Rating: ★★★☆☆
I feel like sometime in my countless hours on Goodreads and Booktube I heard this described as a Six of Crows 2.o/knockoff (depending on how good you think it is). For me, it's more on the side of knockoff. I think I have distinct positive and negatives for most aspects of the book, that even it out to being a solid three stars.
Concept:
The concept is really interesting. I like how there's a fantastical element, but the setting is 1889 Paris. I also liked how there's the Tower of Babel incorporation. However, I think the concept should have been one or the other. A general comment on the book is that there's just way too much going on at once, so either the World Exposition should have been the main focus, or the Babel Fragments. Having both at the same time just made for a bit of a headache while reading.
Plot:
One thing I think is really important when reading is the entertainment quality. This book was entertaining. Like most standalone/1st in a series fantasy books, the beginning is slow to warm up, but once you get into the thick of it, you are intrigued to know how things turn out. That being said, the plot on a technical level feels disjointed. It's almost as if the author started out with the beginning of the book, then wrote each chapter by itself, constantly trying to bring in new aspects of the Magic, or new artifacts, or new characters. I honestly just couldn't keep it all straight and it was frustrating. There are just too many plot directions and supplements related to the magic system to fully understand and appreciate everything.
Characters:
For the most part, the characters are very well done. I'm a little bit in love with Zofia, and I was totally charmed by Enrique. I love how the 3rd-person shifting viewpoint adds to the characters, so we can really see the world as they do. We get a cynical tone with Enrique, a dark tone from Séverin, etc.
As for Séverin himself... If we're still making comparisons to Six of Crows, Séverin is a major disappointment as a stand-in Kaz Brekker. He's not nearly as smart/calculating; whereas Kaz is always two steps ahead, Séverin falls into a major trap in the very beginning of the novel. I'm conflicted about how I feel about this. On one hand, it makes Séverin more human which makes the story more compelling, but at the same time Kaz is just way cooler. It's just like, Séverin talks a big game, but he doesn't really back it up with actions. I would say Séverin is consistently shaped by the plot, whereas Kaz shapes the plot, so I guess it depends on what kind of book you're looking for. For a multi-character book about using individual skillsets to pull off a heist (the plot/structure of both Six of Crows and The Gilded Wolves), I would be looking for a character-driven novel in which case Kaz is a more compelling character. Again, that's just a comparison to a very similar book that I think did some things better than this one.
Another character I didn't love was Laila. I appreciated her emotion, and I think her backstory from India and how she was "made" is really interesting, but she's again too disjointed. She has so many interests and roles in the novel that it feels like they should've just made another female character to take on some of those roles. She's a down-to-Earth baker, she's a flamboyant broadway dancer (I know the novel makes a point about how she's different to the public and in private, but honestly I don't see that much of a difference because she's still the wardrobe/make-up person in her private life), but she also is a classically trained dancer IRL, she can "read" objects, she's [something???] with Tristan, she had sex with Séverin ONE TIME two years ago and will never forget it... There's just way too much going on. You can have character depth without making a character drown in things that are supposed to make them interesting/drive the plot.
Relationships:
I appreciate that romance is not a driving force in this novel. It is definitely meant to be more of an accessory than a main plot point, which I think works well in these kind of fantasy novels. But did we have to ruin that by talking about Laila and Séverin's one steamy night every other chapter? Every time Laila and Séverin, like, SEE each other, they flashback to "his skin against mine" or some other god-awful sex cliche. It got very tiring. And again, I was confused because I thought in the first half of the novel it was implied that Laila and Tristan were together, so that just changed my comprehension of all Laila's romantic encounters. Also I was shipping Enrique and Zofia SO HARD and then Hypnos swoops in like whaddup I'm here to steal your girlllll, like what?! Grrrr. And then Zofia skips the party when she sees them together, and you KNOW that Enrique is really into her and not Hypnos... (Side note: Who names a character of Hypnos's personality/age/standing "Hypnos"? Yes, I know the mythological significance, but it still sucks as a name for him.)
Language:
I wouldn't normally include language in my book reviews, but some of the language here did not sit well with me. First of all, I know we give YA fantasy novels a lot of lenience in using dramatic cliches, but "She tasted impossible. Like candied moonlight." Seriously... that's bad. Also, I feel like the author was not always mindful that this story took place in the 19th century when writing the dialogue. Using phrases like "all the rage"... I don't know, something with the language and dialogue just doesn't fit with the setting.
Overall thoughts:
I like the concepts, I like the entertainment value of the plot, I like most of the characters, I just think that all of it should have been cut in half. Half of the artifacts and magic things, half of the character's divergent personalities, half of the plot points should have just been thrown out. The novel is entertaining at the same time as it is messy and disjointed.
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