White Stag by Kara Barbieri
About the Book
- Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy
- Length: 368 pages
- Published on 8th January, 2019 by Wednesday Books
- Series: Book #1
Special thanks to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
The first book in a brutally stunning series where a young girl finds herself becoming more monster than human and must uncover dangerous truths about who she is and the place that has become her home.
As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren.
Janneke’s survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. But every action he takes to bring her deeper into his world only shows him that a little humanity isn’t bad—especially when it comes to those you care about.
Through every battle they survive, Janneke’s loyalty to Soren deepens. After dangerous truths are revealed, Janneke must choose between holding on or letting go of her last connections to a world she no longer belongs to. She must make the right choice to save the only thing keeping both worlds from crumbling.
My thoughts…
Highlight to view Content Warning: Rape, Abuse, Torture and Body Mutilation
We’re all monsters to someone or something by some definition. It’s the context of the situation that matters.
Reading the White Stag was like reading a cross-over of Hunger Games, Twilight and Game of Thrones! Now, keep in mind that I haven’t read the latter two yet but this assumption comes from whatever I have heard about them. Even though I haven’t read these, I haven’t been living under a cave! I know what their contents mostly are that being said, No Spoilers Please! and I would say that the White Stag includes some very obvious parts from both.
Even though I felt the way I did, I have to give credit to the author for keeping the story very unique. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t read very many books where goblins are the main character/heroes. The book combines many aspects of mythology, and although I don’t know much about the subject, it has been said that it draws heavily from Norse mythology.
Kara Barbieri’s writing is very lyrical and I quite enjoyed her style; that is up to the point where it became just a tad repetitive and too purple prosy for my liking. I have nothing against ‘flowery writing’ but I like it when it is kept to a minimum, it’s over use leaves me confused. Your gal isn’t very philosophical, you see… To get you to understand my point, here is a quote from the book:
Racing through the cold crisp air under the pale yellow sun was invigorating after having been inside the palace so long. Though the tress surrounding me were skeletal, and frost covered the dead grass and crumpled leaves, there was life everywhere, and the horses’ pounding hooves could have been the beating of an ancient heart.
I am not saying that the above mentioned lines aren’t beautiful but when they get repetitive or when the protagonist starts seeing a deeper shade of meaning in literally everything that she sees around her, that gets a bit too much for me to handle.
The above quote actually kills two birds with one stone! It perfectly captures the essence of the land of Permafrost, a fantastic land carved by Ms Barbieri that is barren yet beautiful; dead but magical! I could actually feel the freezing air of the land while reading the book. Vivid emphasis on vivid and not flowery descriptions of the surrounding were plentiful and they succeeded in getting Kara’s vision across.
Before I go on to comment on the characters and plot, I would like to point out that though Kara Barbieri painted a captivating scenery of the land, she didn’t provide much information regarding the laws of the land. If you haven’t read the summary, now is a good time to scroll back up and give it a read. A court, a hunt- these clearly point to the existence of well-laid laws that the inhabitants follow. Apart from the reiteration of the phrase the laws of winter GOT anyone?!, there wasn’t much explanation. We do get to know a lot eventually but I would have liked if the laws and functioning of the Kingdom were explained beforehand because the whole concept of the book was somewhat based on it and also because it would have been very fascinating to read what the law of winter really was! Owing to this, some parts didn’t quite connect which contributed in a somewhat disappointing world-building.
Alright let’s get to the characters. First, I would like to laud the author for a very accurate representation of PTSD through the protagonist Janekke! I admit that I didn’t really know much about PTSD and after reading the book, I wanted to find out if the author did a good job, so I did what any sensible person would do, I googled it! Here is what I found:
People with PTSD have intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience that last long after the traumatic event has ended. They may relive the event through flashbacks or nightmares, they may feel sadness, fear or anger, and they may feel detached or estranged from other people- American Psychiatric Association
Through Janekke, the author accurately portrayed the nuances of PTSD. In Janekke, we have a unique, realistic character. A person whose past experiences and traumas have helped shape her personality. Janekke goes through a lot- rape, abuse, physical and mental torture. Her past experiences make her very wary of trusting people/goblins. We can clearly see that she seemed more relaxed around Soren, our hero, but she never lets her guard down.
Before I jump on to comment on their relationship, I want to first talk about Soren. A swoon-worthy goblin! He isn’t handsome in a conventional way but man do purple eyes and straight silver hair make a man desirable! He reminded me of Edward from Twilight when he watched Janekke sleep and said
I already said, I was watching you. It was quite relaxing, actually.
But Soren is different from Edward in many ways. He doesn’t try to shield Janekke from all harm. His approach with her is very sensible and you can see that he actually wants Janekke to learn to not need him anywhere than teach her to be dependent on him all the time. And I am here for that!
Moving on, Janekke and Soren had in between them a wonderful relationship. This relationship, this bond between them was given time to develop and wasn’t rushed or forced. What I particularly liked about their relationship was the fact that it wasn’t another case of the cliched Stockholm Syndrome- Janekke took her own time and she didn’t accept Soren until she knew that they were equals.
Now, Janekke wasn’t a morally clean if that’s you call it character either. She had done actions in the past that she wasn’t very proud of and they came back to her at every opportunity to haunt and weigh her down. This guilt formed a major part of who she was and the slow realization of the harsh truth and letting go of the guilt was something that was indeed painful to read about.
Sometimes a part of you died to let the rest of you continue living.
You might have guessed that Soren is a potential book boyfriend for some of us out here, but another character that made me question my pairing of Janekke with Soren was Seppo. Seppo played the role of Shakespeare’s fool and provided the much needed comic relief. He is my favourite character from the three of them which is shocking because he isn’t really a main part of the story! His light-hearted humour and quick wit brightened the otherwise dull and grim scenarios and the only complain I have is that he should have been there from the start!
The last character I am going to talk about is the villain who was named Lydian. A mad, power thirsty goblin who could have been menacingly daunting but unfortunately wasn’t. For some reason, Lydian’s character failed to evoke fear and wasn’t quite ‘dangerous’ enough. With Lydian, there was a possibility of creating a formidable character, but somehow this possibility wasn’t exploited enough.
The ending was a big surprise! What intrigued me was that there was a cliff-hanger and honestly the cliff-hanger does very little. It fails to make me jump at the possibility of reading the next book. The conflict of the plot was as good as resolved by the time the book ended and if it weren’t for the final few lines in the book, there wasn’t much to look forward to. There is a sense of an impending crisis but one that I probably wouldn’t be very interested in reading about, given that the only thing I know about it comes from the mouth of a mad man in the form of an eight word riddle.
Overall, I would say that this was a very interesting read with an exceptionally realistic and tough protagonist. It’s essentially a story of recovery, of discovering one’s true self and of reconciliation. If you are one who can handle the heavy themes of the book and like a bit of mythology with a mix of an unconventional romance, this book is for you.
Lectiuncula 