I had Wintersong on my bookshelf for so long and I finally picked it up this weekend when I had a little bit of free time and not enough to watch a movie or a tv show and I had the hardest time putting this book back down. The synopsis is as follows:
The last night of the year. Now the days of winter begin and the Goblin King rides abroad, searching for his bride… All her life, Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, dangerous Goblin King. They’ve enraptured her mind, her spirit, and inspired her musical compositions. Now eighteen and helping to run her family’s inn, Liesl can’t help but feel that her musical dreams and childhood fantasies are slipping away. But when her own sister is taken by the Goblin King, Liesl has no choice but to journey to the Underground to save her. Drawn to the strange, captivating world she finds—and the mysterious man who rules it—she soon faces an impossible decision. And with time and the old laws working against her, Liesl must discover who she truly is before her fate is sealed.
I actually think the book reminded me more of the myth of Hades and Persephone more than it reminded me of Beauty and the Beast like the synopsis on Goodreads claims. It had a wonderful world that you could fall into and a beautiful ending but the heroine made me want to smack her a few times in how passive she was and how she couldn't see where things were going while they seemed so obvious from my perspective. The middle of the book got kind of boring but the ending more than made up for it. I'd give this book like 4/5 stars.
Now I'm about to get into spoilers so if you haven't read the book, stop here, go read it and then come back!
So like I mentioned Liesl was kind of annoying at parts. I understood where she was coming from completely especially because of the age she was from and how her family treated her. Despite this, she acted so dumb throughout so much of the book. When she went to save her sister from the Goblin King, I knew right away that she needed to sacrifice herself for her sister and I couldn't understand why it took her chapters to realize what she needed to do. And then when she married the Goblin King, she never asked him what would happen to her or what her purpose was or anything that could have helped. She just wanted him to sleep with her and when he didn't, she threw a tantrum.
I did like the Goblin King although I wish we could have learned more about him or gotten to know him better. The story was more about Liesl learning who she was and accepting herself and the Goblin King was kind of just a path to that. As soon as he revealed his love for her and her love for him, he let her go. I loved the idea of the book being about reminding Liesl of who she was and that she was more than just a daughter or sister without wants or needs but I still wish we could have seen more of the Goblin World and seen her rule or even seen her fall in love. Most of the love for the Goblin King came from her childhood (that we didn't see) on his part and from the freedom he gave her to be herself on her part.
This leads to the terribly tragic ending this book had. I could not stop crying for the last few chapters. I kept waiting for their love to be enough to bring the Goblin King back to life the way that Liesl's changling brother was living in the world or thinking that maybe they would figure out a way for Liesl to keep visiting. If she was dying in the Goblin World, why couldn't she be like Persephone and stay in the world for a while and then go stay in the Goblin World for a while? I'm not a fan of sad endings even though I can appreciate them for what they are. It does make sense in the end cause like I said before, this book wasn't really a love story but a story about finding yourself.
I'd definitely recommend you read this book if you haven't already! There's no sequel in the plans but there might be a companion novel released next year. I probably will not read it though cause I'm not a fan of novellas.
That's all for now!
xoxo Allie
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