One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

"The Prophet showed me a hooded figure with a shadow," Morette Yew's voice called above the clamor, stern and sure. "The shadow remained even when the light faded."

A mist has settled over Blunder, a curse by a vengeful deity, it confuses and consumes. Meet Elspeth Spindle: resident of Blunder and survivor of an infection that grants its sufferers magic abilities. In a world where magic is punishable by death, Elspeth counts herself lucky that she can pass for normal. That no one knows she's infected. That no one knows that a monster, The Nightmare, lives inside her head. For eleven years she's kept these secrets but one fateful night and one chance meeting changes everything. Suddenly she's thrown into a conspiracy against the King, to break the curse, and to free herself.

I normally start with my positive observations first and then my negative, but for whatever reason I'm doing my review in reverse today. I noticed some problems in the beginning of the book, so maybe it's fitting that my review starts with my first note.

First and foremost, it didn't escape my notice that the author forgets to describe the setting. It's so misty you can hardly see, but if you could see, what would you be seeing? What is the landscape like, what are the houses like? There are castles... are they opulent or in disrepair? I suppose if we know there are castles then we can take the imaginative leap that Blunder might look medeivalish and if we know Elspeth lives in the woods then we can also imagine a medieval town surrounded by woods, but it just isn't the same as having something described to you. Which is a shame, because the story was good enough without the descriptions that you can see the author had a vision.

Here's the vision: A world shrouded in an eternal supernatural mist. A woman, isolated by a childhood illness and by the invisible monster sharing her brain.

It's not a bad vision as far as gothic-type novels go...I just would describe it as gothic-light. It's got the right setting and the right main character, but I felt the lack of descriptions combined with the romantasy elements made this... gothic-light. It was sort of dark but not really.

The other thing I didn't understand is why Providence Cards are legal. Providence Cards are like playing cards if solitaire was played with a card that can make you super beautiful or let you read minds or help you see the future. Magic is illegal, the town was cursed because of the Providence Cards, and yet somehow using those cards is okay... Made little sense to me. 

Now on a positive note: Despite my misgivings at the beginning of this book, I found myself enjoying it the more I read. Like I said, it's the right setting and the right main character; a mist over an urban metropolis just wouldn't have been the same. 

Elspeth is disliked by her own family and is distrustful, terrified to be shown for what she really is. She lives in fear of the Destriers, the specialized force responsible for hunting down magic carriers and the infected. But when she is in danger, she calls upon The Nightmare, and he turns the meek little village girl ferocious, a person to be feared. And I found the dual personalities to be deeply intriguing.

I also quite liked her love interest and am slightly impressed that the author decided against an 'enemies to lovers' trope. It came so close to doing that and yet, stayed far away. Ravyn and Elspeth have so much in common and you can clearly see he is smitten with her from the start as much as he tries to fight it. It takes her awhile to trust him, which is a nice break from an automatically swooning heroine.

This is not intended to be a young adult novel, by the way. I know a lot of fantasy is classified as young adult, but I automatically take YA off the table whenever there is sexual content.

Final thoughts: While it was a shame the author spent so little time on the setting, it was still written well enough that I want to read the sequel to see what happens next.