Teodora 's Reviews > The Gilded Wolves

4.25/5 ⭐

Full review on my Blog: The Dacian She-Wolf 🐺

As always, I have a mean confession to make: I started this book because of the pretty cover.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi is, what we call in Romanian, a struțocămilă. That means the book is an ostrichcamel.

JK. It means it is a weird mixture of things – a hybrid, if you want me not to me so plastic in expression. I can’t seem to remember the word in English to express the same energy the word struțocămilă has, but I know that there is such a word and if you are kind enough to share the knowledge with me I’d be grateful.

Now coming back to my ostrichcamel theory, I just want to say that this book is an interesting mixture of childish action and brilliant information that I somehow love-hated. Maybe hate is a too strong word. Maybe I’ll replace that with „didn’t like”. So, I didn’t like the fact that even though the action is omnipresent, it was a bit confusing because of the writing style and also childish if you look from a more elaborated point of view. But I did like it because even though the action was so simple, it was packed with a more complex way of thinking and with very accurate historical and mathematical facts that in some ways blew my mind.

„Don’t capture their hearts. Steal their imagination. It’s far more useful.”

In fact, I do agree with that because it seems like this book’s basis. There is an interesting mixture, as I said, of facts and actions that make more use of the imagination of a reader than of their wonder.

The mathematical logic of this book seems to be flawless, but this is my personal opinion, as a maths-scared kid that has no idea how numbers work. You can elaborate on the theory that 2+2=3.45 and give me three complex-looking arguments and I’ll agree with you and think of you as a genius beyond the complexity of this planet.

Okay, now, let’s see what kind of myths, symbols and legends are being broken down here.

This myth of the Babel Tower together with the symbol of an Eye of Horus is brought into a secret society thingy that tries to protect that very Babel myth. The Eye of Horus holds the sight of fragments from the Tower. Quite tangled huh? Dare I say all this happens in 19th century France or shouldn’t I bring it to you like that? (more on myths in the full review)

Pretty interesting so far, don’t you think? Another interesting thing is the composure of the characters. Every single one of them is an outcast with a sad or even terrifying background story.All the characters are well anchored both in the present and also in the past and this makes them somehow real in an unreal world.

„You are real, my girl, for you are loved.”

The best part about them though is not their stories, but the cultural diversity that links them together. It is so heart-warming to read about a homogeneous cultural group of outcasts; don’t you think?

- Séverin: the leader of the group, the heir of House Vanth, stripped from his title because of his origins – he was half French and half Algerian;

- Tristan: Séverin’s brother in soul if not in blood, a weird boy with a passion for plants and tarantulas;

- Laila: a marvellous, gorgeous and fabulous Indian girl with a terrifying story and an equally terrifying power in the palms of her hands, Séverin’s love interest and tbh mine too because she is a QUEEN;

- Zofia: a Jewish-Polish introverted genius who’s smarter than most of the people on the planet but has severe issues with expressing her feelings; to be completely honest, I somehow affiliate with Zofia and that makes her character a bit easier for me to handle;

- Hypnos: the rightful heir of House Nyx, a half French, half black Haitian drama queen with a great sense of fashion and also of humour that I’ve come to love, love, love!

- Enrique: the Spanish-Filipino historian of the group, with a wicked sense of humour and a brilliant mind who also appears to be bisexual which makes my ship-o-meter explode because I don’t know with whom do I ship him more!

Completely honest now, I wasn’t expecting them to be so diverse and so gorgeous together, but here they are. And I’d love for you to agree with me.

Unity in diversity says a well-known motto and this book seems to be all about it. After all, how can one plan world domination without the help of those who share the same intrinsic desire?

„But first, where’s the wine? I can’t discuss the end of civilisation without wine.”