[Review] The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

Rating: 4.5 stars

Published: September 17th 2017

Goodreads Synopsis:

Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns.
Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid's voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy's bidding but only for a terrible price.

Leigh Bardugo's fairytale retellings set in the Grishaverse are actually deliciously wonderful and full of that dark, wondrous awe that retellings tend to have. I'm going to individually review each - I must say, the last story, When Water Sang Fire, was my favorite of the collection and essentially made the book for me. Also the illustrations came to life and weren't stagnant - they transitioned as each story progressed!

There are many unexpected and dark plot twists here, and I wouldn't say they're really children's fairytales because they're so twisted.


Amaya and the Thorn Wood - This one was a great start and filled me with the Wrath and the Dawn vibes - the tales Amaya spun were full of twists and turns (kind of like many of the stories in this book itself). Plus the morals woven from them are all very quotable.

"You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled - not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did."

The Too-Clever Fox - We finally see the origin of Nikolai's nickname! I loved how clever Koja was, and the twist in the end was unexpected (I'm going to be saying this a lot aha). However, the way the story ended sort of fell flat for me? I didn't really get a feel for Lula's (the nightingale) wiseness, but I'm going to assume the moral of this story is that you cannot be only clever, you must also be wise.

The Witch of Duva - This Hansel and Gretel retelling is really something man. In the kid's tale you get the kids throwing the witch into the oven. But here you get severed fingers, disappearing children, and moving gingergirls. My second favorite one.

Little Knife - I love how easily the Grishaverse is incorporated into these stories. Which is why I feel like you should at least read the first Grisha series in order to fully get these. The ending of this one was beautiful and I'm so glad it ended the way it did, with freedom and not romance.

The Soldier Prince - Admittedly, I never saw the Nutcracker, but I kind of figured what they were going for based off Bardugo's tale. Droessen the clocksmith's creations came to life in such vibrant ways, and I pitied them throughout the story.

"Wanting is why people get up in the morning. It gives them something to dream of at night. The more I wanted, the more I became like them, the more real I became." 

When Water Sang Fire - HOLY CRAP this one. This read like a villain origin story for Ursula and I almost never read those! It was mystical and tragic reading about Ulla's friendship with Signy (who I imagine is supposed to be Ariel's mom). So no happy ending here, but it would be really cool to see Ulla show up in a future Grishaverse book?

On a whole, 4.5 stars for the whole collection!