Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I tried my best to avoid reading other people's reviews of this book but after struggling a LOT with the writing style, I caved and went to see if others were having the same issue. I was truly shocked by what I read from at least a dozen other reviewers and realized that not only is this book not for me, but I don't think the author is either.

I had really high hopes for this book, but unfortunately I did not finish it. I found it slow and very difficult to get into. I have also heard a lot of negative controversy surrounding this book which played a part in my decision to stop reading.

Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don't think i can write a review as i didn't finished the story because it was that bad. I tried but couldn't find in me to read whatever this was. But if you want to read the story then i would recommend you to read other reviews!

I'm somewhat conflicted about this book, to be honest. Mostly because I'm somewhat confused about the intentions of the author. Silk Fire takes place in world ruled by women - a matriarchy, if you will. But it's not a very realistic one, in my opinion.
Granted, this is a fantasy book, and therefor has no need for actual realism. But I can't really help but feel like it's a parody on the very real patriarchy still dominant in big parts of our world? It simply mirrors the problems, reasons, even prerequisites for a society ruled by men, and reflectes them onto women as if that were realistic in any way. A matriarchy simply would not work the same way and I'm dubious about the way this is represented.
I felt like this might have been the point in the beginning - to show how ridiculous some of these things truly are. But then the main character falls in love with a female character that is exasperating at best and represents all these issues - and she doesn't really grow throughout the story, either? I'm really not sure what point the author was trying to make, here.

Unfortunately, this just wasn't for me. I found it slow to start and generally not overly engaging. I read through most of the book but ended up not finishing.

Bombastic side-eye! Criminal offensive side-eye! I didn't finish this book but felt compelled to review it based on the author's conduct on twitter. It's a no from me. Please read other reviewer's words. There are essays in the reviews doing an entire breakdown. Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Deeply disliked this book and feel that it was hateful towards queer women for no clear reason. Instantly turned me away from this author.

DNF at about 200 pages. It's rare I commit to a novel for this long and don't just finish it but this is legitimately one of the worst things I've ever read and I was a fanfiction.net teen. It's so much worse than even the other reviews indicate. Everyone else has detailed the problems at length but in general: orientalism, worldbuilding so incoherent it doesn't even count as worldbuilding, misogyny/transmisogyny, the most boring dialogue known to man, barely any plot, barely any character development, I could go on. The worst part is definitely how badly the central conceit of inverting patriarchy is handled- I was most excited and intrigued by how that choice could reveal and challenge elements of misogyny, but it's not just that it's offensive, it's that its also nonsensical. The author has less than a WMNST 101 understanding of how patriarchy works and has sloppily applied that barely-there understanding in the laziest way. 0 stars if I could select that.

I was unable to finish this novel before its publication date. The consortia that my library is a part of owns a copy.

I had really high hopes for this book but unfortunately after hearing some things about this book and by reading other reviews from people who did read the book, I will no longer be reading this book.

i didn’t like this book at all. it had great potential but the fantasy world wasn’t developed enough for my liking and the characters were horrible to read about. the pacing was fine but i still got bored because of the other unlikeable elements.

After hearing some of the issues with this book, I began with a skeptical mindset and honestly I barely made it 30 pages in before I DNF'd. I am sorry, but it just isn;t for me.

This was a hard DNF. The writing was over the top and the story read very Showing results for misogynistic. . Honestly, this book just didn't do it for me at all, which is a pity because I've read and liked this author before.

Don’t bother reading this book tbh.

At first i was really excited about reading it, but then once i started i quickly lost all interest. I haven’t read much but it literally took me so long to read a bit and i just know i will always dread picking it up. Therefore i’ll dnf. I can’t stand the writing. Its so confusing and way too info dumping. Also the author couldn’t convince me with the characters. They didnt feel real at all.
Besides that, i’ve read other reviews talking about the misogyny of this book and that just immediately was my last straw to dnf.

I DNF'd this book, the writing was incredibly hard to get through and I've heard many negative things about the subjects in this book. Personally the low quality of writing made me turn away pretty quickly.

Poorly written and misogynistic, not interested in reading any further. This was not what I expected going into the book.

I had really high hopes for this book, but I ended up not finishing it at all. Maybe it just wasn't for me, but it felt like one continuouse info-dump without much of a point to it. Everything felt very convoluted and somewhat pointless, I simply couldn't get into it.

A massively over-ambitious work that doesn't fully shine and only scores in the name of ideas. The incredible creativity that reflects in the thought of a matriarchal society serving as a backdrop for a queer political high fantasy to unfold deserves praise. Sadly, the aspect of crafting is a disappointment. It's not the design of an evil matriarchal society that is offensive because immorality can be a virtue of any society and the hands of oppression can also vary; it's the lack of complexity that is saddening. Taking the easier route of projecting a bunch of women who have ruled a world for more than ten thousand years as an exact replica of any patriarchal world set up in most epic fantasy is a disservice to the potential of the author's idea. Sadly, the plot doesn't offer cohesion of any sorts, leaving confusion in the wake of its revelation. The politics loses to this confusion. The magic system was a collateral damage in the fire that burnt this story's promise. But the found family of sex workers and the polyamory managed to deliver something so that could be a saving grace of sorts —even though the characters were a little too preoccupied with sex. The fantastical elements could've been a strong point also, if they weren't overdone with everything from dragons to spaceships and from dinosaurs to hoverboards. Truly a let down.

After reading the first 7% of the book, I went to investigate some of my concerns with the gender-bent patriarchy/matriarchy element of the world-building. This, in addition to the conversation about Orientalism in the work and promises that the writing does not get stronger as it goes on, has encouraged me not to finish reading the book. I do not intend to post a review across my platforms because I believe the conversation is already out there and being carried on cogently by other reviewers who read the book in full. If a book can't do right by women, it's not a book I can read in good faith.