The Knight and the Moth

I was very disappointed with The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig, as it seemed to be the type of fantasy I like, but I felt it was done poorly. The story is about one of six Diviners in Aisling Cathedral, Sybil (or Six as she is called). They took her and the other girls in as foundlings and she's been doing Divinations for the visitors for years. The Diviners are drowned in a sacred spring to see visions from the Omens and dream of signs that foretell the future. With her 10-year term nearing its end, Sybil starts to hope for freedom, until a young king comes to the cathedral with his knights. Shortly after his visit, the other Diviners start dying off one after another and Sybil is compelled to leave her only life to find the others. In the process, she's joined by a company of men including the king, a rude and sceptical knight who doesn't believe in the Diviners in the slightest, and the journey slowly becomes more than it should, involving the gods, the kingdom and secrets she was never meant to discover.

The start of this book was very captivating. The atmosphere within the cathedral was unsettling yet in a delightful way and I adored the idea of the Diviners and the bizarre ritual they had to perform to dream. The air was dark and mysterious and a little spooky, and the world was interesting from the get-go. I also liked the small group of characters at the start, particularly the gargoyle who was one of the funniest characters in the book. I felt there was a lot wrong in the lives they were living, and I was interested to find out what the Omens and the abbess would be. For the first part of the book, I honestly thought this might end up being one of my favourite fantasies reads this year.

The characters' departure from the cathedral and the shift in the plot from a journey through the cathedral to one through the kingdom took some of the energy out of the story. Not bad but more predictable and slower than the start. The group moves around, meeting various characters and learning more, but much of it seemed to be the same and was not as interesting as it should have been. I was waiting for something to surprise me, but for the most part it was either easy-going or things passed too quickly and didn't really ratchet up tension. I also felt that there were some ideas in the worldbuilding that weren't always fully explained to make everything clear. At times, it was as if the set up wasn't quite complete and the story was still rolling.

I had mixed feelings about the characters too. I liked Sybil from the beginning, she was proud of herself for doing what she did, but she was also bored with the life that she was living. There was a reason for her to seek out the other Diviners, but her growth after she left the cathedral seemed hasty. The changes in her point of view and behaviour were so great and so sudden, that I never fully appreciated the emotional impact of the moments. I didn't completely gel with the romance with the knight either. I could tell what the story wanted to do (enemies to allies kind of dynamic) but their relationship progressed too quickly and at times it seemed forced rather than organic. I can honestly say that the gargoyle was my favourite character as it brought humour and personality to the story and it was lighter when he was around.

The ending was the biggest issue for me. The ending of the book seemed like it was more geared towards the next book than it was about a conclusion to this one that would be satisfying. Twists that weren't fully earned and some things that happened so quickly left me feeling like the first part of the story was not as important. I don't have a problem with it being a book in a series, but I want the first book to stand alone a bit and this one didn't really. The entire thing felt a bit of a letdown, in a way, that the story didn't wrap up better, rather than excited for what was to come.

I didn't particularly enjoy The Knight and the Moth, but it was not as bad as I feared it would be. The beginning was very good, and the idea was very interesting but the pacing in the middle and the rushed finish made it more difficult to remain 100% invested. I had some moments that I enjoyed, particularly darker moments at the beginning, and some of the characters, but I found the story to be a little uneven. I'm rating it 3 out of 5 stars as it had potential, but it never really came together in a way that made me enjoy the full reading experience.