The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

Leigh Bardugo's, The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic is a collection of all Bardugo's Grishaverse stories. Some of these stories I've read when they were available at Tor.com. The Too-Clever Fox is still haunting and important, giving me chills to read it again, five years later. Little Knife is definitely a teaching story. We learn about trust, being used, and dreams fulfilled. I can't explain how much I connected with the daughter and the river. My favourite of the stories was The Witch of Duva and I think it still is. It really changes up the idea of the step-mother. Also, who was the real witch of that tale? It's the story that pushed me into the Grishaverse. The Tailor and The Demon in the Wood are not in this collection, since they aren't "folktales", but stories about specific characters in the Grisha series. I would love to have all these stories together though. I love Bardugo's writing style and I enjoy when she writes these Grisha fables. I think each of the stories deserve something to be said about them.

The first in the collection is Ayama and the Thorn Wood. Like Bardugo's other stories, this is another where things are not what they seem. Ayama's relationship with her sister is special, even unlikely given their parents. Her relationship with the Beast is special too, but not unexpected. I really felt Ayama's pain, really connecting with her. I think that the story did to me exactly what it was intended to do.

The Soldier Prince is creepily haunting. It's sort of a dark take on The Nutcracker. There's a lot of selfishness in this story. It starts with the fancy merchants, then Droessen, but we see it throughout. Though the end could be said to encourage the nutcracker's selfish desires, it could also be said that he acknowledges his sense of self, cogito, ergo sum. So, maybe it's about desire, maybe it sprinkled in a little philosophy about existence.

The more I read of When Water Sang Fire, the more excited I became. I realized where the story came from, and it was brilliant.  I loved Ulla. I wish she had the opportunity to spend more time with her brother. I wish she could have learned more about her parentage. By the end, I was excited and scared. I knew what was going to happen. I knew it would be bad, not just physically, but emotionally. The ending was beautifully dark.

I’m so glad that Leigh Bardugo continues to write Grisha folktales. They are creative, inspired, and impressive. I’ve found myself connecting with each of them for different reasons. These stories continue to make Bardugo one of my favourite writers and the Grishaverse one of my favourite worlds.