 Hi everyone, my name is Steph, this is Little Bookish Teacher, and today I am here to share my review of A Hunger of Thorns by Lily Wilkinson, which is a love Oswae, a young adult fantasy title that has come out today. So happy book birthday to A Hunger of Thorns. This book was sent to me for review by Ellen and Unwin, so thank you very much to the publisher for sending me a copy. I'm very very excited about this release because Lily Wilkinson is one of my favorite Australian young adult authors. She has written very diversely within the young adult readership category, so we've got fantasy books and suspense books and all sorts of stories that she has come up with. She's also written in other readership categories as well, but this one really intrigued me because it was fantasy and magic and sapphic longing, and it was just a really enjoyable reading experience. So before I talk a little bit more about the book, I'm going to read you the blurb, and it says, Maud is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend Odette, weeding stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. Then Maud grew up and lost her magic and her best friend. Storytelling is her only gift that remains. Odette always hungered for forbidden dangerous magic, and two weeks ago she went searching for it. Now she's missing and everyone believes she's dead. Everyone except Maud. Maud is sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of Sicklehurst, an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest, a place nobody else seems to remember is there. The danger is nobody knows what remains inside Sicklehurst either, and every good story is sure to have a monster. So this, as I said, is a really gorgeous, dark, twisty, a little bit creepy young adult fantasy story. This book definitely feels like it is specifically targeted at a young adult audience, not necessarily the older end of the young adult spectrum, although it is definitely enjoyable for people who are not young adults like myself. And it kind of gave me the same feelings as we who hunt the hollow. And the whole time I was reading it, I was thinking of that comparison in a really good way, because I loved what we who hunt the hollow did. In many ways a hunger of thorns felt like a dark fairy tale. Maud has come from a family with magic, and the world that she lives in is governed by people who are trying to control magic and the people who have access to it. And as it turns out, it is mostly women who have access to the magic, and men are trying to control who actively uses magic on a daily basis. But Maud, as a character, is feeling a little bit lost in her world because she's lost her magic, and she's not quite sure where she fits in. Her two grandmothers who are in a committed relationship take care of her, and we know that her mother has committed treason and was killed for it. And she had this best friend who she's had this massive falling out with, and she doesn't quite know what to do because she is still heartbroken by the loss of her closest friend. But when Odette goes missing, Maud is determined to find her. And so she does go to this abandoned power plant, which turns out to be not quite what it seems. And Maud begins to realise the true extent of her powers and what might have happened to A, of course, her to lose them, but also what she might have used them for before. It is a story of loss and longing. It is a book of storytelling. Those fairy tale elements of storytelling are deeply woven into this book. Once Maud gets inside Sicklehurst, we have a group of characters, and I think I saw someone refer to them as feral girls saving the world, and that's definitely it. We have these female characters who just have nothing to lose at this point, and they're determined to figure out what's going on and how to get out of it alive. And they do end up forming this girl gang, which is incredible. I just fell in love with the writing style. I fell in love with the magic in this world, and sort of the dark nature of people trying to suppress magic and trying to keep things hidden, and in doing so kind of making the situation worse. I love that none of the characters in this story were perfect. All of them made mistakes. All of them had to figure out how to write the mistakes that they made, and also how to get by in a world that has suddenly become more dangerous. So if you are looking for a really great young adult fantasy read, I would highly recommend A Hunger of Thorns. I will leave details for where you can find out more information down below. Thank you again to the publisher for sending me a copy. I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you've read the book or you're planning on picking it up, feel free to let me know, or alternatively feel free to leave a rose emoji down below to let me know that you're here. I hope that wherever you're on the world, you're staying safe and healthy, and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.