Review: The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan

The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was a very unique historical fantasy about the Beast of Gévaudan with some Jehanne d’Arc in the mix as well.  Set in the late 1700s in France, Sebastian Grave sets out to right the wrongs of his past.  

I found this a bit hard to follow at times as it not only follows Sebastian in the past with Antoinne his friend and lover during the initial Red Winter and during the present with Antoinne's son.  There are also a ton of characters, who are not always referred to by the same name from scene to scene.  For example, Sebastian's "guest" Sarmodel is mainly referred to as Sarmodel, but there are a few scenes especially when the archangel Michael is present when he goes by another name.  This is true for several characters, who have a religious name or alias as they are immortal or serve a religious purpose.  As this book is fairly long this can get confusing especially when you are listening to the audiobook, for books like this I prefer to have a print book handy so I can refer back to names and places to keep me from getting confused but that is a personal preference.  The interactions between the characters was great and I enjoyed Livia's POV in between the main story.  She added some humor to a darker story despite her chapters focusing more on Joan of Arc and more of the religious aspects of the book.

I was surprised to find out this was a debut novel as the writing feels like that of a seasoned fantasy novelist.  The storyline was unique, the pacing was good, and while I would have liked more information on certain things that can be true of any book or author.  I would have liked to better understand how Sebastian and Sarmodel were joined, it may have been mentioned, but I clearly missed it.  The two of them together were a great pairing and we get to see them speak to one another often.  There is plenty of action to balance out the character driven parts of the story, and I enjoyed the mix of magic and fantasy elements that were woven into the religious, political, and social aspects of the book.  If you are looking for a book that blends genres this is a good one.

I like the way the footnotes were read in the audiobook, it felt like the characters were trying to break the 4th wall, which is not often done in audio format.  From other reviews of the book I can see that these were the footnotes/endnotes.  The audiobook was fantastic the way it was narrated.  Both of the narrators were excellent and I highly recommend the audio.  I plan on listening to it again to pick up the bits I missed soon.  

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