White Stag (Permafrost, #1)
by
by
I’m tentatively rating this a three star.
*I received an e-arc of White Stag from Wednesday books and Netgalley In exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
White Stag follows Janneke, a human girl who after her village burns, is the only survivor, and is kidnapped by a goblin who then takes her to the Permafrost where she then must live as a thrall. It’s a hundred years later and now she is caught up in a hunt all goblins participate in order to become the next king.
White Stag has a premise we’ve all heard of before with slight variations. However, even though I’ve read a story like this many times before, it still interests me and I wanted to hear how it would be told with goblins at the forefront of the story.
The beginning is rough. Like, real rough from all different angles. There’s several mentions of rape, sexual assault, abuse, mutilation, and captivity. All of this would be difficult for anyone to get through, in addition to the writing also being subpar. The main character acts extremely juvenile and makes rash decisions. There are too many exclamation points, and a lot of the characters say things that just don’t seem to fit their character.
Another issue I had was with the timeline. We never really learn what the human world was like before or after Janneke left, and it makes the world feel less real, and makes it difficult for the reader to really dive deep into the book. In addition, the main character has been in the Permafrost for 100 YEARS. And most of this time she’s spent with Sorren, her most recent master who has never hurt her, and has basically treated her like an equal. And yet until the story starts, she doesn’t trust him. In addition, Sorren is over 600 YEARS old which is supposed to mean he’s relatively young, but at the same time, he never really seemed old or like he had 600 years of knowledge.
As the story progresses, we go on several adventures/quests with the main character as she and Sorren complete the hunt. The writing gets a lot better, and the story becomes significantly more interesting. The different mythical creatures introduced and the fights Janneke must go through in order to win truly made this story bump up from a not-so-good story to this-is-actually-really-interesting story.
The ending, was a bit confusing, but still satisfying.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I can see why others won’t. I think I’ll continue with the series and read the next book, but it probably won’t make my “most anticipated reads list”.
Trigger Warnings for: Physical abuse, sexual assault, rape, captivity, slavery, graphic animal abuse, mental abuse, and graphic violence.
*I received an e-arc of White Stag from Wednesday books and Netgalley In exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
White Stag follows Janneke, a human girl who after her village burns, is the only survivor, and is kidnapped by a goblin who then takes her to the Permafrost where she then must live as a thrall. It’s a hundred years later and now she is caught up in a hunt all goblins participate in order to become the next king.
White Stag has a premise we’ve all heard of before with slight variations. However, even though I’ve read a story like this many times before, it still interests me and I wanted to hear how it would be told with goblins at the forefront of the story.
The beginning is rough. Like, real rough from all different angles. There’s several mentions of rape, sexual assault, abuse, mutilation, and captivity. All of this would be difficult for anyone to get through, in addition to the writing also being subpar. The main character acts extremely juvenile and makes rash decisions. There are too many exclamation points, and a lot of the characters say things that just don’t seem to fit their character.
Another issue I had was with the timeline. We never really learn what the human world was like before or after Janneke left, and it makes the world feel less real, and makes it difficult for the reader to really dive deep into the book. In addition, the main character has been in the Permafrost for 100 YEARS. And most of this time she’s spent with Sorren, her most recent master who has never hurt her, and has basically treated her like an equal. And yet until the story starts, she doesn’t trust him. In addition, Sorren is over 600 YEARS old which is supposed to mean he’s relatively young, but at the same time, he never really seemed old or like he had 600 years of knowledge.
As the story progresses, we go on several adventures/quests with the main character as she and Sorren complete the hunt. The writing gets a lot better, and the story becomes significantly more interesting. The different mythical creatures introduced and the fights Janneke must go through in order to win truly made this story bump up from a not-so-good story to this-is-actually-really-interesting story.
The ending, was a bit confusing, but still satisfying.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I can see why others won’t. I think I’ll continue with the series and read the next book, but it probably won’t make my “most anticipated reads list”.
Trigger Warnings for: Physical abuse, sexual assault, rape, captivity, slavery, graphic animal abuse, mental abuse, and graphic violence.
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