Book Review: Lore Of The Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana

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‘Lore Of The Wilds’ by Analeigh Sbrana was released in 2023. It was Sbrana’s debut novel and the first in a duology, which is to be succeeded by ‘Lore Of The Tides’, a book that is due to be released this year.

The story has a number of potentially triggering themes including ones of racism, oppression and violence, and through a fantasy lens, there is plenty of space to explore these ideas with gusto and viscerality.

I read the abridged audiobook of ‘Lore Of The Wilds’, and would wholeheartedly recommend it as an audiobook experience. The narration feels incredibly up close and personal, and allows readers to get swept away and immersed in the story.

I really enjoyed this story, and the way that Sbrana is able to explore tropes of the fae and human division in the romantasy genre, and I absolutely loved how the story explored the sensations of experiencing magic.

I won’t lie, though, one aspect of this story disappointed me, and that was, primarily, due to the story being recommended to me under the guise that this book would result in a polyamorous relationship, having been told it leaned toward a “who needs a love triangle, just let them all kiss” resolution. And from the fallout of the first book, I can say with confidence that I doubt that that assessment was necessarily accurate. That is, obviously nothing against the narrative and the author, just the person who offered me the recommendation under false pretenses. It didn’t take away from the story in the end, because by the time events were wrapping up, I had almost completely forgotten that the person who told me to read this book had promised me a polycule. If anything, that demonstrates just how compelling Sbrana’s storytelling is!

I’d also argue that elements of the pacing in this book could have been put differently, and would have loved a greater opportunity to explore other aspects of Lore’s relationships with her friends, for example, in the lead up to the book’s climax, Lore, the first human to escape the lands where humans were forced to live, Duskmere, living in perpetual poverty and squalor, bled dry by fae tithes and their rules, finds that her best friend, Grey has also escaped her hometown. I’d have loved to have had a longer passage of the story dedicated to her rescue efforts, as that whole element of the story was rather quick, in my opinion. But, in the overall scheme of things, it didn’t take away from the overall gravity of the story.

There were many motifs that I enjoyed, from the way that Lore’s hands were stained black by ink from her magic tome, and the use of magic that should be supposedly inaccessible to her. Though, my favourite has to be the way that Lore, a human who has been subjugated by the systems of oppression is able to see magic, one of the main things that separate humans and fae as species, while fae often overlook its signifcance was a poignant metaphor for racism in the real world and how people who benefit from systemic oppression are often able to ignore it, and or exist in a state of ignorance. The metaphor was fantastic and did not go unnoticed here! Fantastic work!

I was also a huge fan of the plot twist at the end of the book, while elements of the story had offered glimpses and breadcrumbs to foreshadow the reveal, and I would argue I had a feeling just from the artwork on the cover of sequel, I wasn’t surprised by the fallout of the twist’s reveal, though I was surprised by the sacrifices these characters were willing, or otherwise unwilling to make.

Furthermore, I was a huge, huge fan of the queer-normative lens through which Sbrana’s take on a fae world was, the way that Lore’s narration and conversation indicates that Isla, a friend of one of her two love interests, Asher, was primarily interested in women, and that was just completely fine. I love queer-normative fiction, and in my opinion, we need more of it, because queerness ought to be seen as normal, because it is!

I cannot wait to read ‘Lore Of The Tides’, and am eagerly awaiting its release. If you’re a person who thrives on immediate gratification, I would wholeheartedly suggest reading this now, so you can snap up the sequel upon release. It’s well worth it!