Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

COBWEB BRIDE took me by surprise. I liked the concept very much, but I thought it would be more of a fantasy romance instead of a fantasy-horror combination. The writing is well done, if sometimes flowery. It starts off a little slow (and disgusting), but picks up at the end. I expected this would be the story of one girl’s quest to find Death’s bride, but it’s much more than that. The story plays on your expectations and turns them on their head; once you get into the novel and realize it’s not going where you thought it would, it’s no surprise that the ending is wide open for another story. Even though you think you know who the Cobweb Bride is (and my idea kept changing), you’ll end up being wrong.

This novel isn’t for the faint of heart; the author delves very deeply into the consequences of suspended death (as in, what if you died, even horribly, but still lived, for Death would not take you?), and quite often those passages are horrific and disturbing. The characters live realistic lives and go through realistic terrors, and you want to cheer for them when they succeed (and it’s awful to read about the difficulties they encounter). They grow and change, even though some of them are dead. There are fight scenes and flight scenes, both done well. This is a quest book, but the ultimate quest remains unfulfilled, left for another book. I would be interested in how the author continues the series, so hopefully her Kickstarter campaign is successful.

Received as a digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher.

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