story craft

Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Genre: YA Fantasy

Format: audiobook

Cautions: general This book contained a great deal more cursing and sexual content than the first book, and that made me sad because I didn’t feel like it added to the story, and I skipped a bit more. language: frequent severe cursing and mild cursing, around ten uses of g-d and about fifteen uses of the f-word; romance: Chapter 20: vivid description of sexual desire and some caressing (specifically from about the 29-minute mark to the 40-minute mark) but the act is interrupted; Chapter 25: vivid but not graphic description of foreplay and sex; Chapter 36 (32:07-34:00) suggestive talk and touching; Chapter 38: fairly descriptive open-door scene (specifically after the 16-minute mark through the end of the chapter); content frequent graphic violence and descriptions of abuse and even death.

Main themes: loyalty, found family, healing, sacrifice, redemption

Main characters: Elspeth Spindle, Ravyn Yew, Jespyr Yew, Emory Yew, Elm Rowan, The Nightmare, Hauth Rowan, Ione Hawthorn, Petyr Ivy, King Rowan, Erik Spindle, Royce Linden

Favorite quote: “You did not come all this way to yield to despair.”

Review:
Wow, what a finale! Have I mentioned before how much I love duologies? And sometimes, like with this one, I end up liking the second book even more than the first.

Two Twisted Crowns retained Elspeth and Ravyn as narrators, but Rachel Gillig also added two more POVs: Elm and the Nightmare, told through Elspeth’s POV.

I don’t know how Rachel did it, but she rocked it. Through Elm’s perspective, I went from rolling my eyes at all of his snarky comments to outright adoring him. He is a treasure, and his story broke my heart and made me smile and cry as I bore it out with him through Gillig’s words. Of course, through his POV, we get to know Ione better, and that is sheer delight. Despite the effects of the Maiden card, she’s so much more than she got credit for in the past.

I’ve seen other reviewers mention this as well, but what I love about both Elm and Ravyn is the fact that they go to the ends of the earth, to the ends of themselves, to fight for Elspeth and Ione. It’s a beautiful picture of love and the sacrifice it often takes to love well.

Maybe surprisingly, the Nightmare shows a lot of growth in this one too. Seeing his protectiveness of Elspeth, and that his secrets have a purpose too. As he said, the truth will always out, even though he also said of his secrets, “long have I kept them, and long will they keep.”

The quest to unite the deck of providence cards stretched the characters beyond their breaking points, brought them closer together, and ultimately brought them to the end of things. I won’t spoil for you exactly how that looked, but I will say that I was enraptured by the tale of the cards and the Nightmare’s histories and how intertwined he was with them as well as the forest and spirit within.

Like any good fantasy tale, I was genuinely concerned for each character’s life at some point along the way. And I felt gratified, if not exactly surprised, with the way everything wrapped up.

Hats off to you, Rachel, for telling one heck of an original story.




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