Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
Rating: 4/5★
Genre: YA fantasy
Pub Date: 5th October 2021
[TW: Self-harm, anxiety, disordered eating (minor), child neglect/abuse (past), trauma/PTSD (traumatic experiences in past).]
Synopsis (from publisher):
The dead of Loraille do not rest.
Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as spirits with a ravenous hunger for the living. She would rather deal with the dead than the living, who trade whispers about her scarred hands and troubled past.
When her convent is attacked by possessed soldiers, Artemisia defends it by awakening an ancient spirit bound to a saint’s relic. It is a revenant, a malevolent being that threatens to possess her the moment she drops her guard. Wielding its extraordinary power almost consumes her—but death has come to Loraille, and only a vespertine, a priestess trained to wield a high relic, has any chance of stopping it. With all knowledge of vespertines lost to time, Artemisia turns to the last remaining expert for help: the revenant itself.
As she unravels a sinister mystery of saints, secrets, and dark magic, her bond with the revenant grows. And when a hidden evil begins to surface, she discovers that facing this enemy might require her to betray everything she has been taught to believe—if the revenant doesn’t betray her first.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Sorcery of Thorns and An Enchantment of Ravens comes a thrilling new YA fantasy about a teen girl with mythic abilities who must defend her world against restless spirits of the dead.
My Review
Thank you to Simon and Schuster for providing me with an e-arc via netgalley!!
Vespertine is like any other book I have picked up before. It had revenants, magic, and a great setting! The story starts off with Artemisia, a nun who is training to be a Gray Sister. When her convent is attacked she wakes up a revenant and she starts discovering secrets about saints and old magic through the help of the revenant. The whole story gave me 17th century gothic with a magical feel and I loved that! Unlike Rogerson’s other books this book did not have a romance driven plot.
The writing was fairly simple and kept me interested from the beginning of the book. Somewhere through the middle I found it a bit scattered but overall it was great!! As mentioned before, I loved the setting!! The world building was perfect for the story and the descriptive language used was amazing. This fictional universe was unique and relevant to the story.
Artemisia, the main character, wasn’t loved amongst her peers but she was such an interesting character who did make me laugh a few times. She seemed very goal oriented, she was so absorbed in her tasks that she sometimes forgot about her own health. That is where the Revenant comes in. The Revenant hated Artemisia but it seems to care for her and tries to help her throughout the book, so I am excited to see what else the next book in this series will have.
In conclusion this book was a great start to a series, and I loved how the author described it as “medieval Venom starring a nun and a ghost” because it is literally that but make it ten times more interesting!! I would definitely recommend this book if you love YA fantasy or books that focus on ghosts, saints, relics etc. I am really looking forward to the sequel!!
Thats it I hope you liked the review </3
Sending incoherent screams about how books make me fall in love with ghosts,
– Kashvi
I also have the arccc !!!!
YAYYAYYY READ IT
help what I thought this was a stand-alone??
same but its a series apparently 😭😭✋✋
Ahhhh I can’t wait to read another book by Margaret!!! I am really interested to see how she deals with a series
YES this book was really interesting and different i loved it!!