Author: Lynn Buchanan
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 / 5
Medium: Paperback
Synopsis
In the country called One, dollmakers are vital members of the community. An artisan’s doll is the height of society’s accomplishments, while a guard’s doll is the only thing standing between the people of One and the Shod, vicious, cobbled monstrosities that will tear apart any structure—living or dead, inanimate or otherwise—to add to their horde.
Apprentice Shean of Pearl is a brilliant dollmaker and considers herself destined to be a guard dollmaker. So when she’s denied the guard license, she is infuriated and attempts to seek a new path for herself. She travels to a remote village called Web, to gain wisdom from Ikiisa, a reclusive and well-respected guard dollmaker. Except Shean has another plan: to replace Ikiisa as the village dollmaker. And she will stop at nothing, not even calling the Shod to Web…
My Thoughts (Spoiler Free)
I started this book a few days ago but read about 90% of it yesterday to finish. It was one of those books that just completely hooked me and time passed without me realizing
Firstly, I want to talk about the author’s synopsis of the book: a dark cozy fantasy. I did not get many cozy vibes from this book. There weren’t many calm doll-making scenes or peaceful nature settings that I could’ve expected from a cozier version of this book. The main character, as is obvious from the first few chapters, is a bit unhinged, and quite arrogant. Top it off with some graphic descriptions of the killings by the Shod, and I feel like all pretense of being cozy is gone. Even the stakes aren’t low, as typical in a cozy setting. Unless you add the word “dark” to it, I suppose? This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy this book, just saying that the genre the author is going for seems a bit tenuous.
Moving on to the characters, let’s start with Shean, the main protagonist(?). I’m still not quite sure how I feel about her. I wanted to like her, but like I said, she was a bit unhinged and overconfident, despite never having truly been tested in her skills. But it is a skill to write a character that’s so easy to dislike, so I commend the author for that. I imagine a lot more people would resonate with Ikiisa, given her reclusive and much more under-confident nature, despite her skills and experience. The other characters were not bad, though a little flat and not explored as much as they could’ve been.
The magic system and world-building were the best part about this book, in my opinion. The whole idea of dolls was really interesting and brings up a lot of fun questions about what these dolls really are; where they get their powers from; what is the extent of “life” that’s within them. And beyond the dolls, what else is possible in this world. The book doesn’t go too deep into the origins or the details of the magic system, but rather focuses on the applications of it, primarily though the dolls. But it does leave a lot of room for possibilities. I can see it easily being 6-800 pages long if it truly went into depth with regards to everything, the characters, the world, the history. I hope we get to learn more in possible sequels
Spoilers Ahead
Going back to talk about Shean, it was pretty obvious that Shean, with her “I am the best. I am always right” attitude was gonna get her comeuppance soon enough. It just happened so suddenly, and permanently, it felt a bit unrealistic, regardless of how satisfying it was. She got an entirely new personality overnight with one Shod attack.
On a similar note, this book did suffer from a lot of coincidences and predictability. The Shod attack happens the same day as Shean gets the job. Ikiisa was Shean’s hero from The Red Tide, Bobble being the doll that saved her. Roque’s entire existence. They all seem to be nice, convenient ways to bring things together.
Outside of that, I have very few complaints from the book. I just wantes more. Specifically more details about the magic system, answers to questions I mentioned above. Near the end of the book, the author does hint to other types of magic than just dolls. And even the dolls leave a lot of room for further exploration. Clearly, Shean’s dolls are very different from everyone else’s, so there’s a lot more nuance to dolls than we were led to believe. And at its core, are these dolls alive? Are the Shod? I am hoping sequels will go deeper into all this.
Final thought, does the word “shod” look like “dolls” backwards to anyone else, with one of the ‘l’s bent, almost like how the shod were disfigured dolls?
Kavi Reads 
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