Hannah

A book that mixes magic and fairytales with Judaism. A Jewish girl, Miryem, loves her father but is watching him let the family starve because he won't fulfill his role as a money lender. Her grandfather is a wealthy man of the same profession, and she wants that wealth and comfort for her own family. This desire is spurred into action when her mother becomes sick. Miryem starts collecting the money herself. Little does she know what can happen to a girl who turns silver into gold.

“But it was all the same choice, every time. The choice between the one death and all the little ones”

It took me awhile to get hooked into this story. The writing is slow, lyrical, and purely vibes at the beginning. We're wandering endless halls full of oceans and statues with very little idea of what is going on. Once the plot is added into this visually stimulating setting, I was completely hooked and finished the book during one flight. 

The world and characters are vivid with a dash of mystery. The culty subplot slowly leaked through journal entries was so well written. Clark is skillful at inspiring both horror and beauty and making you feel like your floating through all her worlds.

The House is valuable because it is the House. It is enough in and of itself. It is not a means to an end.

This was a book where I had very little idea of what was happening for the first 75% and then loved the book after reaching the end and seeing how all the pieces come together. Even when you're not sure what's going on, the writing is so beautiful and visually stimulating that you're happy to stick around for the ride. 

“I love you. I love you. I'll write it in waves. In skies. In my heart. You'll never see, but you will know. I'll be all the poets, I'll kill them all and take each one's place in turn and every time love's written in all the strands it will be you.”“Hunger - Red - to sate a hunger or to stoke it, to feel hunger as a furnace, to trace it's edges like teeth - is this a thing you, singly, know? Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened so keen and bright that it might split you open, break a new thing out?” 

The second book is even wilder than the first. Darrow is out of the institute, but the challenges and power struggles are nowhere close to over. He now serves the man who ordered the execution of his wife, the father of the gold woman he's growing to love. Darrow struggles to navigate this world of greed and power without becoming a monster himself.The betrayal by Darrow's poet friend Roque broke my heart, but I loved the deepening of his relationships with Sevro and Mustang and the new friendship with Ragnar. I love Ragnar so much. I loved watching his transformation when Darrow finally treated him as a man, an equal. It made me love Darrow even with all his struggles to be a good friend and good leader. 

Maia is the youngest son of the Emperor and was never meant to lead, let alone see the Imperial Court again. He's been long exiled due to his heritage. His mother, the third and regretted Empress, was a goblin.  When a crash kills the Emperor and three older sons, Maia finds himself the unexpected (and unwanted) Emperor.

I thought this story was beautiful. I felt so much for Maia due to his childhood abuse and the gentle manner in which he took on each challenge before him. I loved him for not becoming the monsters who raised him once he had the power to do so.