Title: Foul Days (The Witch’s Compendium of Monsters #1) by Genoveva Dimova
Author: Genoveva Dimova
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Publisher: Tor Trade
Rating: ⭐⭐
Thank you to the publisher for a complimentary earc to review!
“As a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice taming rusalkas, fighting kikimoras, and brewing lycanthrope repellent. There’s only one monster Kosara can’t defeat: her ex the Zmey, known as the Tsar of Monsters. She’s defied him one too many times, and now he’s hunting her. Betrayed to him by someone close to her, Kosara’s only hope is to trade her shadow―the source of her powers―for illegal passage across the Wall to Belograd, where monsters can’t follow.
Life in Belograd should be sweet, but Kosara soon develops a fast-acting version of the deadly wasting sickness that stalks shadowless witches―and only reclaiming her magic can cure her. To trace her shadow, she’ll have to team up with the suspiciously honorable detective investigating the death of the smuggler who brought her across the Wall.
Even worse than working with the cops is that all the clues point in a single direction: one of the Zmey’s monsters has found a crack in the Wall, and Kosara’s magic is now in the Zmey’s hands.
The clock is ticking, the hunt is on, and Kosara’s priorities should be clear―but is she the hunter or the hunted? And in a city where everyone is out for themselves, who can Kosara trust to assist her in outwitting the man―the Monster―she’s never been able to escape alone?” (Goodreads)
I feel like this will be an unpopular opinion and that’s fine!
The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Kosara. She is a witch who ends up losing her shadow to stay away from a monster and then goes on a journey to get it back. I thought that it was an interesting plot from the beginning, but it does end up slowing down and it made it to where I had to push through this book. I don’t think that it was really due to the plot but more or less the writing. It is meant to be humorous and lighthearted for the most part, but there are dark tones to the book as well. It just didn’t work for me, but I can see others really enjoying the writing.
The plotline does deal with domestic violence/grooming. It was an interesting topic to include but I think that it needs to be said at the beginning of the book because it could trigger some.
The world is very cool with learning about the different monsters and why the towns are split and what happens on the other side of the wall. I do wish that the characters had been more flushed out though.
Overall, this was okay but I was just hoping for more from it.
TheGeekishBrunette 