Review: Other Words For Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin
Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin Published by titan Books on March 12, 2019
ISBN: 9780062408938
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Social Themes, Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance, Monsters, LGBT
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
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Twins Mae and Rossa’s summer away from home becomes life altering when they discover a house full of witches, experience devastating first love, and face a dark power beyond any imagining.
Sarah Maria Griffin’s haunting and literary sophomore novel explores the balance between love and fear, weakness and power, and the lengths one will go to claim one’s freedom. For fans of Libba Bray’s The Diviners and Maggie Stiefvater’s All the Crooked Saints.
When the women from the house at the end of the lane went missing, none of the townspeople knew what happened. A tragedy, they called it. Only twins Mae and Rossa know the truth about that fateful summer.
Only they know about the owl in the wall, the uncanny cat, the insidious creatures that devour love and fear. Only they know the trials of loving someone who longs for power, for freedom, for magic. Only they know what brought everything tumbling down around them. And they’ll never, ever breathe a word.
With an unusual structure spanning five summers, intriguing characters, and a dark mystery, this uncommon novel will appeal to readers of Rin Chupeco’s The Bone Witch and Madeleine Roux’s House of Furies.
A Beautiful story with such poetic flow. A strong and prominent storyteller. A story that seeps magic, betrayal and wonder straight from the heart of the pages. The author uses the English language like an artist uses a muse. It’s well-crafted and unique.
The synopsis jumped out from the screen at me. I just adore anything magic. Talking cats, magical creatures behind wallpaper and a mysterious room with neon lights. I loved everything this book stood for. The cover is beautiful, and it just screamed for you to read it. The horror side of the story really took me by surprise, and on the most part it worked very well.
The story follows twin siblings, Mae and Rossi. They have sent to their Great Aunt’s for the summer. The mum and dad seem to have major problems and it seems like a great idea for the twins to spend the rest of the summer with an aunt that he have barely seen or had any contact with. It’s a summer of witchy delirium and figuring out what your place is in the world. The story for sure epitomises the expectation of how summer holidays feel at the age of fourteen. If ever there was a strong representation of an Irish story this is it. The descriptions, the language and the folklore that the author incorporated into the story was heart-warming.
There was certain things that I couldn’t gel with no matter how much I wanted to love the premise of the story. I finished the book and didn’t really know how to feel about it. I usually know by about a couple of chapters if I’m going to love or hate a book but with this one, I’m not sure if I felt either. The prologue starts at the very end and then tells the story backwards if you will. We flip between several point of views and at times it can be difficult to follow which direction and with whom its headed in. There were a number of big revelations/ events that with the writing didn’t appear to be very big at all. There should have been more explanation, more emphasis on whether these were extraordinary things or not. I found myself flicking backwards to work out if they were going to be big things, in general I just felt mightily confused.
It’s more a story of self-discovery. A journey from being a teen into an adult. Life can be difficult, and we don’t always get what we want. Its definitely a right of passage story. Love can hurt, and so can life but it’s all the little positive things that you can take from the experience and move forward. The story is basically about Mae. It’s the self-discovery of her sexuality and how she goes from being confused to owning it in her own right. Her naivety and shyness blooms into her becoming a self-assured and confident young adult.
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18 Comments
lel2403
Well talking cats and magic…..that’s on my TBR 🐈
Yvonne
I do love me a talking cat! 😻
Tiffany
I hate finishing a book and not knowing how to feel about it. Great review!
Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads
I honestly would have never pegged it for having horror elements until I read the synopsis. And even then! This is definitely a case of not judging a book by its cover. I’m curious to read this one in the future. Great review <3
bostonbookreader
Great honest review! I think this one sounds pretty good and like something I’d enjoy!
charlottealiciaa
This sounded as if it could have been such an interesting read. It’s sad that you didn’t enjoy it all too much, trying to rate a book that you’re not sure where it stands is the worst!
Sofii @ A Book. A Thought.
I feel you about not knowing how you feel when you finish reading a book, at that point you know it will be a 3 star, right? It’s always so hard to explain, but you did a great job and despite certain things, I’m glad you enjoyed most of the aspects 😊
Yvonne
Absolutely agree. I didn’t hate it just was on the fence a bit with certain themes. Thanks so much for taking the time to read it.
Esmée
My heart always gets happy when I see people reading this book! I am glad you enjoyed it, even though there were some buts.
Yvonne
It was still a good book and look forward to reading more from the author.
Esmée
Saaaame!
CaffeinatedFae
This looks like a really interesting concept. I might have to give this one a try.
Yvonne
It was, I still liked it just not my favourite. You might love it 💜
proudbookreviews
It’s a shame it was so confusing to follow. But it also sounds like a different approach to writing the story and sharing that self discovery.
Yvonne
It was still a good book 😁
Kyla @ Kyla's Library
I felt the same way about this book! I didn’t really connect to the characters in it and I thought there’d be more to the story than there was.
Yvonne
Yeah I just expected it to be amazing but felt the story could have gone so much further.
juridesu
This book really sounded that it could have a lot of potential but oh well, I still might give this one a read if I could get a copy because talking cats + magic = ❤️❤️ (On a shallower note, that cover looks gorgeous!) Amazing review~