One Dark Window & Two Twisted Crowns

Author: Rachel Gillig

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

This duology has been going around the book spheres of social media, so I had high hopes. The story follows Elspeth, who lives in the Kingdom of Blunder, which is shrouded in a deadly mist that can infect the residents and lead to either death or a gift of magic that will kill the person much more slowly. In this kingdom, the magic that doesn’t come from the infection comes from Providence cards, which allow the wielder to perform certain types of magic for a limited time. Elspeth is infected as a child but survives, and her magic allows her to absorb part of the essence of the Providence cards, which is how she ended up with a Nightmare living in her head that is slowly taking over her mind. In the first book, Elspeth works with a group of highwaymen in an effort to get a complete set of Providence cards, which, according to legend, will lift the mist around Blunder and heal the infection.

I found the magic system in this story unique and interesting, and there was some wonderful rhyming prose throughout the books that gave it a bit of a fairy-tale quality.

Though I ultimately enjoyed the duology, I liked the second book much more than the first. For the first book, we are stuck in Elspeth’s head, and I identified with the Nightmare’s frustration at that situation, because Elspeth was sadly a mostly uninteresting character. Additionally, the romance in the first book felt forced and fell flat for me.

I’m glad to say that the series picked up in the second book. We get more POVs other than Elspeth, another relationship between two other characters that is much better developed, an interesting and dangerous quest, and the answers to all of the questions raised in the first book.

I do think this duology is worth reading, but I also think this it’s best thought of as one long book. There is an overarching plot that stretches over both and is only properly resolved at the end of the second, which is perhaps why I felt unsatisfied at the end of the first. I have a bad habit of not reading series back-to-back; I’ll read the first and then it might be a year before I pick up the second, even if it’s a completed series. But I’m glad I read these one after another, because it felt much more satisfying experiencing them as one continuous story.

Ultimately, I would recommend this if you’re looking for a unique gothic fantasy and you’re willing to commit to two books for the payoff.