Daughter of the Beast (The Vyshivka Trilogy Book 1)
Review by Laura Huie
Daughter of the Beast by E.C. Greaves
Synopsis: Fear not the beasts in your stories — with a stout blade and a stouter heart, become the thing they fear.
When her sleepy village is raided by the Vulkari, the fearsome warrior women of the Ancient Wilds, only Zyntael Fairwinter is taken.
Claimed as a daughter by their infamous matriarch, Zyntael is trained to hunt, to fight, and to kill—all for a purpose, which remains ever out of her grasp.
In the company of their unruly young, she might find sisterhood. In their unique customs and beliefs, she might find beauty. And in the violence of their raids, she might even find glory.
But it is the reason for her capture that Zyntael truly seeks. It is a truth that must be earned from the very Spirits of the dead; a future paid for in the blood of those Zyntael once called her own. It is a purpose that promises the liberation of not just she, but of all the Ancient Wilds, from an evil far greater than any marauding warrior women.
The Vulkari, however, are not like other women. The Vulkari are monsters.
And sometimes, only the truly monstrous have what it takes to save the world.
Review: Daughter of the Beast, by E.C. Greaves is a story that, with all the confusion and fear of the main
character, brought me comfort in reading. It constantly gave the feel of looking at a picture and realizing there was also story being told along the border, hiding in the woods or in the castle. This story to me was more about the side characters than the main character, Zyntael, where we, as a reader, are put into her shoes. This made the narrative telling perfect for how the story played out. We watch the world grow, react, and learn about it through her eyes, a young child. Right off in the beginning we see our small world destroyed as the adventure she wished for finds her, and it’s more than she could ever imagine or understood. When Karthak, a warrior dog-like creature, kidnaps Zyntael, we realize how large the world is outside of her home, just like we discovered the border around the painting earlier. If I had any bit of art skill, I wish I could put Zyntael in the middle, playing blacksmith, running chores, and showing in the edges how Vulkar ran about and played politics and war. That the world, for now, does not center on Zyntael, like what commonly happens in debut, but not this one. Greaves wrote a detailed and layered world. The motherly obsession of Karthak to Zyntael is something I found fascinating and thought Greaves wrote extremely well. For Zyntael, this is rightfully terrifying. This creature stole her from her home, chains her up like dog near her, and forces her to sit on her lap and pet her. The child grows from watching the Vulkar culture and becomes harden herself, in order to survive and prepare for what happens later. That the allies you thought you could trust had their own motives as well and will not behave the way you want them too, that sometimes you have a better understanding with someone you can’t communicate with than those you can. With all of these layers of details, emotions, and world-building, I rate the book at a 5/5 stars. The tales that built Zyntael are ones preparing her for what is to come in Sister of the Dead, a book already added to my next reads.
