters emotions and I felt like that didn’t come across the way he intended it too. I felt just as disconnected from the world as Raine did. She was very one-dimensional, and I couldn’t bring myself to care about her or what she was going through. The magic system was the best part about this book, but unfortunately it just wasn’t explored enough for me to like the book. There was way too much traveling with nothing happening for me, and I usually like travel stories. Something would happen to pique my interest and then nothing for pages and pages making the pacing seem super slow. There was also a romance subplot introduced between Raine and two other characters but neither one of them seemed to go anywhere and could have been removed without affecting the story. Even though this was first Ed McDonald book, I have heard such good things about his other work, I will continue to read from this author.

Advanced review copy provided by the publisher.

I just...wasn't satisfied by this book. And I think it's because of how McDonald handled its main character, Raine. Now, Raine is set up with a lot of backstory, trauma, and details that could make her an interesting character. But then a lot of that is flubbed. For example, early in the book, we realize that Raine, who is only 17, has been in a "relationship" with an older man for at least a year. I expected that a good part of Raine's story would then be about her coming to terms with being victimized and abused. But not really? The man, Braithe, is punished as part of a different issue, but Raine receives no justice, and very little catharsis. Raine's experience is addressed so little that this whole part of her backstory could be cut out and there would be no effect on the story.

Raine seems to realize, nearer the end of the book, that she is attracted to other women, but that just doesn't go anywhere, either. And I don't expect a first book in a series to have a sweeping romance and it's MC pronouncing true love, but again, I think this part of the book could be cut out with no impact on the story.

In the end, it feels kind of like this began as a boilerplate fantasy novel, which then had some queer rep and women's trauma thrown in, as a little spice.

This was an odd sort of a book, in that the pacing gave me trouble. The first tenth or so is pure description, and I kept waiting for something to happen; the middle drags and then speeds up, then drags and speeds up. The ending was quite good, and worth reading the rest of the book for - but I did have trouble getting to that point.

Raine is an unusual sort of a hero, a runaway who sees the dead in a culture that kills anyone with that power - so those with the power keep it to themselves. She is found by Uvolar, a Draoihn, a power-wielder who can open four gates, an unusual ability when most struggle with one. Opening a gate provides the wielder different abilities, with the first gate being the easiest. Raine helps Uvolar contain a demon of sorts, and in gratitude, he takes her home to become an apprentice - but the leader of the Draoihn won't allow it, so he makes her a lead servitor instead. From there, things get complicated, as Raine is a key player in several plots, none of which she wants to be embroiled in. Trying to keep track of all of those plots is part of why the plot drags and then speeds, but they do all come together in the end.

TL;DR

Ed McDonald’s Daughter of Redwinter blew me away. This slim fantasy novel is packed with action, magic, and mystery while giving readers characters to root for, to care for, and to hope for. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

Right now, we are living in a golden age of fantasy and science fiction literature. There are so many good books out and coming out that it’s difficult to keep up with authors and series that I want to follow up on, let alone find new authors. I’m lucky, though, because as a reviewer, I keep coming across new-to-me authors in the request queues. If I see an author that I had meant to read but didn’t, I usually try to request something from that author. This happened with Ed McDonald’s Daughter of Redwinter. Ed McDonald’s Blackwing floated on my want to read list, but I didn’t have room in the to be read pile. So, when Daughter of Redwinter was sent to me, I was ready to discover another great new author. First, I was hooked from that beautiful cover art alone. After finishing chapter one, I couldn’t put the book down. And any fantasy fan that opens this book also won’t be able to put it down as this golden age of SFF literature continues to produce great works.

While under siege by a noble, Raine performs an act of kindness that dooms her found family. Raine rescues an injured woman who is being hunted by the Draoihn, warrior-wizards. The Draoihn are famously above the law and won’t hesitate to kill Raine to capture the injured woman. The injured lady seeks the monastery that Raine and her assorted band of hippy/cultists are holed up. When Raine gets her inside, the injured woman turns on her hosts. The Draoihn destroy the gates of the monastery seeking their quarry. This allows the local noble to enter the monastery and begin slaughtering. Raine runs after the injured woman but the Draoihn find her first. Raine and the two Draoihn survive, barely. As thanks for her help, the Draoihn save Raine from the local noble. She journeys back with the warriors to their order’s stronghold. The whole time, Raine knows that she’s walking amongst people who will stone her death if they find out she can see and talk to the dead. Quickly, Raine begins to wonder if joining the order will protect her in such a dark world. Can she join the order and keep her secret?

Daughter of Redwinter is a first person point of view novel from Ed McDonald. Raine narrates all of the chapters, and while she may not be likable, I came to care for her. We want her to survive the trauma she’s endured, but more than that, we want her to do more than survive. We want her to find a place where she’s accepted. But, in her world, she may never be accepted because she can speak to the dead. Ulovar and Ovitus are the two Draoihn that chase her at the monastery. Through her actions, Ulovar, a high ranking noble, takes her under his stewardship. Ovitus, an apprentice Draoihn and Ulovar’s heir, offers Raine an awkward kind of friendship. They figure prominently in Raine’s life, and they need her as much as she needs them.

McDonald packed this book with the right balance of action, mystery, wonder, and character. I went into it knowing nothing about the author, nor had I read the blurb. I chose this book for its cover. Within a few pages, I was blown away, and with each turn of the page, the quality kept rising. By fantasy standards, this is a slim volume. My ARC was 333 pages. But Daughter of Redwinter punches out of its weight class, so to speak. There are magical battles, budding romances, esoteric studies, magical mysteries, scheming nobles, and inter-order politics. Basically, this book has everything I love in fiction.
Content Warnings

This is a grimdark book; so, of course it touches on some sensitive subjects. There is partner abuse, mental manipulation through magic (say that five times fast), and a stalker. McDonald handles these sensitive issues deftly. He does not use them excessively, nor are they thrown in for sake of shock value. They all end up being essential to the story. Please, just be aware that they are in the story.

Ovitus, one of the central characters, seems like a lovable guy except he can’t take “she’s not interested” at face value. This was awkward to read, but never at any point was his actions glorified or even condoned. It was very clear, very quickly that Ovitus is a creeper. This is sad for me because I liked Ovitus’s other aspects. It’s easy to forget that he’s a teen boy, and we all have misinterpreted signals before. However, he crosses a line when he ignores what the women are saying. Fortunately, he does not escalate his obsession into anything physical. He just remains awkward and creepy throughout.

Magic

Magical systems in fantasy range from the inexplicable to the highly systematized. McDonald’s magic system is somewhere in between. He’s clearly put a lot of thought into the system, and it hit the right spot for me. In his world, there are mental ‘gates’ that the magic users can access through trances. There are six gates in total with an additional, theoretical gate. Draoihn rise in rank based on the number of gates they can access. The first gate is, of course, the easiest. From there, they get much, much harder. The highest ranking Draoihn and leader of the order can access the fifth gate. Ulovar, Raine’s protector, can access the fourth gate. The sixth gate is that of death, and it’s forbidden to access that gate. Anyone Draoihn caught attempting will have all their bones broken, their eyes plucked from their head, and then thrown into the harbor to drown.

McDonald describes the magic well and gives us hints that there’s more depths to be explored. Larger aspects of the magical mysteries in this book are not explored as fully as I would have liked. I’m hoping future volumes will delve deeper into the mysteries of this world. Because what I’ve seen so far is fascinating.

There is one magical event that happens, is remarked upon, affects everyone’s life, but is not solved. This story thread just hangs out there as the rest of the plot rises in importance. I’m hoping that in the next book we learn more about what this event was, what it means, and/or what caused it.

The Central Mystery

I was enjoying this book, I actually forgot what it was trying to accomplish. Raine and the other characters had me glued to the page, and I kept hoping to learn whether Raine would stay and find her place in Redwinter or go and build a life for herself that I forgot there was an open mystery from the beginning of the book. We learn why the Draoihn were hunting the injured woman almost immediately, but it’s not till the end of the book that we learn why she did what she did.

Frankly, I loved this method of storytelling. The mystery simmered in the background while McDonald sauteed the other aspects of the story. (And I butchered that metaphor.)

Once the mystery came back into the foreground of the plot, I fell for each red herring that McDonald put in front of me. Each time I thought I had it figured out, I was wrong. And the solution was in front of me the whole time. Once the mystery is solved, it felt surprising, inevitable, and perfect.

Grimdark

Normally, I avoid the grimdark genre. If I wanted to see a dystopian world without hope, I’d look outside. Often, the grimdark stories I’ve started have been too dark. Some, I’d like to go back and read when I’m in a better mental space. But some books strike the right balance of grimdark and total hopelessness for my current mental state.

I’d classify Daughter of Redwinter as being in this latter category. I’d say it’s on the lighter end of grimdark. Hope is rare among its pages, and the main character lives under constant threat of death. But life is not a constant slog of depression, disease, and misery. There are moments of joy that feel like bursts of sun in Raine’s life. They make you believe that she’s capable of experiencing more in her life than just the constant terror of being found out.

Daughter of Redwinter gave me everything that I like about the grimdark genre without stressing me out. It’s a remarkable feat of balance that I’m still trying to figure out how McDonald pulled it off. My current theory is that he balanced the grimness of everyday life with the wonder and mysticism. However, he did it. It’s well done, and I’m now a fan of Ed McDonald.

Conclusion

Ed McDonald’s Daughter of Redwinter had me glued to the page from the start. More than one morning I woke face down with my check on the pages. McDonald found the correct balance of action, magic, mystery, and character to open a new series. Daughter of Redwinter may be a slim volume, but it’s packed full of the type of fantasy I want to read. Highly recomended.

Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald is available from Tor Books on June 28th, 2022.

After a rough start (the first 10-15% didn't really suck me in) I was surprised how much I loved this! The only problem I have now is the fact that I'll have to wait at least a year for volume 2...

Contrary to McDonald's previous trilogy, I'd say this one is not grimdark. The world can be very bleak and grim at times, with not much hope in it, but the characters do have some goodness in them and the innate need to strive for "better". I really liked our heroine Raine and her personal arc drew me in early on in the story. The relationships that she forms with some other characters were well executed in my opinion and I can't wait how they develop in volume 2.

This is a story that blends a well known medieval-esque world with quite interesting magic systems. One of them is based on seeing ghosts after a near-death experience in one's life and the other one is based on various trances that some people can enter - each trance corresponds to a different "Gate" in their minds and leads to different abilities. I'm very curious to see if these two systems intertwine in the future books.

All in all, I really enjoyed this first entry in a series (trilogy?). I'll definitely continue on!

I was really excited about this book. So much so that when one of the marketing reps reached out via email I asked for a physical copy of the ARC. While I didn't hate this, I was a bit let down overall. The plot was a bit slow for my taste, and I kept putting this down and picking it back up days later because I just wasn't aching to read it. I also wish there had been a bit more time and development spent on the main character. While I thought the world was interesting, it seemed like it was at the expense of character depth and development. It's a really unique story, and though the middle was slower-paced for me, the beginning and the end were pretty fast paced. I would love to give this author another read sometime as I thought the bones for the story were there, the whole thing coming together just missed the mark for me this time. I would still recommend this, though. While it may not have been for me, I did think it was a unique premise and world that many people will enjoy.

Raine can both see and speak to the dead—a trait many would kill her for since gravesight is associated with the reviled Faded.

However, when she uncovers a deadly stolen artifact, she’s brought into the fortress-monastery of Draoihn for questioning and unwittingly pulled into an ancient conflict. There she must unravel the mystery behind how the relic was stolen while trying to hide her own powers.

Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald presents a Scottish-inspired dark fantasy that brims with vivid worldbuilding. Quite literally. The magic users in this book worship all the colors of the rainbow that are emitted from the Light Above while fearing the faded grey world of the Night Below.

However, I think I primarily took issue with the middle of the book. There's a lull in action because Raine is in comfy new place and there isn't as much of a sense of danger and tension. The main plot takes a backseat and is replaced with petty relationship drama about who has a crush on who.

It may be a personal preference, but I wish the story had instead focused more on something like the politics between the clans or the fact that, hey, bodies are mysteriously being dug up.

Overall, Daughter of Redwinter creates an intriguing world that is almost reminiscent of my beloved Abhorsen Trilogy. I'm a sucker for anything with necromancy, so I just hope this series has more emphasis on the dark magic and the dire background conflict as it progresses.

I want to thank NetGalley for the E-ARC and the opportunity to read this early. Unfortunately, this will be a DNF at 50% for me.

I was so excited to read this book The premise sounded amazing. A girl who can see and speak to the dead. Yes, please. Further, several of my friends talk about the author’s Blackwing Trilogy, and how amazing it is, so I was excited to try this new series. However, I never found my footing with this one. I’ve been reading it for over 16 days, which is a lifetime for me, and I’m still only at 50%. I may try the audio once it’s released, but it won’t be a priority.

I found Raine to be an unlikeable character, which I tend to gravitate towards because it makes them interesting. Here, however, she bored me to death. I never cared what happened to her or what might happen to her.

There are some interesting side characters, but not interesting enough for me to continue reading.

I found the pacing to be clunky, and the beginning of the book to be overwhelmingly slow. Things would happen to pique my interest, then nothing for pages and pages.

I think the hardest part for me was the dialogue. It was all over the place in terms of style. The author took his time to create this magical fantasy world and interesting magic system, only to have a girl telling Raine about a boy and what a ‘snack’ he was. It totally took me out of the story.

Despite all of this, I did find the magic system to be complex and interesting, and I will most certainly read Blackwing soon.

I prefer not to rate my DNFs but I'd give this 2 stars for what I've read so far. I do recommend you try this for yourself, as I see it is getting rave reviews. Might be a case of its me, not the book.

Copied from Goodreads:

First of all, I am a huge fan of Ed McDonald's first series, The Raven's Mark, so this book was one of my most highly anticipated releases of the year.
But, I feel like a completely different author wrote this? It's my understanding that he actually wrote this before Raven's Mark, even though it's only being published now, and that's the only thing that might possibly make this make sense to me.
I so desperately wanted to find something to like about this because 1) I prefer to enjoy what I'm reading and 2) it pains me to rate a book by an author I love so low. But, I found nothing.
This book suffers from terrible pacing, a passive and unlikeable main character, tons of over-written passages, a world that feels shallow, events that feel hollow, and supporting characters who behave like plot devices. If there is a positive I can claim to have identified, it is that at its very core, there is the nugget of a solid story idea. But, that nugget is buried beneath an avalanche of amateurish writing.
Back to rereading Raven's Mark until he starts writing a new series I guess....

I unfortunately had to DNF this book. The plot wasn't moving anywhere and the main character felt really flat. I'm really disappointed because the premise sounded very interesting. I got about 30% of the way in.

Daughter of Redwinter is a unique, fast-paced fantasy novel with a fantastic premise, however it just missed the mark a little bit for me. There’s nothing actually wrong with the book, I just couldn’t not get into the writing style which disrupted my focus on the storyline. I enjoyed the first and last 10% which is why I upped my rating to 3 stars. I still recommend this story to fantasy readers and I will probably give it another chance in the future, but this time around it was a bit of a miss for me.

3.75

To be completely honest, this might not have been a book I picked up on my own if I hadn't been offered a review copy and as a result I went in with zero expectations but I was quite impressed.

Through the first few chapters, I didn't think this book would be a new all time favorite, but there was an almost cozy quality to it that made for an enjoyable experience. Then there was a scene that made me pause and run a quick Google search because I had zero idea that this book was going to be queer! Raine is bisexual and that scene is when I realized how invested I had gotten into this book.

I loved Raine and found her a really complex yet relatable character. I especially loved using her as an exploration of trauma and PTSD. But what really worked for me in this book was the world that Ed McDonald created. He doesn't bog down on details but his writing makes the world feel lived in and real. The magic system is simple enough on the surface but as the book progresses it is clear that magic exists beyond the rules they have been taught and I will be interested to see how that's expanded as the series continues.

I would recommend this to those fantasy readers who like a slower paced book with lots of political intrigue, as well as those who like a coming of age story with flawed protagonist as Raine is the sole POV and she is 17 and recovering from several traumatic experiences. That being said teenage protagonists and coming of age tales are not usually my buzzwords and this still really worked for me.

I have not read McDonald's Raven's Mark trilogy so I cannot compare the two, but reading this made that trilogy a much higher priority!

Many thanks to Tor Books and Netgalley for the ARC copy to review.

Holy Cow!! While reading is one of my favorite pastimes, it has been a good while since I've flown through a book as quickly as I did this one. When I was contacted for this review, I was a bit hesitant because I hadn't read any of Ed McDonald's works before, but now I can say that I am honestly a fan. As a lover of fantasy, adventure, and stories where magic has a heavy presence, this book really of the marks for me. It's also based on Scottish folklore, something I'm not incredibly versed in, but McDonald made it quite easy for me to jump right in and enjoy the story.

The story begins with our protagonist, Raine, who comes upon an injured woman who is struggling through the snow but is on a mission. Despite her reservations, Raine decides to help her and that's when the story begins to really take flight. As I said, there is magic, and it's built upon some pretty interesting concepts that are later explained in the book, but one of the most important things is that Raine can see the dead, which is a bit of a taboo where she lives. This ability takes her away from the band she is traveling with, and she ends up heading to Redwinter, the main keep of the Draoihn, the magic users of the world, where she begins a new life among them.

The novel is incredibly fast-paced, which is great if you're looking for a bit of escapism. There were several times when I felt as if I were in Redwinter, experiencing the action right there. Raine was an interesting character, and I loved her story, but it often felt that Raine sometimes lost her place as the main character. The entire story is told from Raine's POV, but sometimes the focus shifts to other characters, leaving Raine to be a bit ancillary, but still there. However, that isn't to say that the other characters aren't delightful. Ulovar, uncle of Ovitus and Sanuvant, is a "master of the fourth gate", which means that he is incredibly skilled with magic, but instead of appearing as a whispy, brooding sorcerer, he feels like an extremely supportive uncle who is dedicated to the Draoihn under his charge and ensuring not just the safety of Redwinter, but also those under his charge.

However, a couple of things that were a bit meh/grr for me: Ovitus and domestic violence. Starting with the domestic violence occurs early in the book when Raine has an incident and she begins blaming herself for the event. I understand that it plays into how she grows and develops as a character but was still a bit grr about it. And Ovitus? Well, he's a bit flat for me. I really hope his character is developed a bit more from this initial story. He's a "nice guy" and well, I'll let you all read to see how that works out for him.

Also, let me take a moment to give a nod to the female and bisexual representation. Raine begins the story in a het relationship, but later, as she's allowed to develop her own emotions and feelings, she develops a friendship with a female character and this is intertwined in the story. Of course, she also has a budding attraction to a male character, which I'm sure will crop up more in the next story but seeing bisexual relationships and crushes where bi characters aren't just the "evil bi" are major pluses for me. Raine's feelings for the characters are nuanced and complicated, which is how most feelings for romantic partners are.

All in all, I would definitely give Daughter of Redwinter a 4.5 out of 5 for its magic systems, a strong bisexual character, and fast-paced story.

TOR, when Ed McDonald releases the next draft, please, please, PLEASE let me read it!!! :D

My thanks to Macmillan Tor/Forge, Ed McDonald and Netgalley.
This is another case of being happy to read a book that I never would have picked up on my own!
I didn't like this book at all! Until I kept reading it.
It's true that some stories aren't that great to begin with, and this was NO exception!
For the setting, I was a bit surprised to find modern language. That's a bit jarring, and I will never like it!
However, maybe I became numb, "doubt it!" BUT, eventually this whole dang tale came together .
I was awfully sad to see the end of this book, and also disappointed to see that book 2 had yet to be announced.
Crikey! Yeah, I need more!

4.5 stars. Proof that the end of a book can change your opinion. The middle section of this book dragged slightly, though I understand the purpose behind it, but I read the last 30% in a single sitting. It's that good. McDonald really knows how to write tense scenes filled with action and horror.

Full review here: https://youtu.be/Xk4RzosXewo

With Daughter of Redwinter , Ed McDonald brings readers an epic fantasy that has excitement, danger, and suspense. In this first book in the Redwinter Chronicles series, he introduces Raine, the main character, and does a fantastic job of building a world that is unique.

Raine can see all of and speak to some of the dead. However, this dangerous ability comes with a death sentence if others learn of it. She left her mother’s home, joined a cult, and through one act of kindness, has changed the course of her life and many others. The injured woman she rescues left Redwinter, the fortress-monastery of the Draoihn, warrior magicians intent on retrieving what she stole from them.

Raine’s mother did not like her and did not treat her well. When a group including three sooth-sisters gives her an opportunity to join them, she does. Then things go wrong and Raine learns that even an act of kindness can have consequences. She thinks she wants power so she won’t have to be afraid and so she can have true freedom. However, is this what she really wants?

Raine is a main character that readers will want to succeed in life. She tries to do the right thing, but isn’t always successful and she seems to be full of self-pity at times. However, she’s a dynamic character who changes and grows as the story unfolds. Both her attitude and outlook on life evolve throughout the book as actions take place. The other characters are less dynamic than Raine, but nevertheless vibrant, providing support or conflict to keep things interesting. A list of the many characters and a description of pieces of this mystic world are at the back of the book. I thought this would have been more helpful at the beginning so readers know they are there.

There’s a lot of time spent introducing the characters and some of their back-stories as well as world-building, but that’s not unusual in the first book in a series of this magnitude. However, there is a lot of introspection by the main character that slows the pace as times. There are action scenes, especially at the beginning and the ending, but the middle section could have been more potent. As readers become acquainted with the characters, both good and bad, it becomes clear that there is much more going on than the theft of an artifact. The author weaves themes of grief, empathy or its lack, domestic abuse, community, murder, magic, death, ghosts, fear, duty, honor, secrets, greed, friendship, and politics into this great start to the series.

Overall, this fantasy is gripping and thought-provoking. The high stakes and smooth writing made it a page turner. While it’s the first novel I have read by this author, I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. If you enjoy epic fantasies with great world-building, an unusual magic system, and a diverse set of characters, then you may enjoy this novel as much as I did.

Macmillan-Tor/Forge – Tor Books and the author provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for June 28, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

Daughter of Redwinter is the story of Raine, who is a seventeen year old girl with the power to see the dead. That power is definitely not something that is generally accepted by the world, and so Raine keeps it very secret.

Raine ran away from home when she was very young, to hide her gift. She ran right into a cult and stayed there until she was seventeen until she found an injured woman in the snow and saved her. Turns out that this woman was from Redwinter, the fortress of the Draoihn (magic-users, more or less), and they’ve sent people to bring her back. Many shenanigans ensue…

I quite liked Daughter of Redwinter. It was very easy to start reading and then lose track of time. Raine was a character that was easy for me to cheer for, and I cared what happened to her. Liking the main character would have been enough but some of the side characters were fascinating to me as well, and kept me reading.

My favorite part of this book was the magic system though, wherein people have gates that they open to access different types of magic. Most people only have access to one or two gates, but some have access to up to four or five. I thought that this magic system was well thought out and well presented. I’m interested in finding out more about it as the series continues.

So, all told, I really liked Daughter of Redwinter and I will definitely read more of the series.

This would be my first Ed McDonald book to read. I already have the trilogy of Raven's Mark and I starting love McDonald's writing style.

Daughter of Redwinter is rich and great fantasy. It is pure of lore and religion based story. I do love Raine's character. The singular thought within the book made her character strong and engaging.

Looking forward to the sequel!

This was an incredibly hard book to read, especially while I've been going through a hard time in general, because the vast majority of it was very grim. I almost put it down several times, but I'm so glad I didn't, because when that broke, when it switched, it was so rewarding.

Raine is a nobody, a bastard daughter of a woman who didn't love her, a teenage girl who'd died twice already and who sees the dead: something she can't help, but is punishable by death if anyone finds out. Over and over, she has nothing, and then finds she can lose even that. She's almost never in a position to act on her own; she's constantly in a situation she can't leave, or run away from, or is subject to others in.

(She is also a woman, and a queer woman -- bisexual -- and I assure you it's not a coincidence that she's struggling against the weight of dangerous secrets and feeling constantly pushed around by people with power. The themes are tied together well.).

This is a dark fantasy about a magic-ruled fantasy Scotland; it's a story of retainers and servants to great magical lords. It's also a story about being able to reclaim who you are around people who have come to trust and it's a story about confidence and empowerment and it's just incredibly good.

It will be rough for a while! The book starts with domestic abuse with an older man in a sexual relationship with a teenager and moves right on to a massacre. But it's also about people who feel like they're broken finding ways to reforge themselves. It's about people being flawed but loving each other. The payoff was worth it to me and I found the ending extremely satisfying. Beautifully written, very painful, but it uses the pain as a setting to tell her story instead of letting the pain BE her story.

HIGHLIGHTS
~she sees ghosts!
~but That is not a ghost
~unexpectedly queer
~much-appreciated exploration of trauma
~can you hear the beats?

I’m still not sure what made me pick up Daughter of Redwinter; at first glance, this looked like a book that couldn’t possibly be for me. I’ve hated stories about people who see ghosts since before I hit puberty; the author’s previous series has been described as grimdark, so there were even odds that this would be too; and there’s nothing in the blurb that hints at a diverse cast or especially interesting worldbuilding.

But something hooked me. I really can’t say what. Maybe I just trusted Tor/Forge (the publisher, of whom I’m quite fond) not to let me down? I can’t say. But I downloaded the sneak peek, just to try it out, and before I’d finished it I requested an ARC of the full book via Netgalley. Which I pounced on the moment I was approved.

That should give you some idea of how incredibly compelling McDonald’s writing is; of how completely it swept me away. It’s instantly immersive, and from the first page, I simply couldn’t put it down.

Raine ran away from a mother left crippled by her birth to join a harmless religious sect – one who follow ‘the colours’ with dancing and crystals and new-age-esque positivity. But the book opens with the group under siege, because a moment of kindness from Raine has led the local noble to believe the sect harbours those who can see ghosts – and in this world, anyone who can see ghosts is put to death. Thousands of years of history have engrained the idea that seeing the dead inevitably leads a person down a path of evil sorcery; it’s everyone’s duty to make sure ghost-seers are put down.

Raine has no interest at all in doing harm; she’s just trying to find a way to get her friends out of the fort they’re trapped in. But when she rescues a dying woman, she accidentally becomes tangled up in an act of immense dark magic and falls under the aegis of the Draoihn, unstoppable warrior-sorcerers whose mission is to protect the world from just this kind of magic. They sweep Raine away to their headquarters, a compound called Redwinter, where Raine has to build a new life for herself amidst the magic and politics all around.

So far, this doesn’t sound terribly unique – we’ve all seen something like this story-arc before. But there are several aspects of Daughter of Redwinter that stand out.

You can never trust a cobbler. Anyone who spends that much time thinking about feet has something wrong with them.

The first is Raine herself, who I adore without reservation. First-person narration is usually a huge no-no for me, but Raine’s voice is clear and incisive. I really loved how she never let herself get away with anything; she sees herself, and everyone around her, very clearly, almost to the point of mercilessness sometimes.

Part of this is definitely the fact that Raine experiences magically-induced emotional numbing after the opening events of the book. Emotional numbing is a rarely-discussed symptom of trauma, including PTSD and CPTSD, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: sufferers effectively shut-down emotionally, becoming detached and cut-off from most emotion, and often from their body as well. To put it in practical terms, where most trauma survivors struggle to talk about their trauma, someone experiencing emotional numbing is able to talk about it in a very matter-of-fact, blunt way, to the point that inexperienced listeners may think the person isn’t traumatised at all.

Emotional numbing is relatively rare and less well-known, much less common than the more visible, typical trauma symptoms like temper issues or panic attacks or risk-engaging behaviour. After being in and out of psych offices since I was two years old and across multiple countries, it wasn’t until I was 29 that someone finally recognised my own emotional numbing and was able to explain it to me. It’s just not talked about.

So I have no idea if it was McDonald’s intent to mimic a real mental health issue, but that’s what he did, and it’s one major reason Raine, and Daughter of Redwinter in general, means so much to me. It’s part validation, part recognition, part relief to see a character who shares this with me, a character I viscerally get in a way I don’t very emotional characters. It’s not the same as psychopathy (or rather, antisocial personality disorder, aka ASPD), and although Raine’s is magically induced by one of the Draoihn, I can’t help hoping this book might raise awareness a little.

Whether it does or not, the emotional numbing is an excellent plot device, and makes Raine very distinct from other heroines I’ve come across in similar story-arcs.

Which brings me to the second thing that makes Daughter of Redwinter stand out: although the general outline of this story looks familiar? In practice, it actually twists and turns in unexpected directions throughout, subverting and challenging both classic tropes and the expectations of the reader. I took it for granted that A Certain Thing was going to happen – it always happens! – but reader, it did not happen. And I delight in being surprised like that. Just as much as I adore a story that questions its own foundational premises – are ghost-seers destined for evil? Or a story that double-bluffs us – we’re braced for the Draoihn to be unreasonably fanatic, but what if their fanaticism is justified? And so on. I massively appreciated McDonald’s tricksiness, all the ways in which a story that has been marketed as Not For Me turned out to be, in fact, exactly for me.

Then there’s the worldbuilding; although McDonald doesn’t drown us in detail, there’s a very weighty sense to the world he’s created, with the effect that it all feels very real. Raine’s world has gone through multiple Ages and has some kind of record or understanding of several thousand years of history, and it’s not often I come across a story where that really feels legit; where a fictional world has that weight of fictional history behind it in a way that’s not overpowering, or lecturing, or info-dumping, but just…very organic.

And I’m not gonna lie, I liked the Scottish Highland influences visible in Raine’s part of the world. How often do we see that?!

The magic system manages to be both very simple – at least to explain – and really interesting; practitioners study until they reach/pass through/can access ‘gates’, with each gate conferring different abilities. The First Gate is, of course, the easiest to reach and use, and it gets progressively more difficult from there. But there’s clearly a lot more going on: over the course of the book, we encounter enchanted objects and witness magical events that don’t neatly fit into any of the Gate categories as they’ve been explained to us, and there are references to things like rituals, which, I have no idea how those are supposed to work.

Nor is it clear how exactly ghosts work – or whether all of the things Raine sees are actually ghosts. Threaded throughout Daughter of Redwinter is a subtle but powerful promise that capital-t Things are going on where we can’t see; that McDonald is only giving us a glimpse of the small picture, not the bigger one. Daughter of Redwinter is engaging and interesting in its own right – it’s not just setting the stage for a much bigger story to come. But it is setting the stage as well as being an excellent book on its own. We don’t have all the pieces yet, and we don’t know all the players, but by the end of the book we have some sense of…of the shape of what’s coming. And I’m pretty sure it’s going to be epic; epic as in awesome, and epic as in world-changing.

I’ve decided that what drew me to Daughter of Midwinter was my queerdar pinging – you would not believe how much I cackled when it became clear that Raine is bi; yay for discovering unexpectedly queer fantasy! – and I’m really glad it did. This is going on my favourites-of-2022 list, and I love McDonald’s writing and imagination so much I’ve even started reading his previous trilogy – even though it’s grimdark, and I don’t read grimdark. (And you know what? I’m enjoying it so far!)

This is an incredible fantasy that subverts the reader’s expectations every chance it gets, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough.