Ora and the Old God by Sarah Day Review

Synopsis:

A spellbinding story that weaves together powerful women, complex magic, and political intrigue.

Wild and stubborn, Ora Widogast is determined to join her brother for the annual Tabas hunt. When he makes a terrible mistake, her brother is turned into a pig, and she is taken captive in the fae realm. There, the fae queen places her under the watchful eye of a cruel and powerful mage, Tyg Marigen, who despises humans.

As a world of politics and old conflicts unfolds around Ora, she plans her escape, but then, she makes a dangerous discovery--she can use magic. Something no human has done before. To avoid Tyg's wrath and save her brother, she must find a way home before her secret is revealed.

But, she has no idea how to control her newfound power.

Review:

Thank you so much, Sarah Day and Netgalley, for providing a free copy of Ora and the Old God in return for an honest review!

Ora and the Old God is a Spirited Away-esque story about a girl whose brother is turned into a pig before she’s whisked away to the world of the fey, where she’s at the mercy of the ruthless fey magus, Tyg.

Let’s get this out of the way first: I really liked this book. It has so much going for it. The main problem is the category. This was first listed as YA but was then changed the category to MG/YA and I have problems with putting this in the Middle-Grade category. This is mainly a problem due to the pacing: while this book is certainly intriguing, it’s also quite slow in many places, with a lot of political intrigue that I believe few in the MG age group would properly enjoy. The second is that this is also a bit too intense for MG. There’s a point in the book where a body part is cut off, and it doesn’t skimp on the detail.

It works great as a YA novel, though. The main character, Ora, is a fun character to get to know. She’s stubborn, playful, wild, and curious. Seeing through her eyes is always a great experience, even when she’s suffering through the more unpleasant scenes of the book, simply because she feels so real. There are other POV chapters from Tyg, and those are equally stunning but further cement my opinion that this is not an MG novel.

Day’s worldbuilding is faultless. The plot of someone in a new world isn’t used often enough, in my humble opinion. Not just because stories about change make the most intriguing plots, but because worldbuilding is so much more beautiful and natural when done through the eyes of someone unfamiliar to it. We fit into Ora’s shoes well because neither of us know the world at all, so we get to know the fey at the same pace as her. The fey themselves are the old, traditional kind. They work in bargains and true names. Logic means nothing, and words craft unbreakable bindings. Day uses a combination of old lore and details crafted from her own mind.

The ending it leads to is quiet, but something wilder is promised on the horizon as human and fey worlds threaten to clash.

Ora and the Old God comes out on October 25th! It'll be available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format!