**Review originally posted on Leviathan Libraries.**

First with All the Murmuring Bones and now with The Path of Thorns, Slatter has established herself as the undisputed queen of the gothic fantasy novel, at least in this reader’s eyes. What a novel!

The Path of Thorns is a novel absolutely steeped in atmosphere. From the opening pages, it is wonderfully dark tale filled to the brim with secrets. There’s a mystery that unfurls slowly across the pages, with the author taking care to reveal just enough to build intrigue. With callbacks to Jane Eyre (think less wife in the attic, more supernatural entity in the attic) as well as stories pulled from the author’s previous collections set in the same universe, the bones of a rich, fairytale world are ready for the gothic meat Slatter is so adept at bestowing upon her stories.

Slatter excels at injecting her fantasy world with a healthy dose of feminism that is especially obvious through our protagonist, Asher Todd. Asher is a strong, resourceful character who is more than a little bit morally grey. Throughout the plot, she is loyal to her mother while also examining the generational trauma behind that devotion. She doesn’t hesitate to take a lover, and doesn’t apologize for using her wits to better the situations of those around her even knowing that it could spell her demise. In addition to Asher, it’s also refreshing to see that all of the women are complex, well fleshed out characters while the men are largely defined by their flaws or their connections to the women.

The Path of Thorns is a slow burning story that may not be to every reader’s taste, but it’s well worth it to see how the plot will play out. From the characters to the setting to the folklore, every piece of this book is meticulously crafted to blend seamlessly with Slatter’s atmospheric prose. This has definitely catapulted Slatter onto my auto-buy author list, and I highly recommend giving her works a read if you’re even a tiny bit intrigued by gothic fantasy.

ARC received from NetGalley.

I enjoyed meeting each of the characters and learning more about their world. The biggest fault with this story is that the narrator knows so much more than the reader and does not reveal nearly enough information to keep the story engaging. I tried reading to find out more and was disappointed with how much has still not been revealed 50% of the way in (we still don’t know exactly why she’s at the house and what she’s ultimately planning to do). With the things that have been revealed... they feel melodramatic and shallow.   I gave it a shot and now I’m just tired of it.