A Curse of Ash and Embers: Reviewed

I received this book as a free ARC in return for a positive review.

I will start my review of A Curse of Ash and Embers by Jo Spurrier with this: it is utterly charming. It starts like a fairy tale: a girl is sent away from home to work as a maid and finds herself entrenched in magic, danger, and the path to her own destiny. The girl in question, Elodie, is also escaping an abusive home in the process, and we get to know her quickly. She’s smart despite never being allowed to go to school, and resourceful because she never got to go to school. Spurrier takes time to slow down and write detailed descriptions to set the scene, which is needed when Elodie reaches the Blackbone cottage and every page introduces more strange magic and hints towards more and more of a dark and twisted backstory to the witch’s cottage and what transpired there. On the subject of the magic, it’s all unique and nature-based, using both familiar herbs from the real world and odd creations of the author’s imagination, whether it’s another plant in the witch’s orchard or a set of charming and smile-inducing nature spirits that are drawn in by spiced milk and sparkly gems. 

While it does drag at times, A Curse of Ash and Embers has a plot that continues to draw you in. It tells you to trust your instinct: when you think that something is off, it’s not just you or just an oddity in the writing. Spurrier wants you to know something is off. She just doesn’t want you to know exactly what’s wrong yet, building unease underneath the beautifully-set scenes and weird, fun banter between Elodie and the Witch. It leads you up to an unexpected climax in which every little hint at the past and every feeling of that something just isn’t right comes together until it peters off to an ending that both satisfies you and readies you for book two.


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