Amanda Thai’s Reviews > Stain > Status Update

One of the most enchanting books I've read in a long time. Here's an excerpt from my review to come:
'Stain is a book that values darkness and night not for their contrast to the light, as a realm of sin and secrets and escape and edge, but for it's inherent beauty and comfort.'

It blows my mind that this book is a standalone. Howard could've easily easily stretched this out into a series but I applaud her for choosing a standalone instead.

Compared to Howard's Splintered series, which though I adore, I admit relies on its vivid descriptions, Stain is driven by its rich characters and history. It is much more maturely crafted and shows her prowess as a writer.

These characters are so wonderfully compelling. Their dynamics with each other are great but especially as individual people their complexity really shines

This book is restoring my love of reading and also of writing. It's keeping me hooked and reading until nearly 3 in the morning. The characters are rich and complex, the fairy tale deftly woven and far from a simplistic retelling. Despite most of the book so far being set in the Ashen Ravine, this book is truly gorgeous.

I DNFed this back in July of last year. I was getting too busy with uni and social life to read, and that was how the rest of 2019 went. Now that I'm finished with uni, I'm hoping to make a lot more time for reading. I'm not done with this book. I will return and finish it.

I love how this isn’t your typical dark fairytale. I love the rich worldbuilding and character backstories and how elements of the traditional fairytales are adopted seamlessly into the story.

As per AG Howard's style, this world is rich in description with a heavy emphasis on colour. At the start there was also this cool self-referential moment where the narrator comments on how this story is being told as opposed to other fairytales. I hope that element comes into play later as well. Without it, I feel the writing can become more tell than show.