Snowspelled (Book Review)

Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book came recommended from Gail Carriger, whose writing I greatly enjoy, and it was available for free at that particular moment in time.

I enjoyed it for the most part. I particularly like Burgis' feminist take on politics and having a matriarchal society; unfortunately, women are still pigeon-holed, and our brazen protagonist challenges those stereotypes head-on.

My quibbles, I think, mostly have to do with Burgis' writing style. There are several repeated words and phrases (like "cossetted") that could have benefitted from an editor with a thesaurus. "Cossetted" is a good word and definitely appropriate for how it is being used, but it should have been changed up a bit more. Burgis also continually refers to the soft "hiss" sound that the falling snow makes. I grew up in Midwestern winters and have never once heard snow "hiss" -- unless, of course, it was falling on an open flame of some sort. Not only was that bit repetitive, but didn't quite make sense.

Lastly, we continually get reference to whatever traumatic event happened to Cassandra 4 months earlier and she pretty much wanted to commit suicide after. I think that reveal could have come earlier on, as it's a bit anticlimactic where it is; and again, the references to the event (including word choices) grow repetitive to the reader.

I am partially tempted to continue this series as I do enjoy the world Burgis has built, but we shall see.

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