Title: The Gilded Wolves
Author: Roshani Chokshi
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release date: Jan 15th 2019
Rating: 4/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Would I let my kid read this? 100%
I was lucky enough to receive a digital ARC from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review, thank you!!!
The summary from Goodreads
Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.
To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can't yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.
Together, they'll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.
The Plot
In short - this is a heist story. It is also a story of magic, friendship, puzzles, and history. There are a lot of themes packed into this book and it moved along at a steady pace. By the end I wished that it was the second book about to be released, not the first! I was so wrapped up when it ended that I just wanted the book to keep going, probably in part due to the baby cliff hanger. where no one was dying or in imminent danger, nothing crazy happening, but a firm hook is set and you know you are going to be eagerly awaiting the next installment!
The Characters
The Gilded Wolves had me wanting to crush on half of the characters before I realized they were all teenagers. I am not going to go into individual characters here but they are a band of misfits. They are a pretty typical group on the surface - awkward girl, fake girl, braniac, the immature one, the moody leader...but under the surface and throughout the book their secrets are told and they become dear to the reader, or at least to me they did. The point of view switches between four of them - I think - throughout the book, with one exception that made sense at the end. I had noticed his missing voice before the end and was going to bring it up, but now....well, what would it say?
The Writing
Chokshi has an unbelievably poetic writing style. My favorite passage was this:
Kisses were to be witnessed by stars, not held in the presence of stale death. But as the bones rose up around them, Laila saw fractals of white. Pale constellations of bone. And she thought that, perhaps, for a kiss like this , even hell would put forth its stars
The descriptions throughout the book were flowery almost to the point of excess, but not quite. Her world is full of magic and she did an amazing job bringing it to life. This book is meant to be savored, not skimmed. I only skimmed when the one character started rambling about math and puzzles, those descriptions were not my brain's favorite. I also didn't mind the multiple points of views as it was not repetitive and kept the story moving.
Overall Impression:
As I write this I feel like I should have given it five stars, but it was a little drawn out at times and I was jarred by the last few chapters. You all know how I LOVE endings that just wreck your life...you might have to read the last few chapters a couple times and contain your meltdown, but that's OK❤ The book mainly has positive relationships, clean language, and is lgbq+, but it doesn't really read like a young adult book and I know adults can get into it too. In that spirit I would say yes, let your young adults read this (then read it after). Anyway, I give it a solid 4/5 stars and would recommend to anyone who likes heists, fantasy, magic, young adult, fiction, or a good book in general!
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