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Sourdough Universe
The Path of Thorns
A gorgeous dark gothic fairy tale from award-winning author Angela Slatter. Should delight readers of Naomi Novik and Erin Morgenstern.
Asher Todd comes to live with the mysterious Morwood family as a governess to their children. Asher knows little about being a governess but she is skilled in botany and herbcraft, and perhaps more than that. And she has secrets of her own, dark and terrible - and Morwood is a house that eats secrets. With a monstrous revenge in mind, Asher plans to make it choke. However, she becomes fond of her charges, of the people of the Tarn, and she begins to wonder if she will be able to execute her plan - and who will suffer most if she does. But as the ghosts of her past become harder to control, Asher realises she has no choice.
Dark magic, retribution and twisted family secrets combine to weave a bewitching and beautifully written gothic fairy tale.
Asher Todd comes to live with the mysterious Morwood family as a governess to their children. Asher knows little about being a governess but she is skilled in botany and herbcraft, and perhaps more than that. And she has secrets of her own, dark and terrible - and Morwood is a house that eats secrets. With a monstrous revenge in mind, Asher plans to make it choke. However, she becomes fond of her charges, of the people of the Tarn, and she begins to wonder if she will be able to execute her plan - and who will suffer most if she does. But as the ghosts of her past become harder to control, Asher realises she has no choice.
Dark magic, retribution and twisted family secrets combine to weave a bewitching and beautifully written gothic fairy tale.
383 pages, Paperback
First published June 28, 2022
367 people are currently reading
15697 people want to read
About the author
A.G. Slatter
11 books676 followersAKA Angela Slatter
Angela Slatter is the author of All The Murmuring Bones (Titan Books, purchase links below). That will be followed by The Path of Thorns in 2022. Both are gothic fantasies set in the world of the Sourdough and Bitterwood collections.
In February 2021, Tartarus Press published The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales, the third mosaic collection in the Sourdough world series. In March 2022, The Bone Lantern (a novella set in the Sourdough world) will be published by Absinthe Press (an imprint of PS Publishing).
Angela is also the author of the supernatural crime novels from Jo Fletcher Books/Hachette International: Vigil (2016), Corpselight (2017) and Restoration (2018), as well as ten other short story collections, including The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, A Feast of Sorrows: Stories, and The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners and Other Stories. Vigil was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award in 2018.
Angela is represented by Meg Davis of the Ki Agency in London: meg@ki-agency.co.uk
She has won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, two Australian Shadows Awards and seven Aurealis Awards.
Angela’s short stories have appeared in Australian, UK and US Best Of anthologies such The Mammoth Book of New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction. Her work has been translated into Bulgarian, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, French and Romanian. Victoria Madden of Sweet Potato Films (The Kettering Incident) has optioned the film rights to one of her short stories (“Finnegan’s Field”).
She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006, and in 2013 she was awarded one of the inaugural Queensland Writers Fellowships. In 2016 Angela was the Established Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth. She has been awarded career development funding by Arts Queensland, the Copyright Agency and, in 2017/18, an Australia Council for the Arts grant. She teaches for the Australian Writers’ Centre.
She is also the author of the novellas, Of Sorrow and Such (Tor.com) and Ripper (in Horrorology: The Lexicon of Fear).
Angela Slatter is the author of All The Murmuring Bones (Titan Books, purchase links below). That will be followed by The Path of Thorns in 2022. Both are gothic fantasies set in the world of the Sourdough and Bitterwood collections.
In February 2021, Tartarus Press published The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales, the third mosaic collection in the Sourdough world series. In March 2022, The Bone Lantern (a novella set in the Sourdough world) will be published by Absinthe Press (an imprint of PS Publishing).
Angela is also the author of the supernatural crime novels from Jo Fletcher Books/Hachette International: Vigil (2016), Corpselight (2017) and Restoration (2018), as well as ten other short story collections, including The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, A Feast of Sorrows: Stories, and The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners and Other Stories. Vigil was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award in 2018.
Angela is represented by Meg Davis of the Ki Agency in London: meg@ki-agency.co.uk
She has won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, two Australian Shadows Awards and seven Aurealis Awards.
Angela’s short stories have appeared in Australian, UK and US Best Of anthologies such The Mammoth Book of New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction. Her work has been translated into Bulgarian, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, French and Romanian. Victoria Madden of Sweet Potato Films (The Kettering Incident) has optioned the film rights to one of her short stories (“Finnegan’s Field”).
She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006, and in 2013 she was awarded one of the inaugural Queensland Writers Fellowships. In 2016 Angela was the Established Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth. She has been awarded career development funding by Arts Queensland, the Copyright Agency and, in 2017/18, an Australia Council for the Arts grant. She teaches for the Australian Writers’ Centre.
She is also the author of the novellas, Of Sorrow and Such (Tor.com) and Ripper (in Horrorology: The Lexicon of Fear).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 764 reviews
October 9, 2023
For who is this woman (me), if not a slut for gothic fairytales?
October 14, 2025
BROODING 🌑 MYSTERIOUS 🕯️ FEROCIOUS 🩸 A brooding Gothic tale wrapped in shadows, secrets, and slow-burning dread. We follow Asher Todd as she arrives at Morwood Grange to take her place as governess, carrying knowledge of herbs and remedies—and the weight of her own past. The estate is alive with whispers, filled with locked doors, family politics, and the kind of atmosphere that feels heavy with old grief and unspoken betrayals. A.G. Slatter brings all the elements I crave in a Gothic novel (dark corridors, secrets pressed into every corner, and a protagonist who is clever, flawed, and unforgettable) while weaving them seamlessly with the magic, curses, and creatures of dark fantasy. The result is tense, tragic, and completely consuming.
I don’t really know where to begin with expressing how much I adore this book. I’m always aware of the risk of gassing up a book so much that it sets impossible expectations, but this one felt truly special.
I have an affinity for Gothic stories, and the way I like them is in the most classic style: slow, broody, forbidding, dark, dreary, and steeped in endless questions. I love Gothic fiction that takes its time, full of hidden rooms, betrayal, and uncertainty. Most of all, I love when you really get to live inside the mind of the main character. A.G. Slatter never lets me down in this regard, and this book gave me everything I crave in Gothic fictios, PLUS the delicious addition of dark fantasy. This book is a perfect marriage of genres: you get the slow burn and atmosphere of a Gothic novel, but layered with witches, werewolves, ghosts, magic, and enchantments. It’s sharp, cunning, and so much fun to read.
"‘Well, children can be fanciful,’ I say as if I don’t know better. As if I don’t know that much of the strangeness children see is real, that it peeks from the darkness because it knows adults don’t listen to young ones."
When I first picked up The Path of Thorns, the cover actually threw me off a little. The flowing dress of the protagonist, the werewolf silhouette, the lavender and thorns, the hands of glory—it all gave me more of a "cute" dark fairy-tale or even YA vibe. And while I don’t dislike YA, this book is far from it. Instead, it’s steeped in tension, sex, murder, generational trauma, narcissistic parents, selfishness, and heavy tragedy. The main character, Asher Todd, is morally gray in a way that felt deeply relatable to me. She’s intelligent, complex, far from perfect; and I couldn’t adore her more. She’s now at the top of my list of Slatter’s unforgettable characters.
"...I realise that most people will remain somewhere as long as they can, no matter that it's no good for them. Home might be a pile of shit, but they'll stay because it's warm and the smell is familiar and they'll cling to that. The cling to it because leaving, walking into the rain to be washed clean would mean being cold and wet, walking away from what you know will mean being lost. No matter that you will make a new way, a new path—the majority of folk don't get beyond their fear of change."
The setting is everything you could want: a creepy old house with a personality of its own. You can feel the crackle of flames in the kitchen hearth, see the gardens and feel the atmosphere pressing in from every room. I’m always impressed when an author builds a whole world while really confining us to mainly one place. And while the fantasy elements are strong, the setting stays deeply true to the Gothic tradition... and I ate. It. Up.
As always with Slatter’s work, there are stories within stories threaded throughout. Each one has weight and meaning, and they left me eager to dive deeper into her short story collections (some of which are already waiting on my shelves). She is truly a master storyteller; whether in a single paragraph, a few pages, a novel, or an entire anthology... The way she pieces together tiny details that build toward something greater is remarkable. I often found myself tabbing passages or jotting down notes (something I don’t always do, even with epic fantasy) because I knew that with her, those details would matter later. The message would matter. Every time.
"Some of the histories I read told how folk deserted the cunning women and witches, turned their backs and chose modernity. But the truth was that the Church hunted them, made them hated, made them dead. Drowned them, burned them, hanged them."
In my eyes, this book is about female rage, feminism, power, control, and breaking free. You can tell why Slatter takes her time with it; these themes matter to her, and the weight of them shows in every choice she makes as a storyteller. While I was inside Asher Todd’s perspective, I also felt the presence of the author herself: her voice, her anger, her sharp observations of the world. (I should be clear that I’m speculating here, I can’t say for sure that this is what’s happening, but in everything I’ve read from Slatter, this is what I feel in my heart.) I feel like I’m there with her in the pain, the honesty, the reality, and in the way she puts women down on paper. The deep connection I have to how she writes them—raw, unflinching, and relatable—is what makes it so powerful. It feels like Slatter pours pieces of her own life, the experiences of women around her, and her understanding of power into this book... and it’s fucking powerful in itself. As a woman, it was impossible not to root for Asher Todd. And that is part of why I hold so much respect for Slatter herself; because that kind of truth on the page doesn’t happen by accident. Her dedication to her craft, to the complexity of her characters, to telling their stories as women in worlds built against them, and to the Sourdough universe she’s building is what leaves me in awe.
I usually try to keep my reviews more objective, but it’s hard not to get personal here because this story resonated so strongly with me. I’m sad that it’s over—though in a way, it’s not. This universe continues to expand, and knowing there are so many stories I own and have yet to read, and even more stories to come from the Sourdough Universe, makes me feel lucky.
I know I’m running the risk of building expectations quite high, but here’s what I’ll say: if you love Gothic fiction, dark fantasy, morally gray characters, and stories that fully immerse you in the daily rhythms and politics of a house and its family, you will probably adore, or at least enjoy, this book. (In the words of the author herself, think Jane Eyre meets Frankenstein (and dash in some Grimm's Fairy Tales.))
That said, if you struggle with slow pacing (stories that take their time, with reveals that come in waves before pulling you back into the depths) you may not love it. For me, that ebb and flow is exactly what I crave, but I know not everyone feels the same. However, still urge you to give it a shot.
A.G. Slatter has become, without question, one of my absolute favorite Gothic fiction writers. She writes the Gothic my heart yearns for. 🖤🩶
I don’t really know where to begin with expressing how much I adore this book. I’m always aware of the risk of gassing up a book so much that it sets impossible expectations, but this one felt truly special.
I have an affinity for Gothic stories, and the way I like them is in the most classic style: slow, broody, forbidding, dark, dreary, and steeped in endless questions. I love Gothic fiction that takes its time, full of hidden rooms, betrayal, and uncertainty. Most of all, I love when you really get to live inside the mind of the main character. A.G. Slatter never lets me down in this regard, and this book gave me everything I crave in Gothic fictios, PLUS the delicious addition of dark fantasy. This book is a perfect marriage of genres: you get the slow burn and atmosphere of a Gothic novel, but layered with witches, werewolves, ghosts, magic, and enchantments. It’s sharp, cunning, and so much fun to read.
"‘Well, children can be fanciful,’ I say as if I don’t know better. As if I don’t know that much of the strangeness children see is real, that it peeks from the darkness because it knows adults don’t listen to young ones."
When I first picked up The Path of Thorns, the cover actually threw me off a little. The flowing dress of the protagonist, the werewolf silhouette, the lavender and thorns, the hands of glory—it all gave me more of a "cute" dark fairy-tale or even YA vibe. And while I don’t dislike YA, this book is far from it. Instead, it’s steeped in tension, sex, murder, generational trauma, narcissistic parents, selfishness, and heavy tragedy. The main character, Asher Todd, is morally gray in a way that felt deeply relatable to me. She’s intelligent, complex, far from perfect; and I couldn’t adore her more. She’s now at the top of my list of Slatter’s unforgettable characters.
"...I realise that most people will remain somewhere as long as they can, no matter that it's no good for them. Home might be a pile of shit, but they'll stay because it's warm and the smell is familiar and they'll cling to that. The cling to it because leaving, walking into the rain to be washed clean would mean being cold and wet, walking away from what you know will mean being lost. No matter that you will make a new way, a new path—the majority of folk don't get beyond their fear of change."
The setting is everything you could want: a creepy old house with a personality of its own. You can feel the crackle of flames in the kitchen hearth, see the gardens and feel the atmosphere pressing in from every room. I’m always impressed when an author builds a whole world while really confining us to mainly one place. And while the fantasy elements are strong, the setting stays deeply true to the Gothic tradition... and I ate. It. Up.
As always with Slatter’s work, there are stories within stories threaded throughout. Each one has weight and meaning, and they left me eager to dive deeper into her short story collections (some of which are already waiting on my shelves). She is truly a master storyteller; whether in a single paragraph, a few pages, a novel, or an entire anthology... The way she pieces together tiny details that build toward something greater is remarkable. I often found myself tabbing passages or jotting down notes (something I don’t always do, even with epic fantasy) because I knew that with her, those details would matter later. The message would matter. Every time.
"Some of the histories I read told how folk deserted the cunning women and witches, turned their backs and chose modernity. But the truth was that the Church hunted them, made them hated, made them dead. Drowned them, burned them, hanged them."
In my eyes, this book is about female rage, feminism, power, control, and breaking free. You can tell why Slatter takes her time with it; these themes matter to her, and the weight of them shows in every choice she makes as a storyteller. While I was inside Asher Todd’s perspective, I also felt the presence of the author herself: her voice, her anger, her sharp observations of the world. (I should be clear that I’m speculating here, I can’t say for sure that this is what’s happening, but in everything I’ve read from Slatter, this is what I feel in my heart.) I feel like I’m there with her in the pain, the honesty, the reality, and in the way she puts women down on paper. The deep connection I have to how she writes them—raw, unflinching, and relatable—is what makes it so powerful. It feels like Slatter pours pieces of her own life, the experiences of women around her, and her understanding of power into this book... and it’s fucking powerful in itself. As a woman, it was impossible not to root for Asher Todd. And that is part of why I hold so much respect for Slatter herself; because that kind of truth on the page doesn’t happen by accident. Her dedication to her craft, to the complexity of her characters, to telling their stories as women in worlds built against them, and to the Sourdough universe she’s building is what leaves me in awe.
I usually try to keep my reviews more objective, but it’s hard not to get personal here because this story resonated so strongly with me. I’m sad that it’s over—though in a way, it’s not. This universe continues to expand, and knowing there are so many stories I own and have yet to read, and even more stories to come from the Sourdough Universe, makes me feel lucky.
I know I’m running the risk of building expectations quite high, but here’s what I’ll say: if you love Gothic fiction, dark fantasy, morally gray characters, and stories that fully immerse you in the daily rhythms and politics of a house and its family, you will probably adore, or at least enjoy, this book. (In the words of the author herself, think Jane Eyre meets Frankenstein (and dash in some Grimm's Fairy Tales.))
That said, if you struggle with slow pacing (stories that take their time, with reveals that come in waves before pulling you back into the depths) you may not love it. For me, that ebb and flow is exactly what I crave, but I know not everyone feels the same. However, still urge you to give it a shot.
A.G. Slatter has become, without question, one of my absolute favorite Gothic fiction writers. She writes the Gothic my heart yearns for. 🖤🩶
October 22, 2025
A.G. Slatter is such an underrated author and I wish more people were picking up her books! She is a master of writing gothic fairytales with a pinch of horror. If you like character driven stories with morally grey female protagonists and smart writing, this is the book for you. It's a perfect choice for a fall read.
April 9, 2022
This author, who also writes as Angela Slatter, has been compared to Angela Carter for her ability to weave beautifully Gothic fairy tale-like stories with a good dose of unexpected twists. Carter is way more polished and sensuous and has a more refined command of language, of course, whilst Slatter is more raw, rugged, and you can tell she's more inclined to body horror and gore from what you read in her stories, both this book and the ones under her other author name.
This one is like if you threw more psychological suspense and tension as well as a little dash of horror to the "Jane Eyre" plot mixed with elements from Grimm fairy tales. It's very atmospheric, sometimes confusingly foggy, and full of mysteries that take their sweet, sweet time to be revealed, layer by layer. You are lured into a world that appears to be a normal day in the misty countryside in novels by du Maurier or the Brontës, and right away you see the archetypal signs that you're in a Gothic tale: missing portraits, missing pages from genealogy books, creepiest of creepy woods, strange happenings, spectres right out of a ghost tale, owner of the manor with a personality that's unrelentingly abusive at best, and only yourself to extricate your body and mind as intact as possible from this thorny web. Or maybe, just maybe, you might have an ally?
Asher Todd is about the only character you'll like in this story, the poor lass. The rest are beyond hope and sympathy, at least to my eyes. I don't know the first person present tense narration was the most suitable for her voice, I think it should've read a lot better if rid of the present tense, although the characterisation and the story both compensated for this little bump well enough for me. It's one of the few times Gothic hasn't let me down and has worked well for me because there was no overuse of shock & awe techniques many others use in this genre, even in spite of the book being fairly full of genre tropes, which is fine when added in organically and deftly like here.
I received an ARC through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
This one is like if you threw more psychological suspense and tension as well as a little dash of horror to the "Jane Eyre" plot mixed with elements from Grimm fairy tales. It's very atmospheric, sometimes confusingly foggy, and full of mysteries that take their sweet, sweet time to be revealed, layer by layer. You are lured into a world that appears to be a normal day in the misty countryside in novels by du Maurier or the Brontës, and right away you see the archetypal signs that you're in a Gothic tale: missing portraits, missing pages from genealogy books, creepiest of creepy woods, strange happenings, spectres right out of a ghost tale, owner of the manor with a personality that's unrelentingly abusive at best, and only yourself to extricate your body and mind as intact as possible from this thorny web. Or maybe, just maybe, you might have an ally?
Asher Todd is about the only character you'll like in this story, the poor lass. The rest are beyond hope and sympathy, at least to my eyes. I don't know the first person present tense narration was the most suitable for her voice, I think it should've read a lot better if rid of the present tense, although the characterisation and the story both compensated for this little bump well enough for me. It's one of the few times Gothic hasn't let me down and has worked well for me because there was no overuse of shock & awe techniques many others use in this genre, even in spite of the book being fairly full of genre tropes, which is fine when added in organically and deftly like here.
I received an ARC through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
November 3, 2024
I am gutted that my time in this book is over. Genuinely, a new all-time favorite book. It only means I need to read more by A. G. Slatter, hoping to fall in love with all the books in the Sourdough Universe. More words on this soon! A review for Patreon on Monday :)
March 18, 2025
4.25/5
Niesamowicie przypominała mi Jane Eyre, a później dołączył do tego i Frankenstein… to klimatyczna powieść przyprawiona odrobiną fantastyki i magii.
Niesamowicie przypominała mi Jane Eyre, a później dołączył do tego i Frankenstein… to klimatyczna powieść przyprawiona odrobiną fantastyki i magii.
August 21, 2022
⭐️4.5 Stars⭐️
The Path of Thorns is a dark gothic fantasy with a fairytale/folklore vibe. This is my first experience reading a book by A.G. Slatter and I definitely want to read more, it’s a well executed story brimming with atmosphere.
Asher Todd has recently gained employment at the Morwood estate as a governess for three children. She’s not skilled in being a governess but she is skilled in the medicinal uses of herbs and plants and she has a sinister plan in mind. Asher is an interesting character, morally grey, secretive and caring.
From the day of her arrival she feels something is lurking nearby! There is a romantic interest although it wasn’t the heart of the story.
The book presents a world where witches, werewolves and ghosts exist, mystery and complicated family dynamics that will make your jaw drop!
Dark, evocative and addictive, I loved this beautifully written book. Highly recommend to those that love gothic tales and witchcraft.
Publication Date June 2022
Publisher Titan Publishing Group
Thank you so much NewSouthbooks Australia for a copy of the book
The Path of Thorns is a dark gothic fantasy with a fairytale/folklore vibe. This is my first experience reading a book by A.G. Slatter and I definitely want to read more, it’s a well executed story brimming with atmosphere.
Asher Todd has recently gained employment at the Morwood estate as a governess for three children. She’s not skilled in being a governess but she is skilled in the medicinal uses of herbs and plants and she has a sinister plan in mind. Asher is an interesting character, morally grey, secretive and caring.
From the day of her arrival she feels something is lurking nearby! There is a romantic interest although it wasn’t the heart of the story.
The book presents a world where witches, werewolves and ghosts exist, mystery and complicated family dynamics that will make your jaw drop!
Dark, evocative and addictive, I loved this beautifully written book. Highly recommend to those that love gothic tales and witchcraft.
Publication Date June 2022
Publisher Titan Publishing Group
Thank you so much NewSouthbooks Australia for a copy of the book
July 15, 2022
I had such high hopes for this book - that'll teach me.
The gothic premise of a witch coming to her family home to wreak vengeance sounds great on paper, but that's not what we got. We got a ridiculous soap-opera with a protagonist who goes from "plucky and mysterious" to "annoying, overpowered and insufferable" over the span of about 300 pages.
Also, while the narrative is initially relatively serviceable, if a bit bland and bare-bones - in fact I thought this book was a YA until I checked the tags because of how simplistic the actual writing is on a technical scale. And the other reason I thought it was YA is by how painfully clunky it can get in places when the author wants to climb up on her soapbox. Here's some examples:
"It's a very long time since he was handsome enough to seduce my mother. To father me. To leave her to the fate she ultimately met." - thanks, author, I have no deductive reasoning of my own so I need my hand held through these tricky hints you're laying on with a trowel.
"I wonder at her intensity; is it likely the flaws of which she accuses someone else are her own in some measure?" Oh, you mean like how you call people out for keeping secrets and wanting to control things when you do that all the time, Asher? Double psychological projection!
"She scans the document for last-mistakes, but I suspect there are none, that this precise woman does not commit errors" - said about a woman she's literally just met a second ago. What?! Why are you assuming this?
"Is is a place where women are made to be less than what they are, but that does not differentiate it from anywhere else." - Sigh.
Why do authors do this? I've read so many books recently where authors plop dialogue like this into the book to try being all progressive and woke and it's just horribly cringy. Stop spoonfeeding your readers like they've never heard of feminism before, author! It doesn't improve your story, it just makes me stop and roll my eyes. If you want your character to come off like a genuinely strong person, don't make her say lines like this, it just looks whiny and amateurish, especially given that Asher pretty much has the entire household dancing to her tune at this stage but she still takes the time to be petty and pout over not being allowed to become a Doctor even though she basically is one all but name and the townsfolk treat her as such. Let her actions speak for themselves.
And that's just the thing, the author tries to paint Asher as a sort of morally-grey antihero who's willing to do what she deems necessary to achieve her goals but is also a good person and it just doesn't work. Because Asher has no challenges throughout the entire story - she has damn near the whole village kissing her feet because of her magical witch healing, since the cartoon villain Luther is so egotistical he refuses to let the town have a Doctor, which seemed a ridiculous contrivance to me, but whatever. The author tries to balance "devious game-player" and "compassionate healer with mummy issues" in one character and it just doesn't work. You're not a game player if you're one of the only people on the board who knows they're playing it. Asher bosses everybody around, condescends to those who revere her for her powers, sasses back to her boss and employer with no repercussions, and reacts with outrage whenever anybody doesn't kiss her ass. I was smacking myself in the head with this damn book towards the end of it because everybody who doesn't like Asher seems to either A) Die or B) Be begrudgingly brought to heel, and of course Asher always gets the last word in. It gets to the point that whenever she gets slapped in the face or somebody trying to choke her, I couldn't help but feel like she sort of had it coming.
The other characters are actually not bad when they aren't on the "I love Asher" train, but I was disappointed that the author didn't really do much with them, I liked Burdon the butler and the children weren't bad characters, but I felt like they were wasted. They mainly serve to be an excuse for Asher to come to Morwood and be her morality pets when her actions grow more and more dubious - I love how the five-year-old is the one who keeps calling Asher out on how her actions keep serving to fuck up the children's lives, even if Asher claims to have come to care for them. I also liked Luned because she was one of the only people who didn't fall over herself to praise Asher for existing, even if the author just couldn't help herself but to humble her repeatedly for daring to not drink the Kool-Aid. (It's funny how despite pissing and moaning a lot about how women get shafted by cruel men, Asher is very quick to call Luned misogynistic insults when she gets annoyed by her. Kind of undermines her point when she's so fast to throw "bitch" and even "cunt" once on occasion around at someone simply because they're being mean to her for fairly understandable reasons. Unfortunately nobody calls Asher on her rampant hypocrisy.)
Luther is a cartoon character - he represents the Evil Rich White Man who is mean to his wife and children and gets servant girls pregnant. It's trite, predictable and has zero nuance at all. I couldn't take a single scene with him seriously and I was a little disappointed in the author - Luther could have come out of any book and it would be the same thing. There's nothing to him but a lazy antagonist. Honestly, all of Asher's 'victories' against him came across as exceedingly petty and pathetic. Your character does not look cool, smart or brave when you deliberately make their opponent as weak and unthreatening as possible. Jessamine is equally pathetic, she just exists to be Luther's downtrodden wife that even somebody supposedly as "ruthless" as Asher is feels sorry for her.
Eli was another wasted potential of a character - a quarter of the way through the book it turns out he's a werewolf and absolutely NOTHING relevant comes of that. The author just threw it in to make the book seem more fairytale-like and gothic. I mean, Asher being a witch at least figures heavily into the plot even if the magic system used isn't very well explained, but Eli being a wolf is just there for the sake of it. Their romance was also inexplicable, rushed, and the author doesn't even bother to go into detail - she doesn't describe a single sex scene between the two, which might have helped convince me this book is supposed to be for adults, Asher just slides into bed with him or starts unlacing his breeches and the scene just fades to black. So...why bother writing it, then? One minute they're arguing, the next minute they're kissing and then Eli is just reduced to being Asher's fuck-buddy for the rest of the book and ceases to be important to the plot. It's a shame because I was enjoying him taking her down a peg for being so haughty. I am fully convinced the author just included a romance because she wanted her oh-so progressive Strong Independent Wimmenz character to be sexually active and have her throw around some obligatory "you go girl" rhetoric about owning her female power, blah blah blah. Yawn.
She keeps waffling on about What I Must Do even though it's clearly from jump that her mother was not a good person and probably didn't really deserve to be avenged. I started to think of Asher as being almost kind of pathetic after a while - it's clear her mother was an abusive bitch and her reasoning for wanting "revenge" seem flimsier and flimsier as time goes on, so watching her still being manipulated by someone like that just started to seem absurd. (Also Asher is apparently very physically weak - she gets kicked by a five year old at one point and somehow goes flying backwards into a coffee table and smacks her head on the floor. The scene is meant to be angsty and instead it was just amusing - how strong is this kid's legs?) Asher's desperation to please an abusive figure might have worked with better writing and more believable fallout (or ANY fallout), but it just comes off as kind of laughable a character who thinks she's so smart is unable to see she's just repeating the same pattern over and over.
To be honest, I just got bored with this book. It's no fun when the character just gets away with all her scheming, fails to suffer meaningful consequences, the other characters either exist to worship her or provide some limp conflict so Asher can snark at them and cut them down at the knees and look smarter than she actually is, but her whole scheme takes way longer than necessary to go off and then the book just ends on a big, lame finale that brought zero satisfaction to the story. It was like the author just blew a raspberry and left it at that. I regret buying this so much.
Rating: 1.5/5 stars.
The gothic premise of a witch coming to her family home to wreak vengeance sounds great on paper, but that's not what we got. We got a ridiculous soap-opera with a protagonist who goes from "plucky and mysterious" to "annoying, overpowered and insufferable" over the span of about 300 pages.
Also, while the narrative is initially relatively serviceable, if a bit bland and bare-bones - in fact I thought this book was a YA until I checked the tags because of how simplistic the actual writing is on a technical scale. And the other reason I thought it was YA is by how painfully clunky it can get in places when the author wants to climb up on her soapbox. Here's some examples:
"It's a very long time since he was handsome enough to seduce my mother. To father me. To leave her to the fate she ultimately met." - thanks, author, I have no deductive reasoning of my own so I need my hand held through these tricky hints you're laying on with a trowel.
"I wonder at her intensity; is it likely the flaws of which she accuses someone else are her own in some measure?" Oh, you mean like how you call people out for keeping secrets and wanting to control things when you do that all the time, Asher? Double psychological projection!
"She scans the document for last-mistakes, but I suspect there are none, that this precise woman does not commit errors" - said about a woman she's literally just met a second ago. What?! Why are you assuming this?
"Is is a place where women are made to be less than what they are, but that does not differentiate it from anywhere else." - Sigh.
Why do authors do this? I've read so many books recently where authors plop dialogue like this into the book to try being all progressive and woke and it's just horribly cringy. Stop spoonfeeding your readers like they've never heard of feminism before, author! It doesn't improve your story, it just makes me stop and roll my eyes. If you want your character to come off like a genuinely strong person, don't make her say lines like this, it just looks whiny and amateurish, especially given that Asher pretty much has the entire household dancing to her tune at this stage but she still takes the time to be petty and pout over not being allowed to become a Doctor even though she basically is one all but name and the townsfolk treat her as such. Let her actions speak for themselves.
And that's just the thing, the author tries to paint Asher as a sort of morally-grey antihero who's willing to do what she deems necessary to achieve her goals but is also a good person and it just doesn't work. Because Asher has no challenges throughout the entire story - she has damn near the whole village kissing her feet because of her magical witch healing, since the cartoon villain Luther is so egotistical he refuses to let the town have a Doctor, which seemed a ridiculous contrivance to me, but whatever. The author tries to balance "devious game-player" and "compassionate healer with mummy issues" in one character and it just doesn't work. You're not a game player if you're one of the only people on the board who knows they're playing it. Asher bosses everybody around, condescends to those who revere her for her powers, sasses back to her boss and employer with no repercussions, and reacts with outrage whenever anybody doesn't kiss her ass. I was smacking myself in the head with this damn book towards the end of it because everybody who doesn't like Asher seems to either A) Die or B) Be begrudgingly brought to heel, and of course Asher always gets the last word in. It gets to the point that whenever she gets slapped in the face or somebody trying to choke her, I couldn't help but feel like she sort of had it coming.
The other characters are actually not bad when they aren't on the "I love Asher" train, but I was disappointed that the author didn't really do much with them, I liked Burdon the butler and the children weren't bad characters, but I felt like they were wasted. They mainly serve to be an excuse for Asher to come to Morwood and be her morality pets when her actions grow more and more dubious - I love how the five-year-old is the one who keeps calling Asher out on how her actions keep serving to fuck up the children's lives, even if Asher claims to have come to care for them. I also liked Luned because she was one of the only people who didn't fall over herself to praise Asher for existing, even if the author just couldn't help herself but to humble her repeatedly for daring to not drink the Kool-Aid. (It's funny how despite pissing and moaning a lot about how women get shafted by cruel men, Asher is very quick to call Luned misogynistic insults when she gets annoyed by her. Kind of undermines her point when she's so fast to throw "bitch" and even "cunt" once on occasion around at someone simply because they're being mean to her for fairly understandable reasons. Unfortunately nobody calls Asher on her rampant hypocrisy.)
Luther is a cartoon character - he represents the Evil Rich White Man who is mean to his wife and children and gets servant girls pregnant. It's trite, predictable and has zero nuance at all. I couldn't take a single scene with him seriously and I was a little disappointed in the author - Luther could have come out of any book and it would be the same thing. There's nothing to him but a lazy antagonist. Honestly, all of Asher's 'victories' against him came across as exceedingly petty and pathetic. Your character does not look cool, smart or brave when you deliberately make their opponent as weak and unthreatening as possible. Jessamine is equally pathetic, she just exists to be Luther's downtrodden wife that even somebody supposedly as "ruthless" as Asher is feels sorry for her.
Eli was another wasted potential of a character - a quarter of the way through the book it turns out he's a werewolf and absolutely NOTHING relevant comes of that. The author just threw it in to make the book seem more fairytale-like and gothic. I mean, Asher being a witch at least figures heavily into the plot even if the magic system used isn't very well explained, but Eli being a wolf is just there for the sake of it. Their romance was also inexplicable, rushed, and the author doesn't even bother to go into detail - she doesn't describe a single sex scene between the two, which might have helped convince me this book is supposed to be for adults, Asher just slides into bed with him or starts unlacing his breeches and the scene just fades to black. So...why bother writing it, then? One minute they're arguing, the next minute they're kissing and then Eli is just reduced to being Asher's fuck-buddy for the rest of the book and ceases to be important to the plot. It's a shame because I was enjoying him taking her down a peg for being so haughty. I am fully convinced the author just included a romance because she wanted her oh-so progressive Strong Independent Wimmenz character to be sexually active and have her throw around some obligatory "you go girl" rhetoric about owning her female power, blah blah blah. Yawn.
She keeps waffling on about What I Must Do even though it's clearly from jump that her mother was not a good person and probably didn't really deserve to be avenged. I started to think of Asher as being almost kind of pathetic after a while - it's clear her mother was an abusive bitch and her reasoning for wanting "revenge" seem flimsier and flimsier as time goes on, so watching her still being manipulated by someone like that just started to seem absurd. (Also Asher is apparently very physically weak - she gets kicked by a five year old at one point and somehow goes flying backwards into a coffee table and smacks her head on the floor. The scene is meant to be angsty and instead it was just amusing - how strong is this kid's legs?) Asher's desperation to please an abusive figure might have worked with better writing and more believable fallout (or ANY fallout), but it just comes off as kind of laughable a character who thinks she's so smart is unable to see she's just repeating the same pattern over and over.
To be honest, I just got bored with this book. It's no fun when the character just gets away with all her scheming, fails to suffer meaningful consequences, the other characters either exist to worship her or provide some limp conflict so Asher can snark at them and cut them down at the knees and look smarter than she actually is, but her whole scheme takes way longer than necessary to go off and then the book just ends on a big, lame finale that brought zero satisfaction to the story. It was like the author just blew a raspberry and left it at that. I regret buying this so much.
Rating: 1.5/5 stars.
September 28, 2024
Kill all men! Unless they're decent people. And sometimes even then, if they get in your way.
Everyone's family fucks them up somehow. Some more than others.
Fairy tales, herbal medicine, wolf-people, murder, strangulation, fire. Children at risk. Souls being put in different people's bodies. Women supporting each other in a man's world even when they really, really don't like each other.
I was surprised at how much the ending got to me, since some amount of the book along the way felt over-planned.
I read this for the SFFBC online discussion group, and that always makes me write briefer reviews. I'm sure I'll be frustrated to see less than one hundred words here after some time has passed! :D
Everyone's family fucks them up somehow. Some more than others.
Fairy tales, herbal medicine, wolf-people, murder, strangulation, fire. Children at risk. Souls being put in different people's bodies. Women supporting each other in a man's world even when they really, really don't like each other.
I was surprised at how much the ending got to me, since some amount of the book along the way felt over-planned.
I read this for the SFFBC online discussion group, and that always makes me write briefer reviews. I'm sure I'll be frustrated to see less than one hundred words here after some time has passed! :D
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 9, 2024
This was really fabulous. I’ve been thinking I would like it since I first heard about it at least a year ago. It’s been on the SFFBC group read ballot 3 times since then and it finally got through.
There’s a lot going on in this novel and for the first 8 or 9 chapters one doesn’t really know what’s what, but little periodic tidbits give a clue that not all is as it seems. To say more would spoil it, so suffice it to say that there are many many twists, interesting characters and a rich background to this world that seems familiar, and yet is very different to our own.
The narrator is very good (more like 4.5 but that’s not possible), but she got entrenched in a cadence, which tended to lull. Her character voicing and accents were top notch though, so take the criticism with a grain of salt!
There’s a lot going on in this novel and for the first 8 or 9 chapters one doesn’t really know what’s what, but little periodic tidbits give a clue that not all is as it seems. To say more would spoil it, so suffice it to say that there are many many twists, interesting characters and a rich background to this world that seems familiar, and yet is very different to our own.
The narrator is very good (more like 4.5 but that’s not possible), but she got entrenched in a cadence, which tended to lull. Her character voicing and accents were top notch though, so take the criticism with a grain of salt!
June 9, 2022
ARC received from the publisher (Titan Books) in exchange for an honest review.
I requested this completely on a whim, based entirely on the strength of the premise. It’s deliciously gothic – witchcraft, revenge, dark family secrets, revenge, ghosts, and lots and lots of murder – and I recommend it to anyone interested in fantasy with undertones of horror.
Asher Todd is hired by the Morwood family as a governess. Very soon, she becomes beloved by the children and indispensable to their grandmother, restoring her sight – but both the Morwood family and Asher have their dark secrets and hidden purposes.
First things first – I’m a sucker for a good mystery. I see that a character isn’t telling us everything and that the surroundings might not be as they seem and I must know more immediately. It is done well, the reveals are satisfying, and it made for a very easy, fast read. Whenever I picked it up, I couldn’t help but read chapters and chapters. The beginning is also fairly low-key, even slice-of-life as Asher settles into the household, which was even more of a draw.
But throughout, there is a strong undercurrent of wrongness. It’s very atmospheric and in the standard gothic vein, it’s clear that it will get fucked up when the secrets start coming out. Which it does. Oh boy, it does. I will not spoil any details but heed the content warnings with this one. It’s dark and full of sexism and injustice and characters willing to do anything to achieve their goals.
The one part I did not like was the romance subplot. There was no chemistry whatsoever and the characters didn’t really seem attracted to each other at all. At least it’s a pretty minor, easy to ignore part of the plot.
All in all, highly recommended if it sounds up your alley.
Enjoyment: 4/5
Execution: 4/5
Recommended to: fans of gothic horror, witches, and folktale-inspired stuff
Not recommended to: those looking for a light read
Content warnings: lots of abuse (both past and present), threats of harm to children, references to sexual assault
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
I requested this completely on a whim, based entirely on the strength of the premise. It’s deliciously gothic – witchcraft, revenge, dark family secrets, revenge, ghosts, and lots and lots of murder – and I recommend it to anyone interested in fantasy with undertones of horror.
Asher Todd is hired by the Morwood family as a governess. Very soon, she becomes beloved by the children and indispensable to their grandmother, restoring her sight – but both the Morwood family and Asher have their dark secrets and hidden purposes.
First things first – I’m a sucker for a good mystery. I see that a character isn’t telling us everything and that the surroundings might not be as they seem and I must know more immediately. It is done well, the reveals are satisfying, and it made for a very easy, fast read. Whenever I picked it up, I couldn’t help but read chapters and chapters. The beginning is also fairly low-key, even slice-of-life as Asher settles into the household, which was even more of a draw.
But throughout, there is a strong undercurrent of wrongness. It’s very atmospheric and in the standard gothic vein, it’s clear that it will get fucked up when the secrets start coming out. Which it does. Oh boy, it does. I will not spoil any details but heed the content warnings with this one. It’s dark and full of sexism and injustice and characters willing to do anything to achieve their goals.
The one part I did not like was the romance subplot. There was no chemistry whatsoever and the characters didn’t really seem attracted to each other at all. At least it’s a pretty minor, easy to ignore part of the plot.
All in all, highly recommended if it sounds up your alley.
Enjoyment: 4/5
Execution: 4/5
Recommended to: fans of gothic horror, witches, and folktale-inspired stuff
Not recommended to: those looking for a light read
Content warnings: lots of abuse (both past and present), threats of harm to children, references to sexual assault
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
September 24, 2025
4.5/5
My second favorite Slatter book! All the Murmuring Bones is still my absolute favorite.
My second favorite Slatter book! All the Murmuring Bones is still my absolute favorite.
June 14, 2022
This is going to be a difficult book to review, for the simple reason that I don’t believe I have ever once read a book where the author played their cards so close to their chest. It was a very atmospheric book, and a very dark one. If you liked Slatter’s *All the Murmuring Bones* you’ll probably like this as well, because they deal with similar themes and have a very similar feel.
The book begins with our protagonist - I won’t call her the hero - Asher Todd arriving at the remote estate of the Morwood family, where she’s to take up a post as governess. She’s got something in her carpet bag that she’s terrified someone will discover. And that’s about all I’m prepared to say. Who is she, really? Where is she from, and what’s her history? Why is she really at the Morwood estate? What is she afraid of, and what is she trying to do? You get answers to all of those questions - actually, looking back, I can’t really think of any unanswered questions - but the answers will be spun out slowly, deliberately, and often very subtly. This is a book you’ll want to be able to pay close attention to.
There’s a great deal of thematic overlap with *All the Murmuring Bones*, in addition to the similar feel. One of the big themes here is how domestic abuse can affect a person, especially how the abuser can continue to exercise a form of “control” even when they are well out of the picture. Here, the survivors often aren’t even aware they’re shaping their behavior to placate someone who can’t be placated (and in some cases here isn’t even to be placated or provoked at all). The other big theme, and I would argue the primary one, is how dehumanizing discrimination can be. The one on display here is sexism, but the lessons work equally well for any kind of bigotry. This world that Asher Todd moves in is highly stratified according to class and gender both; Asher is very aware of the privileges retained by her “betters” and the injustice that automatically puts her on a lower tier by simply being born a woman. It doesn’t matter that Asher is determined, and clever, and caring, and very much cleverer than most; she is a woman, and that is the trait that defines her. Discrimination like this erases identity and renders efforts to improve one’s self futile. It destroys personhood, and Slatter has done a brilliant job of expressing that.
Don’t read this book lightly - I was warned going into it that it was a very dark book, and I was still caught by surprise. Some parts of it are distinctly challenging for me to read. But if you want to give this one a try, it’s well worth it.
Comes out June 28.
Content warnings: sexual assault; domestic violence; animal death.
My blog
The book begins with our protagonist - I won’t call her the hero - Asher Todd arriving at the remote estate of the Morwood family, where she’s to take up a post as governess. She’s got something in her carpet bag that she’s terrified someone will discover. And that’s about all I’m prepared to say. Who is she, really? Where is she from, and what’s her history? Why is she really at the Morwood estate? What is she afraid of, and what is she trying to do? You get answers to all of those questions - actually, looking back, I can’t really think of any unanswered questions - but the answers will be spun out slowly, deliberately, and often very subtly. This is a book you’ll want to be able to pay close attention to.
There’s a great deal of thematic overlap with *All the Murmuring Bones*, in addition to the similar feel. One of the big themes here is how domestic abuse can affect a person, especially how the abuser can continue to exercise a form of “control” even when they are well out of the picture. Here, the survivors often aren’t even aware they’re shaping their behavior to placate someone who can’t be placated (and in some cases here isn’t even to be placated or provoked at all). The other big theme, and I would argue the primary one, is how dehumanizing discrimination can be. The one on display here is sexism, but the lessons work equally well for any kind of bigotry. This world that Asher Todd moves in is highly stratified according to class and gender both; Asher is very aware of the privileges retained by her “betters” and the injustice that automatically puts her on a lower tier by simply being born a woman. It doesn’t matter that Asher is determined, and clever, and caring, and very much cleverer than most; she is a woman, and that is the trait that defines her. Discrimination like this erases identity and renders efforts to improve one’s self futile. It destroys personhood, and Slatter has done a brilliant job of expressing that.
Don’t read this book lightly - I was warned going into it that it was a very dark book, and I was still caught by surprise. Some parts of it are distinctly challenging for me to read. But if you want to give this one a try, it’s well worth it.
Comes out June 28.
Content warnings: sexual assault; domestic violence; animal death.
My blog
Read
September 15, 2025- Witches
- Dark fantasy
This feels perfect for spooky season!
- Dark fantasy
This feels perfect for spooky season!
September 5, 2023
Over the years I’ve grown more and more fond of the sub-genre of dark fairytales. This one has a nice gothic flair and given the cover I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say I was also happy to find a werewolf lurking within the pages. I enjoyed reading this one, but there’s not a lot that stood out for me and I have a feeling I won’t remember it very well farther down the line. It is a familiar story, at times a bit too much so, and the mysteries are fairly simple. I also wasn’t wild about the first person perspective, but I still found Asher a compelling unreliable narrator. This is one of those books that sort of washed over me - I never grew bored, and I enjoyed picking the book up every night, but it never fully elevated itself to something next level. All in all it was a nice diverting read, and I would try more by this author when I’m in the mood to be entertained.
Sci-fi Book Club: 10/23
Sci-fi Book Club: 10/23
March 28, 2025
Mroczna, brutalna, zaskakująca i dość pokręcona - ciągle się coś dzieje, a ujawniane sekrety nieustannie wyskakują z rękawa bohaterów. Było intensywnie i konkretnie, zabrakło mi tylko bardziej dosadnego finału. Co by nie było, bawiłam się super i rewelacyjnie mi się to czytało. kocham mroczne baśnie, więc to było spełnienie moich czytelniczych pragnień <3
October 8, 2023
Haven’t finished the book, but I’m getting this down now before I forget:
“Matilda wrapped herself in the red cloak that her grandmother had knitted. The wool was the same shade as the blood trickling from her nose; as she wiped the fluid away it settled onto the warp and weft of the fabric.”
1. Knitted cloaks are not a thing outside of cosplay or cozy at home wear. Why? Because they’re impractical as fuck. They’re super heavy, they won’t protect the wearer from rain, and they’ll get caught on everything.
2. Knitted pieces don’t have “warp and weft”, only woven fabric has that, and woven fabric makes great cloaks!
I know that some people are going to say that I’m just being picky for pointing this out, but what if the author had written, “Matilda picked up the hammer and began to screw in the nail”? Or, “Matilda slipped her feet into her stiletto hiking pumps and began to trek up the slippery mountain”? Or, “Matilda strapped on her delicate lace armor and joined her soldiers in the vicious battle”?
Actually those last two sound more interesting to me than this book has been so far… but I digress.
There’s an easily accessible wealth of fucking knowledge out there called the internet. More authors should use it.
“Matilda wrapped herself in the red cloak that her grandmother had knitted. The wool was the same shade as the blood trickling from her nose; as she wiped the fluid away it settled onto the warp and weft of the fabric.”
1. Knitted cloaks are not a thing outside of cosplay or cozy at home wear. Why? Because they’re impractical as fuck. They’re super heavy, they won’t protect the wearer from rain, and they’ll get caught on everything.
2. Knitted pieces don’t have “warp and weft”, only woven fabric has that, and woven fabric makes great cloaks!
I know that some people are going to say that I’m just being picky for pointing this out, but what if the author had written, “Matilda picked up the hammer and began to screw in the nail”? Or, “Matilda slipped her feet into her stiletto hiking pumps and began to trek up the slippery mountain”? Or, “Matilda strapped on her delicate lace armor and joined her soldiers in the vicious battle”?
Actually those last two sound more interesting to me than this book has been so far… but I digress.
There’s an easily accessible wealth of fucking knowledge out there called the internet. More authors should use it.
October 12, 2024
Anna called this 'Feminist horror' and I've been unable to shake the label from my mind.
A struggle to get into initially as it's a mystery I was not given much (or any) reason to care about. But in the end the writing got to me and the insights on human behaviour/relationships smoothed over any gripes I had.
Rounded up, but could really have gotten 3 stars.
A struggle to get into initially as it's a mystery I was not given much (or any) reason to care about. But in the end the writing got to me and the insights on human behaviour/relationships smoothed over any gripes I had.
Rounded up, but could really have gotten 3 stars.
August 11, 2024
Stars: 4 out of 5.
This was one dark tale. I don't know if I should categorize it as a fairy tale or a gothic tale or just historical fantasy, but that doesn't particularly matter, does it? It's a good book.
The world is reminiscent of Victorian England, only with traces of magic still around, and magical creatures still lurking in the shadows of everyday life (though who is to say that is not the case in our world as well?).
Asher Todd arrives at a remote manor in a remote village to assume the role of governess for the three grandchildren of the lady of the manor. Only Asher Todd is not who she seems, and her reasons for arriving here are not altruistic. She has two goals at Morwood Grange - one requested from her by the person who sent her there, and another one very personal. As customary for any gothic tale, things won't go well for anyone.
I liked Asher Todd, and I really rooted for her to accomplish her goals and win... until I slowly discovered what those goals were and who she was doing all this for. Then I rooted for her to finally break free of her past and the unhealthy hold her mother has on her. Because Asher never lived for herself a day in her life. Her mother made sure every breath she took was full of guilt and sense of duty. I'm glad that Asher managed to tear herself free of Morwood in the end.
The other inhabitants of Morwood Grange are rather depictable human beings. I was happy that they got their just desserts in the end. That whole house was like a big jar full of poisonous spiders ready to sting each other to death. The only innocents there were the children, so I'm glad they were spared.
I liked how the author introduced the world and slowly wove details from Asher's past into the unfolding story of Morwood Grange. And even though the book dragged a little in the dreaded middle, it still managed to keep me invested in Asher's quest. I will definitely check out other books by this author.
PS: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was one dark tale. I don't know if I should categorize it as a fairy tale or a gothic tale or just historical fantasy, but that doesn't particularly matter, does it? It's a good book.
The world is reminiscent of Victorian England, only with traces of magic still around, and magical creatures still lurking in the shadows of everyday life (though who is to say that is not the case in our world as well?).
Asher Todd arrives at a remote manor in a remote village to assume the role of governess for the three grandchildren of the lady of the manor. Only Asher Todd is not who she seems, and her reasons for arriving here are not altruistic. She has two goals at Morwood Grange - one requested from her by the person who sent her there, and another one very personal. As customary for any gothic tale, things won't go well for anyone.
I liked Asher Todd, and I really rooted for her to accomplish her goals and win... until I slowly discovered what those goals were and who she was doing all this for. Then I rooted for her to finally break free of her past and the unhealthy hold her mother has on her. Because Asher never lived for herself a day in her life. Her mother made sure every breath she took was full of guilt and sense of duty. I'm glad that Asher managed to tear herself free of Morwood in the end.
The other inhabitants of Morwood Grange are rather depictable human beings. I was happy that they got their just desserts in the end. That whole house was like a big jar full of poisonous spiders ready to sting each other to death. The only innocents there were the children, so I'm glad they were spared.
I liked how the author introduced the world and slowly wove details from Asher's past into the unfolding story of Morwood Grange. And even though the book dragged a little in the dreaded middle, it still managed to keep me invested in Asher's quest. I will definitely check out other books by this author.
PS: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
October 14, 2024
Wow, this one was dark. Not blood and guts, sword fighting dark although there was plenty of blood but creepy and morally uncertain kind of dark. Asher Todd is a witch but at the beginning you think she is a minor, sort of learning how to be a witch, witch. That slowly changes and by the end, you realize how capable she is.
It was a bit of an odd journey. I kept thinking how foreshaddowing, when done well is a good hook to keep you reading. Foreshaddowing when done ad nauseum just irritates me, like get to the point already. Path of Thorns just skirted the line between teaser and irritation.
The last third of the book was what sold it for me, all the mysteries and plans and dynamics became clearer and gripping, the ending was completely telegraphed while remaining emotionally impactful.
As usual the best books give you insights into humanity, good and bad, this one was all about dysfunctional family and breaking (or strengthening) the chains of abuse. Asher Todd made promises she probably shouldn't but family complicates everything.
I might try The Briar Book which is also set in this universe.
It was a bit of an odd journey. I kept thinking how foreshaddowing, when done well is a good hook to keep you reading. Foreshaddowing when done ad nauseum just irritates me, like get to the point already. Path of Thorns just skirted the line between teaser and irritation.
The last third of the book was what sold it for me, all the mysteries and plans and dynamics became clearer and gripping, the ending was completely telegraphed while remaining emotionally impactful.
As usual the best books give you insights into humanity, good and bad, this one was all about dysfunctional family and breaking (or strengthening) the chains of abuse. Asher Todd made promises she probably shouldn't but family complicates everything.
I might try The Briar Book which is also set in this universe.
June 1, 2022
The Path of Thorns is a standalone book in Slatter’s Sourdough universe, a secondary world rather reminiscent of early Victorian England, where wise women are good for all kinds of interventions, be it a potion, or a story. I still haven’t read all of the Sourdough stories – a fact I need to remedy – but I loved Slatter’s last novel in this world, All the Murmuring Bones, and so have been looking forward to this book immensely.
And it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.
The Path of Thorns tells us the story of Asher Todd, a governess who has worked her way into the household of a manor lord, in order to seek vengeance on behalf of her mother, who was wronged in ways that are slowly revealed over the course of the novel. Atmosphere is where Slatter excels, and this book was excellent in that regard; there is a cold, damp and foreboding feeling that settles over the entire novel. The plot largely sticks to a lot of the hallmarks of gothic literature – misty moors, and a ghost in the locked spare bedroom – but it was much darker in tone than I was anticipating, and I was genuinely surprised by the lengths Asher was willing to go in pursuit of justice.
Because frankly, this is not a happy book. It made me angry, it made me sad, it made me feel frustrated and so, so tired of sexism and all the injustices, little and small, that eat away at women in our society on a daily basis. Yet, it’s also cathartic; Asher Todd is downtrodden, bitter, and a victim of her own delusional attempts to cling to what little scraps of affection she’s given, lest they slip away. But her deep rage somehow manifests itself as compassion for those who suffer under the same patriarchal systems, and a dogged determination to help others find peace. There’s also a sense of righteousness in watching Asher take down those whose only intent is to do harm along the way.
I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re looking for a lighthearted read, but if you’re looking for something to absorb – or possibly magnify – your rage at the world for a few hours, The Path of Thorns absolutely fits the bill.
And it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.
The Path of Thorns tells us the story of Asher Todd, a governess who has worked her way into the household of a manor lord, in order to seek vengeance on behalf of her mother, who was wronged in ways that are slowly revealed over the course of the novel. Atmosphere is where Slatter excels, and this book was excellent in that regard; there is a cold, damp and foreboding feeling that settles over the entire novel. The plot largely sticks to a lot of the hallmarks of gothic literature – misty moors, and a ghost in the locked spare bedroom – but it was much darker in tone than I was anticipating, and I was genuinely surprised by the lengths Asher was willing to go in pursuit of justice.
Because frankly, this is not a happy book. It made me angry, it made me sad, it made me feel frustrated and so, so tired of sexism and all the injustices, little and small, that eat away at women in our society on a daily basis. Yet, it’s also cathartic; Asher Todd is downtrodden, bitter, and a victim of her own delusional attempts to cling to what little scraps of affection she’s given, lest they slip away. But her deep rage somehow manifests itself as compassion for those who suffer under the same patriarchal systems, and a dogged determination to help others find peace. There’s also a sense of righteousness in watching Asher take down those whose only intent is to do harm along the way.
I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re looking for a lighthearted read, but if you’re looking for something to absorb – or possibly magnify – your rage at the world for a few hours, The Path of Thorns absolutely fits the bill.
November 13, 2023
Full 5 out of 5 shining stars. Slatter is a master of dark fairy tale-esque fantasy. I loved every minute of this story and shall recommend it far and wide.
It was also cool seeing both Sourdough and Other Stories and Of Sorrow and Such referenced!
It was also cool seeing both Sourdough and Other Stories and Of Sorrow and Such referenced!
November 29, 2024
This was an angry, feminist, feminine-supportive gothic novel. I loved how it tackled generational trauma, socialization, consequence and the patriarchal society we form.
CONTENT WARNING:
Things to love:
-Asher. So relatable. A girl who is smart, compassionate, wants to be loved, and is smart enough to see when she's self-abandoning, but not strong enough to always advocate for her own wants. Which...who among us is able to preserve her boundaries 100% of the time?
-Moorwood Grange. All of the women characters--and a few of the men--in this estate are so easy to understand. Those who haven't been absolutely battered are trying very hard to make a life that is a little better than the one they were raised to expect. Those who have been battered are trying to self preserve. Men who have never been taught consequence do as they please and are shocked if they ever find a repercussion. It's just such an angry, and yet non-judgmental place to examine how everyone tries to survive the patriarchy.
-The writing. Slatter could send me a bill she'd penned and I'd treasure it as a masterwork of literature. Gosh can she write.
Why isn't this 5 stars?:
-Internal consistency. I think a few of the women in this book are meant to show us the complacency and complicity of women who are given power by men, but it sort of shorts out a little.
-The romance. I didn't buy it. If the male love interest had done to me what this one did, let me tell you, there would have needed to have been groveling and abasement before the sex happened. There were much nicer men to have sex with. I'm not sure what I was supposed to take from this except that, for many women, the head wants liberation, and the loins want what society says a man is. If this was the intention, I wanted it to be explored more.
A great pseudo-Irish story with a lot of refreshing themes and a lot to talk about.
CONTENT WARNING:
Things to love:
-Asher. So relatable. A girl who is smart, compassionate, wants to be loved, and is smart enough to see when she's self-abandoning, but not strong enough to always advocate for her own wants. Which...who among us is able to preserve her boundaries 100% of the time?
-Moorwood Grange. All of the women characters--and a few of the men--in this estate are so easy to understand. Those who haven't been absolutely battered are trying very hard to make a life that is a little better than the one they were raised to expect. Those who have been battered are trying to self preserve. Men who have never been taught consequence do as they please and are shocked if they ever find a repercussion. It's just such an angry, and yet non-judgmental place to examine how everyone tries to survive the patriarchy.
-The writing. Slatter could send me a bill she'd penned and I'd treasure it as a masterwork of literature. Gosh can she write.
Why isn't this 5 stars?:
-Internal consistency. I think a few of the women in this book are meant to show us the complacency and complicity of women who are given power by men, but it sort of shorts out a little.
-The romance. I didn't buy it. If the male love interest had done to me what this one did, let me tell you, there would have needed to have been groveling and abasement before the sex happened. There were much nicer men to have sex with. I'm not sure what I was supposed to take from this except that, for many women, the head wants liberation, and the loins want what society says a man is. If this was the intention, I wanted it to be explored more.
A great pseudo-Irish story with a lot of refreshing themes and a lot to talk about.
November 19, 2025
La reseña completa en https://inthenevernever.blogspot.com/...
«Érase una vez una niña tonta que obedeció una y otra vez, aunque la voz de su cabecita le decía que no estaba haciendo lo correcto. Pero ignoró esa voz y se acostumbró a hacer cosas oscuras, hasta que al final no pudo distinguir las sombras de la luz».
Justo hoy, el blog cumple doce años. Si alguien me hubiera dicho en 2013, cuando me animé a publicar mi primera reseña, que en 2025 estaría aún dedicando gran parte de mi tiempo libre a compartir mis lecturas y todas las alegrías que me traería mi pequeño rincón en Internet, seguramente no le hubiese creído. Así que no se me ocurre mejor manera de celebrar este aniversario que recomendándoles un libro que entró directo a mi lista de favoritos del año: Una senda de espinas, de Angela Slatter. Una novela gótica en la que la autora australiana se pregunta: ¿qué pasaría si Jane Eyre conociera al doctor Frankenstein? Y el resultado es espectacular. Aunque es una novela completamente independiente, está ambientada en el mismo universo que De conjuras y otras penas y Masa madre (y otros relatos), lo que la hace aún mejor.
«Érase una vez una niña tonta que obedeció una y otra vez, aunque la voz de su cabecita le decía que no estaba haciendo lo correcto. Pero ignoró esa voz y se acostumbró a hacer cosas oscuras, hasta que al final no pudo distinguir las sombras de la luz».
Justo hoy, el blog cumple doce años. Si alguien me hubiera dicho en 2013, cuando me animé a publicar mi primera reseña, que en 2025 estaría aún dedicando gran parte de mi tiempo libre a compartir mis lecturas y todas las alegrías que me traería mi pequeño rincón en Internet, seguramente no le hubiese creído. Así que no se me ocurre mejor manera de celebrar este aniversario que recomendándoles un libro que entró directo a mi lista de favoritos del año: Una senda de espinas, de Angela Slatter. Una novela gótica en la que la autora australiana se pregunta: ¿qué pasaría si Jane Eyre conociera al doctor Frankenstein? Y el resultado es espectacular. Aunque es una novela completamente independiente, está ambientada en el mismo universo que De conjuras y otras penas y Masa madre (y otros relatos), lo que la hace aún mejor.
October 4, 2024
A spooky, Gothic tale!
September 21, 2024
Excellent gothic tale with a different sort of (anti?) heroine.
June 28, 2022
https://lynns-books.com/2022/06/28/th...
My Five Word TL:DR Review : I couldn’t love it more
Wow, this book. I just loved it. I really enjoyed All The Murmuring Bones by this author and was super excited for The Path of Thorns which is set in the same universe. This is the gothic, dark, fairytale that I’ve been waiting for and I loved it without a single reservation. Think Jane Eyre but with less a focus on the two central characters and the love they develop and more a tale of revenge, difficult promises to keep, witchcraft and much more. Here are dark woods where creatures stalk at night, dark attics where all sorts of wrongs are committed and even a disused surgery just waiting to be revived.
As the story starts we meet Asher Todd as she arrives at the Morwood Family Estate to take up the position of governess. Asher is a strong and capable character, determined not to be afraid of whatever seems to be stalking her through the woods upon her arrival. She carries a carpetbag, many secrets, a few essential bits and bobs and more than one task to be completed.
I’m not going to delve into the plot here as the author plays her cards quite close to her chest and I will do likewise with this review.
The writing is excellent. Slatter manages to create a wonderfully foreboding atmosphere packed with tension and suspense. She keeps the twists coming as Asher slowly inveigles herself into the family life and becomes indispensable not only to the family matriarch but also as a protector of the children and their mother.
On top of all the deliciously dark secrets held within the walls of the house Slatter continues to create a fairy tale world where werewolves roam, ghosts rage and witches keep tight lipped about their abilities and she weaves into the tale themes of domestic abuse and sexual inequality. In fact it’s amazing how much Asher is able to get away with simply because people often underestimate her.
So, I don’t have any criticisms for this story but I would mention that it is dark, and I don’t say that lightly. There may be a strong fairytale vibe but don’t let that lull you into thinking this is akin to a Disney retelling because nothing could be further from the truth so be warned. Dark content.
All that being said I couldn’t have loved this book more. It’s absolutely my catnip. I loved the strong gothic feel, the setting was perfection, the story compelling and to be blunt, I cannot wait to see what this author does next.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My Five Word TL:DR Review : I couldn’t love it more
Wow, this book. I just loved it. I really enjoyed All The Murmuring Bones by this author and was super excited for The Path of Thorns which is set in the same universe. This is the gothic, dark, fairytale that I’ve been waiting for and I loved it without a single reservation. Think Jane Eyre but with less a focus on the two central characters and the love they develop and more a tale of revenge, difficult promises to keep, witchcraft and much more. Here are dark woods where creatures stalk at night, dark attics where all sorts of wrongs are committed and even a disused surgery just waiting to be revived.
As the story starts we meet Asher Todd as she arrives at the Morwood Family Estate to take up the position of governess. Asher is a strong and capable character, determined not to be afraid of whatever seems to be stalking her through the woods upon her arrival. She carries a carpetbag, many secrets, a few essential bits and bobs and more than one task to be completed.
I’m not going to delve into the plot here as the author plays her cards quite close to her chest and I will do likewise with this review.
The writing is excellent. Slatter manages to create a wonderfully foreboding atmosphere packed with tension and suspense. She keeps the twists coming as Asher slowly inveigles herself into the family life and becomes indispensable not only to the family matriarch but also as a protector of the children and their mother.
On top of all the deliciously dark secrets held within the walls of the house Slatter continues to create a fairy tale world where werewolves roam, ghosts rage and witches keep tight lipped about their abilities and she weaves into the tale themes of domestic abuse and sexual inequality. In fact it’s amazing how much Asher is able to get away with simply because people often underestimate her.
So, I don’t have any criticisms for this story but I would mention that it is dark, and I don’t say that lightly. There may be a strong fairytale vibe but don’t let that lull you into thinking this is akin to a Disney retelling because nothing could be further from the truth so be warned. Dark content.
All that being said I couldn’t have loved this book more. It’s absolutely my catnip. I loved the strong gothic feel, the setting was perfection, the story compelling and to be blunt, I cannot wait to see what this author does next.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
June 2, 2022
2.5 ⭐️ A slow-moving stand alone without a strong sense of world / magic system building
Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve never read any of A G Slatter’s books before this one but I loved the cover and I was really intrigued.The main reason I struggled with this book was that it didn’t feel like it had a strong enough sense of world building so that I didn’t really understand any aspect of the society including the religious beliefs or magic system.
Since finishing this book i’ve done a little research and it seems that A G Slatter has written multiple books that are all in the same world but can be read as standalone’s however I felt like this wasn’t reflected in the writing and I was left wondering if I’d understand the world and magic system better if I had read the other books. Having read Tessonja Odette’s Entangled With Fae Books (standalone’s that are in the same world with some overlapping characters) I feel like that’s a good example of how The Path of Thorns could have been stronger.
Even after finishing this book, I’m still not clear on magic within this world, and even less clear about Asher’s magical abilities- I’m not sure why she has it, or what the extent of it is or how common those powers are. Even the society’s opinion of magic is a little confusing because within the same town there is talk of ‘Cunning women’ existing (a side character’s grandmother) but equally Asher mentions being worried about being tried/killed for Witchcraft.
I had some issues with the writing style and it was quite antiquated which was probably done to give an idea of time period but made it difficult to read at times. Sadly this book was also quite slow, and there didn’t seem to be any real hints or bread crumbs to allow you to theorise or start to understand what was happening until half way through the book! It did start to pick up the pace after the half way mark and it was faithful to the gothic genre however this wasn’t enough to make it more than a 2.5 star read for me. ☹️
Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve never read any of A G Slatter’s books before this one but I loved the cover and I was really intrigued.The main reason I struggled with this book was that it didn’t feel like it had a strong enough sense of world building so that I didn’t really understand any aspect of the society including the religious beliefs or magic system.
Since finishing this book i’ve done a little research and it seems that A G Slatter has written multiple books that are all in the same world but can be read as standalone’s however I felt like this wasn’t reflected in the writing and I was left wondering if I’d understand the world and magic system better if I had read the other books. Having read Tessonja Odette’s Entangled With Fae Books (standalone’s that are in the same world with some overlapping characters) I feel like that’s a good example of how The Path of Thorns could have been stronger.
Even after finishing this book, I’m still not clear on magic within this world, and even less clear about Asher’s magical abilities- I’m not sure why she has it, or what the extent of it is or how common those powers are. Even the society’s opinion of magic is a little confusing because within the same town there is talk of ‘Cunning women’ existing (a side character’s grandmother) but equally Asher mentions being worried about being tried/killed for Witchcraft.
I had some issues with the writing style and it was quite antiquated which was probably done to give an idea of time period but made it difficult to read at times. Sadly this book was also quite slow, and there didn’t seem to be any real hints or bread crumbs to allow you to theorise or start to understand what was happening until half way through the book! It did start to pick up the pace after the half way mark and it was faithful to the gothic genre however this wasn’t enough to make it more than a 2.5 star read for me. ☹️
August 21, 2022
I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Path of Thorns was a really fun gothic book to dive into. I honestly couldn't even tell you the last gothic-themed book I've read. This year that is. The horror, gore, and mystery kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire time.
Then there's Asher Todd, our main character, who was so freaking intriguing to me. Mostly because she's the new governess to the Morwood family. Oh, then there's the fact that she has a huge secret too. One filled with lots of yummy revenge that I couldn't wait to see.
Asher was such a good character. I mean totally morally grey and everything, but I still loved her. Her overall plans of revenge kept the pages flying. If I could change one thing, it would be the hints of romance. I just feel like it was filler and not needed. If this was just focused on the revenge and everything else, I would have given this a higher rating.
In the end, this was such a good book and I'm so happy that I got the chance to jump into this.
The Path of Thorns was a really fun gothic book to dive into. I honestly couldn't even tell you the last gothic-themed book I've read. This year that is. The horror, gore, and mystery kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire time.
Then there's Asher Todd, our main character, who was so freaking intriguing to me. Mostly because she's the new governess to the Morwood family. Oh, then there's the fact that she has a huge secret too. One filled with lots of yummy revenge that I couldn't wait to see.
Asher was such a good character. I mean totally morally grey and everything, but I still loved her. Her overall plans of revenge kept the pages flying. If I could change one thing, it would be the hints of romance. I just feel like it was filler and not needed. If this was just focused on the revenge and everything else, I would have given this a higher rating.
In the end, this was such a good book and I'm so happy that I got the chance to jump into this.
September 12, 2022
Umm not sure whether to call this a witch book or a wolf book. And also, the entire context of the Morwoods in the beginning was boring. If you’re going to introduce a truly weird and rich family, make them Addams-family-ish. Not just rich and annoying. Second half of book was cool.
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