Where The Dark Stands Still by A. B. Poranek - A very biased book review
Where The Dark Stands Still by A. B. Poranektags: animal remains, bones, books, driving, gods, personal, prayers, religious, spirits, technology, in short, is a very lovely book for lovers of romantic fantasy genre. It's a single book that tells a single story, and it feels very nice to get back into reading with something not so demanting (unlike the "7 tome volumes + prequel 3 tomes and sequel 4 tomes and actually you should start reading from this book instead of the popularly known book because it's just better..." of other fantasy series)
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I have seen someone compare it to Howls Moving Caste and I have to agree, in a good way. It has a similar premise to Howls Moving Castle with Polish culture and magic. I am not sure how accurate it is in regards to the Polish mythology, but based on my general knowledge of Slavic mythology, specifically Ukrainian one, I'd guess the author has taken creative liberties, especially when it comes to one of the main characters. But the book never states to be a perfect representation of the mythology and it doesn't really need to be.
I liked Howl's Moving Castle, so it was bount that I liked the way how the main characters interacted and how their plotlines/relationship progressed. I also very much liked the way how the author approached magic and ways to describe it. I was surprised at this, but I feel like I will be quoting the way book addresses magic where applicable.
Also the ending surprised me by being bittersweet. I'm not used that my fairy tails are ending in anything than cotton candy life lol.
I'm sorry this is such a short and general review, I honestly am not very good at describing things. I suppose this is exactly why I forced myself to write at least something of a review.
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Here are some comments I wrote about the first two chapters of the book:
CHAPTER 1 - Ooh I really liked the first chapter. Makes me super curious to see how the author will depict the magic here and the spirits. There's a lot of beautiful descriptions of nature in this chaper which is a big delight for me. I've put up a candle today at Artemis's altar and I think she was enjoying me reading the book aloud, based on a lot of crackles her candle did exactly when I started reading the book. Not sure what to write in here than just that I'm really loving it so far.
Dictionary: wreathe, penitents, contrition, fraying cassock, bearing, hoarfrost, indomitable, briars, earthen weald, thicket,
CHAPTER 2 - I actually continued to read the second chapter immediately after the third one. I like how the text is written, very easy to comprehend and understand. Also the descriptions author gives us are very vivid.
As a general note, I did like a lot of the chapter names. Very lovely and creative. Also regarding the dictionary, I believe I highlighted words all the way till 8th chapter or so, but then I just wanted to read the book, without having to overanalyze every word so I stopped lol. I will finish the dictionary for sure though
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