The Wren Hunt, Mary Watson – Book Review

Morning mortals! It’s February which is very exciting because that means it’s my birthday tomorrow! I’m hoping to do a giveaway over on my Twitter to celebrate so be sure to head on over there if you want to get involved! But that’s tomorrow. Today I am reviewing a book I genuinely wasn’t expecting to fall utterly in love with. The Wren Hunt is a book I hadn’t really seen anywhere and I want more people to be talking about it.

Goodreads Summary:

Every Christmas, Wren is chased through the woods near her isolated village by her family’s enemies—the Judges—and there’s nothing that she can do to stop it. Once her people, the Augurs, controlled a powerful magic. But now that power lies with the Judges, who are set on destroying her kind for good.

In a desperate bid to save her family, Wren takes a dangerous undercover assignment—as an intern to an influential Judge named Cassa Harkness. Cassa has spent her life researching a transformative spell, which could bring the war between the factions to its absolute end. Caught in a web of deceit, Wren must decide whether or not to gamble on the spell and seal the Augurs’ fate.

Find The Wren Hunt on Goodreads

Where to even begin with this book? Let’s start with Wren, our main character. Wren was an interesting one for me. In many ways she’s quite a ‘weak’ character, often doing what she’s told and being manipulated and used on all sides. Normally that’s something I can’t stand in a character, it just annoys me, but something about the way that Wren is written means her weakness never feels like a character flaw. She’s being used but she’s also a force to be reckoned with. I just found her delightful to read, perhaps delightful is the wrong word, she was intriguing to me.

The magic in this book is also (this is an intended bit of wordplay) enchanting. The idea of ‘magic’ (it’s more like fortune telling) being tied to patterns was so unique and clever, to then turn that idea on its head and have a character whose ability comes from an absence of pattern? It’s just ingenious, and it reads as though it makes perfect sense. This is simply the way the world is for Wren and so the reader accepts it as well.

What made me absolutely love this book were the small details that help make the world so rich. From the spider carved on the doorframe of Wren’s home to the diary entries that begin each chapter everything is incredibly well thought out.

Speaking of things that were well thought out – the plot. If you asked me three chapters in where I thought this book was going to go I would have predicted something totally different. There are elements of a spy novel, parts of a high fantasy novel and some other elements I couldn’t even begin to place. That’s not to say that this novel is confused, again, everything is perfectly thought out, it all fits together into a beautifully tragic story that had me hooked until the last page.

Should you read this? If you like a novel with magic running at its core and an unexpectedly beautiful plot then you should definitely read this. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I may have to read it again immediately.

My Rating: 5/5 stars

I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Wren Hunt is out on February 8th!

What say you? Had this book crossed your path? Let me know in the comments below!

J