I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Will and the Wilds by Charlie N. Holmberg Published by 47North on January 21 2020
Genres: Young adult, Fantasy
Pages: 268
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A dark and dangerous tale filled with monsters, magic and hard choices.
A mystium is a crossbreed between a mysting and a mortal. Incredibly rare, as most mystings and mortals are not a reproductive match. One can only assume violence to be involved in their creation.
The Will and the Wilds is a unique, lushly written fairy tale with a dash of romance and plenty of danger, and I really enjoyed it! If you think you’d love a story about a handsome, soul-stealing unicorn-like creature who meets and falls for a young girl with a powerful, magical stone, then you will most likely have fun with this as well.
Enna and her father live at the edge of the wildwoods, a dangerous place where monsters called mystings often appear from another realm, the Deep. Enna has been studying and researching mystings her entire life, after her mother was killed by a pack of grinlers. She grows special herbs that keep mystings away and protect their house, but her main line of defense is a magical gem called a Telling Stone given to her by her father, which grows icy cold whenever a mysting is near.
One evening, Enna’s Telling Stone alerts her that a mysting is nearby, but she doesn’t expect two goblers to attack her in her home. Enna’s father kills one of the goblers, but the other gets away. Enna suspects that they may have been after her Telling Stone, which came from the mysting realm. Enna knows the gobler will be back, so her only choice is to find it and kill it, since she knows it won’t rest until it completes its mission. Enna makes a risky decision to summon another mysting to help her.
Maekallus is a narval, a monster who steals human souls. When he finds himself summoned by a beautiful human, he makes a bargain: he’ll help Enna with her gobler problem, but in return, she must give him a kiss. But Enna knows all about narvals and what their kisses can really do. With no other choice, Enna agrees to the bargain, only to regret it when things go very wrong.
I loved Holmberg’s world of the mystings. It’s sort of like a fae world, where the creatures who live there are able to go back and forth through a type of portal. There are also strict rules that govern the world. When mystings come over to the human realm, they can only stay for a short time before they start disintegrating. Most mystings are dangerous to humans, although many humans can’t even see them. Enna is an exception because of her Telling Stone. There’s also a nice backstory about how Enna’s father snuck into the Deep and stole the Telling Stone for his daughter to protect her, which also explains why he’s slightly addled in the head these days.
I really liked the two main characters, Enna and Maekallus. Enna is fascinated with learning as much as possible about mystings and their hidden realm. She keeps an old journal of her grandmother’s and is constantly scribbling new facts about mystings in the margins. The author includes snippets of these journal entries at the beginning of every chapter, which I thought was a nice touch. And Maekallus is such an interesting character! He has some pretty cool abilities as a narval. He has a sharp horn jutting out of the middle of his forehead that can be removed and used as a spear (!!), a tail with a blade on the end of it, and hooves. He’s also very scary (although in a devastatingly handsome way, lol) and his main gig is stealing human souls with a kiss. I won’t tell you what happens between him and Enna, but let’s just say there is some soul stealing involved (wink wink). We also meet a boy named Tennith who is a potential love interest for Enna—that is until Maekallus comes along. There’s a very funny scene with the three of them, except Tennith can’t see or hear Maekallus, who is making comments about him to Enna. Well, you have to read it for yourself, but I thought it was so well done!
As far as negatives, I did have a couple of issues with the story. First, the pacing lags a little in the middle. At one point in the story, Maekallus is captured and bound by a gobler, which means he’s basically trapped in one place and unable to move very far. This goes on for quite a while, as Enna continually tries to free him, to no avail. It felt as if the characters were going around in circles, both literally and figuratively.
I also found myself wanting to know more about certain world building elements. I felt as if the author whetted our appetites by dropping hints about—for example—Maekallus’s secret origins, and then only offered up cryptic explanations at the end. This is one of those rare examples where the story could have easily been another fifty pages if the author had developed some of her wonderful ideas even further. I was also confused by the ending—which of course I can’t reveal in this review. Some critical events are resolved at the end, but it was rather rushed, and again, I wouldn’t have minded more page time to fully understand what was happening.
I really haven’t told you much about the plot, since I don’t want to spoil things, but a lot goes on in this story, and Holmberg touches on some interesting themes about being human and just what that means. As far as I know, this is a standalone story, but I wouldn’t mind revisiting this fascinating world.
Big thanks to Wunderkind PR and the publisher for supplying a review copy.
Hmm, I am highly intrigued by this! I do love the ‘reluctant allies’ trope where there’s some delicious tension between the two characters who don’t trust each other but need to work together! scary & handsome really works for me too, haha. the issue with the pacing sound a bit annoying, but nothing I can’t deal with, so I think I defs need to get hold of this 😀
The pacing wasn’t a deal breaker for me, hope you enjoy it if you decide to give it a try!
Lovely review! Maekallus’ was definitely a big selling point for me, because how freaking cool is that? I want one. xD I definitely agreed about the world-building. That was my one big disappointment, because I loved this world so much that I felt like it should have been expanded. I really want there to be a next one and maybe expand on all the things this one glazed over, because it felt like there was a really thrilling, harrowing, and obviously dangerous storyline just under the surface, and it was so frustrating to not get to see it!
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Maybe once she hears comments about how we need more information, she’ll decide to write a sequel. Fingers crossed!
Great review! I just KNOW I would love this story from everything you said in your review. It sounds so magical and amazing!
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Review: Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau
Thanks Stephanie, it’s so creative!
Have you ever noticed how many fairy tale/fantasy stories begin with characters who live at the edge of some wild wood? ;D This YA book sounds like fun, although I don’t love it when authors rush their ending.
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I actually love stories that take place near a wooded area, because there is always something dangerous in the woods:-)
I feel like Holmberg does have some difficulty with pacing in her other novels too but I know this and have been able to accept it and simply overlook it a bit in her books now 😛 Her ideas and concepts are always so out of this world and crazy but I am always impressed with how she manages to make them work?! I am excited to read this one ^.^
Olivia Roach recently posted…4 Mini Reviews: Shakespeare Edition [Part 2]
She’s so imaginative, and I seriously would read another book in this same world:-)
I’ve only read one of Holmberg’s novels so far but I really enjoyed how unique and magical it was. Sounds like this one might be up my alley as well. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
She really knows how to build a fascinating world, that’s for sure.
This does sound unique, and like it has a lot of cool creatures, and I’m glad you liked it! I do think I might like a book about a soul stealing unicorn-like creature. Spear horn and blade tale definitely caught my attention lol.
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Maekallus was definitely unique!
Still on the fence about this, but from the sound of things, I think it might work better for me than her last book I read!
I liked it a lot more than the last one I read, for sure.
Glad you liked this one, Tammy! I agree the world building wasn’t super fleshed out here and would like to know a bit more about this world.
I think she just needed more pages to really give us a full view of her world.
You have absolutely sold me on this story. Your enthusiasm about the creativity and fun is infections, so I’ll be adding this book to my reading soon. Question, though: is there a lot of the, what is now common, YA romance stuff that feels so….COMMON? I don’t typically read YA because I feel like I’m getting the same exact story over and over and over.
I thought the romance was very subtle. You might be talking about some tropes like love triangles, which isn’t in this book. But romance definitely isn’t the focus!
This one sounds interesting to me or maybe I’m just curious. Either way, I’m adding it to my TBR.
It’s definitely interesting:-)
Aw, this sounds unique!
Very unique! Her worldbuilding was my favorite thing.
What a beautiful cover. After reading your review I am so intrigued by this book. Thank you for sharing.
I adore this cover too, it’s so magical!
I like the sound of this, so with your little niggles in mind, I will add this to my wishlist.
Lynn 😀
It has some lovely ideas and world building:-)
Oooh, i like Charlie N. Holmberg! I rarely read fantasy but her stuff is the sort of fantasy i actually quite enjoy. The paper magician series was really cool and i loved the story about the village with dolls.
This is going on the list 😀
I’m very curious to check out The Paper Magician now:-)
I’m torn- on the one hand, the world building does sound like a lot of fun, the story sounds fairy tale-ish and unique.
On the other hand- the characters running around in circles and lack of details about some parts sounds like something that would frustrate me pretty heavily. Either way- excellent review as always!
Thanks Sarah. I didn’t love the last book of hers I read, but I’m glad I picked this up.
This looks good!
It sounds like this has a lot of interesting magical creatures! And their names are really great!