Winterkeep
Written by: Kristin Cashore
Dial Books
2021
Winterkeep follows Bitterblue on a journey into politics, mystery, and betrayal.
While an interesting novel, Winterkeep does a lot of world-building and exposition, making this a challenge.
Storytelling
I’ve never been one to wait until a series is complete before I begin a book. I have a good memory of what happens from book to book, so I read books when they are published.
However, Winterkeep made me understand why so many readers will wait until the series is complete.
Winterkeep relies heavily on world-building. It takes the reader to another part of the kingdom, rebuilding the world for the reader. There is definitely a lot of info dumping throughout the novel that slows down its pace.
I like it when authors trickle in world-building and history throughout the story, but for it to work, it has to be done well. Cashore does pages and paragraphs of it that became more tedious and boring than anything else.
And while I don’t mind when novels shift between characters (personally, I love it because I think it adds more to the story), the shifts here were jarring. There was something off about the characters and the story’s tone. It all sounded the same. This might be due to the audiobook nature of the book. Mind you, I began reading the physical copy of the book. Still, I struggled so much with it that I figured the audiobook would be better.
While the story had adventure and fantasy, it was so bogged down by exposition that I found it boring. And the lack of personality characterization didn’t make me care about the characters.
Final Thoughts
I wish I could say more about Winterkeep, but unfortunately, the novel was disappointing. It wasn’t that it was a bad novel or anything. Personally, I found the story dragging, the plot slow, and overall, it struggled to hold my attention.
Heavy World-Building | Winterkeep Review
Winterkeep follows Bitterblue on a journey into politics, mystery, and betrayal.
Cynthia Ayala
Cynthia Ayala-Bujnicki majored in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. Editor-in-chief of Cyn's Workshop, she loves to read and write while tending to her pepper plants. She currently lives in South Florida with her husband, two kids Dante and Selene and two furbabies Mr. J the Kitten who Thinks He's Batman (yes, that is his full name) and Nyx.
