I am so glad that I had forgotten what this was about by the time the hold came through and I got to reading, because I have not had a lot of luck with retellings this year! This was such a visceral and interesting take on the original tale, I ended up enjoying it a lot. While cannibalism as a representation of love is not particularly rare in these types of stories, I love how many different aspects that took on beyond that basis. Forgive the terrible pun, but it really fleshed out the themes. It permeated the story in a way made it cohesive and satisfying.

I also love the way that losing her voice was handled. It reminded me a lot of The Love of the Nightingale--one of my favorite plays of all time. That, and the use (or lack-thereof) of names, really elevated the feminist aspect beyond a lot of what this genre has managed over the last several years. It is also a dear relief to avoid the weird ass bio-essentialist womb of motherhood narratives that have been going on (yes, I am talking about you Arch-Conspirator) in exchange for a much more interesting concept of sisterhood across generations. Very well done.