Natalie Monroe's Reviews > The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

4.5 stars

"In the year that summer stayed too long, the heat lay upon the prairie with the weight of a corpse."

Can we please talk about what a goddamn gift of a writer Leigh is? Beautiful writing, to me, isn't how many constellations you can find in a love interest's freckles, or stringing together a tinsel chain of adjectives, but the ability to reinvent words. Look at that sentence. It captures the fly-buzzing, desolate atmosphere perfectly while lending a new dimension to the word corpse.



These stories are lush, thorny creatures. Each and every one of them comes with a twist. They challenge traditional fairy tales through modern morals and values—wicked sisters may not always be what they see, magic might not always follow rules.

There's very little I can say without coming off as cheap or sentimental. The Language of Thorns is a work best experienced.

So instead I'm going to give out awards.

The Creepy AF Award goes to the Kerch tale The Soldier Prince. Primarily a Nutcracker retelling, all I can say is, if this what Kaz and everyone in Ketterdam grew up listening to, no wonder they turned out to be morally deficient, gun-wielding gangsters.

Mother's Favorite goes to the Zemini-originated Ayama and the Thorn Wood. Reason? We get an extra three stories sealed in one because Ayama takes the One Thousand & Nights road in beast-slaying.

The coveted Fan-Voted Award goes to When Water Sang Fire from Fjerda. Not a spoiler, Bardugo mentioned on social media a known character would make an appearance and posted a fairly obvious excerpt. (No, I won't tell you who is)

Me, personally, didn't enjoy it as much because it shared a bit too many similarities to Marissa Meyer's the Little Mermaid retelling from Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy. (view spoiler)[It ruined the ending for me (hide spoiler)] However, the plot of When Water Sang Fire is far superior, as are the writing and characters.

As for our returning champions, Ravkan folklore which had been published online for free before this collection, I present...

A Tale Worthy of Kaz and Inej to The Too-Clever Fox. Fyi, Bardugo said this would be Kaz's favorite fairy tale.

A Darker Version of Hansel and Gretel If That's Even Possible Award goes to The Witch of Duva. Helpful warning not to read this over milk and cookies.

And finally, for The Little Knife, the Hufflepuff Award because it's equally brilliant and Helga Hufflepuff is an equal opportunist.

"But as you leave that dark gap in the trees behind, remember that to use a thing is not to own it. And should you ever take a bride, listen closely to her questions. In them you may hear her true name like the thunder of a lost river, like the sighing of the sea."