giving authors a second chance.
As part of the Final FMC Readathon, my team (The Goths 🦇) has a special prompt that gives us a bunch of points so we can try and escape that week’s killer. It’s all very fun and slasher-y, and it has allowed me the opportunity to give Ava Reid’s work another try.
I suppose Ava Reid is known for her… dark(ish) fantasy novels? The Wolf and the Woodsman, Juniper & Thorn, A Study in Drowning; all titles that play around with eerie and somber aesthetics and promise tension and danger and angst. (Side note to acknowledge her Lady Macbeth retelling that was surprisingly xenophobic). The premises of her novels always sound right up my alley, but the execution never manages to capture my attention. I bounce off the writing pretty quickly or am disappointed by plot development.
And then Innamorata was published \o/
To be clear, I’m only about 25% into my digital copy as of writing this post. There’s still plenty of time for something to go against my reading tastes and make me drop this. HOWEVER!!! I am loving the worldbuilding in such a way that I am more willing to ignore underwhelming plot twists, characters that make questionable decisions, and possibly childish romance arcs. I want to know more about this universe and the people in it and how it will all fall apart!
Also, important to mention: the writing here is very different from what I’ve tried from her before. Growth! I find the style perfectly matches the story so far and works well to paint a horrifying picture. Just how I like it!
Really, though. Who knew a bag of teeth and grotesque funeral traditions would be the elements that make me enjoy an Ava Reid novel? I am so enamored by this creepy little world with its Houses and weird/gross rituals. I really hope the plot continues to intrigue me fingers crossed since, so far, I am so damn curious about what’s going to happen.
I hope more death and gruesome stuff with teeth, please. And more cannibalism. Please.