Book Review
Title: The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder (The Bone Spindle Book 2)
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, LGBT
Rating: 4.5 Stars
After the reveals at the end of the first book I was surprised to find the sequel starts with Red’s perspective and I am hoping it is going to give us some backstory on her since we didn’t get any really in the first book. We learn that Red seems to be bound to the Spindle Witch and despite her feelings for Shane she knows she has to track down Briar and deal with Fi as the alternative is extremely unpleasant. Fi, Briar, Shane and the Paper Witch have been tracking to the old witch city to find a safe passage to avoid the Witch Hunters and the Spindle Witch and they are almost at their destination when Red catches up with them. Surprisingly Shane takes on Red even though she doesn’t want to hurt her and in order to allow Briar, Fi and the Paper Witch to escape she plunges them down an old mine shaft and I am excited to see what happens next.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we don’t get much in the way of action but we do get plenty of character development which I appreciate as it is often overlooked in young adult novels. In the tunnels we have this love, hate relationship with Red and Shane as they have to work together to find their way out without causing any more injury and we get some of their thoughts during this time and some context on how Red began bound to the Spindle Witch. They do end up running into the Witch Hunters who want Red more than Shane and Shane gives it her all to keep Red safe which causes her to question her position more but she is poisoned by one of the Witch Hunters and Shane knows the only way to save her is to find the others. Back with Fi, Briar and the Paper Witch, they escaped without much injury but Briar did use the Spindle Witch’s power again which the Paper Witch has warned him against since it brings him closer to her with every use and they wait for Shane. The growing attraction on both sides between Fi and Briar was cute to watch and I can’t wait to see how it develops further but when Shane comes back with a poisoned Red I think this is going to drive a wedge between the partners since she has tried to kill them more than once and betrayed them.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, we see Fi and Briar side with Shane against the Paper Witch since they all agree that leaving Red to die isn’t the right thing. That being said, the only cure for the poison running through her is in Everlynd, the last refuge of the Witches and it is heavily protected. As the group move towards Everlynd, Red’s condition is getting worse to the point where she can’t continue anymore so Shane behind with her while the others head to Everlynd to get the antidote and hopefully get back to them before its too late as if Red dies it will deal a heavy blow to Shane. However, this part of the journey is the most difficult since a lot of magical protections are around Everlynd and they will have to find specific marker to give them direction to the city. Between the three of them they make it quite far but the directions on one of the markers has been lost to time and Fi makes an educated guess at the right direction and happens to be right and before long they have entered the last surviving part of Andar and the home that Briar Rose remembers.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Fi and Briar are both in awe of Everlynd but they don’t receive the warmest welcome especially Fi since someone recognises the curse on her hand and it’s only when Briar explains she is his personal guest that they allow her in. Here, Fi begins to notice how big the difference in their station is but she doesn’t seem to consider that Briar isn’t the ruler of Andar that’s his brother, Sage who is currently still under the sleeping spell and the best chance they have of rescuing everyone and defeating the Spindle Witch is the code left to them by the Rose Witch. In her exploration of the library, Fi finds out that the Lord of the Butterflies whose curse she bears knew the Spindle Witch when she was relatively young meaning her curse might have some connection to the Spindle Witch and she seems to understand that the Spindle Witch was powerful enough to topple Andar a century ago which means she needs something from there that she can’t risk destroying and she’s planning to use Briar to get it.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was hoping to have at least seen one appearance from the Spindle Witch but we haven’t yet except in one of Red’s flashbacks so I am hoping that comes soon. The group eventually figure out through Fi’s ability to read most magical languages that the Spindle Witch has siphoning magic as she steals the magic and life from others and she wants the siphoning spells that Aurora, the first Rose Queen unraveled and Briar as the only member of his bloodline awake and the one she bound herself to is needed to get this. The group splits here as Briar and Fi are going to dream walk in Briar’s unconscious to find the book that his sister left him the code for since Fi is sure that will hold the answers they need. Meanwhile, Red and Shane are going to investigate the Lord of the Butterflies connection to the Spindle Witch since he obviously favoured her over Aurora and was obsessed with her magic. While Red and Shane are scouting Fi asks for any information they can find but doesn’t count on them getting captured by Witch Hunters which Red seems to fear more than the Spindle Witch. In Briar’s subconscious, Fi is protecting him while he goes searching for the information they need but when he uses magic to protect Fi he summons the Spindle Witch to him and she almost wins but he uses the dark power to beat her off for now but I have a feeling it is doing something else to Briar but I can’t wait to see how Vedder is going to conclude this book.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Fi and Briar return from his subconscious to find Everlynd in flames after a Witch Hunter attack and Fi learns they have been asleep for two days meaning her curse played a part in it. This is when Fi finally reveals her curse to Briar and he is sad that she didn’t share it with him before as he could have been helping her while she was helping him but Fi runs away before he can say anything. He realises that others have been playing him into a position he isn’t sure he wants to be in and he has decided to confront the Spindle Witch head on since he now knows he is stronger than her taking Perrin with him. They find Fi and set off after the Witch Hunters to find Shane and Red and they arrive just in time. While the others were travelling the Witch Hunters were going to turn Red over to the High Lord and kill Shane but Shane puts up the fight of her life here and manages to hold on just long enough for her friends to arrive and save her. It also forced Red to confront and seemingly accept her feelings for Shane while I have been waiting for since her betrayal at the end of the last book. I have no idea how the final confrontation is going to go down in the last 80 or so pages but I can’t wait to find out.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we do get to see a final showdown take place but not the one I was expecting. I was under the impression that this was a duology but now I think it is a trilogy since the way the book ending means there has to be a sequel since there are so many unanswered questions and if that is truly the end then it was a very bleak and dark ending. I don’t want to talk too much about the final 100 pages of the novel since there are many reveals and questions posed to the reader that will spoil the enjoyment for others but I greatly enjoyed it. I don’t read young adult fiction so much anymore as I don’t connect with the characters as much but I flew through both of these books in a few days and I can’t wait for the final instalment if there is one. Highly recommended!
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