Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee

In the Labyrinth, we had a saying: keep silent, keep still, keep safe.

In a city of walls and secrets, where only one man is supposed to possess magic, seventeen-year-old Kai struggles to keep hidden her own secret—she can manipulate the threads of time. When Kai was eight, she was found by Reev on the riverbank, and her “brother” has taken care of her ever since. Kai doesn’t know where her ability comes from—or where she came from. All that matters is that she and Reev stay together, and maybe one day move out of the freight container they call home, away from the metal walls of the Labyrinth. Kai’s only friend is Avan, the shopkeeper’s son with the scandalous reputation that both frightens and intrigues her.

Then Reev disappears. When keeping silent and safe means losing him forever, Kai vows to do whatever it takes to find him. She will leave the only home she’s ever known and risk getting caught up in a revolution centuries in the making. But to save Reev, Kai must unravel the threads of her past and face shocking truths about her brother, her friendship with Avan, and her unique power.

First of all, let us take a moment to admire that gorgeous cover. While we’re at it let us also appreciate that beautiful title, I mean, ‘’Gates of Thread and Stone’’ does have a certain poetic ring to it.

Now, this was a book I’d been eagerly waiting for. Like, seriously. I was sure it was going to be THE BOOK to get me out of my temporary non-reading phase. Y’know when you read lots and lots of books and then you sometimes don’t feel like reading anymore and you glue yourself to the television instead? That phase. So, like I said, I knew Gates of Thread and Stone was going to be awesome, and then when it wasn’t so awesome I was bound to feel disappointed, right? And so, this is the story of how another eagerly anticipated book turned out to be a major let down. Alright then, enough with the unprofessional whining. Here comes the review! Tada!

The story started off with a blast. We’re introduced to a fascinating new fantasy world, a nice, independent female protagonist and an intriguing magical element. There’s plenty of action within the first, few chapters and I find myself settling down for a captivating story but then somewhere, somehow I’m reading a boring old romance about our amazing, super dooper main character, Kai, and a fine, gentlemanly specimen called Avan. We have romantic tension and pounding heartbeats and blushing and hand holding and I’m suddenly reading another YA romantic fiction. What irks me the most is that Gates of Thread and Stone had a huge amount of potential. The story had this aura of novelty about it, but the intrusion of the romance completely ruined the book by diverting the entire focus of the plot. The author needed to spend more time exploring the world rather than give acute details about the muscles on Avan’s back.

The ending was this big, gooey mess that I really don’t feel like dissecting right now. 

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD

You know those books where the male love interest loses all his memories of the girl and she’s all sad and crying like ‘’How could you forget me? We luurve each other’’ and then the guy looks at the girl with all this tenderness and is like ‘’you’re so beautiful. Who cares if I don’t remember a thing about you, we’re meant to be!’’ and then they walk off into the sunset and shizz. Oh, you haven’t read any such book? Well, there’s Split Second and a couple of other totally indistinguishable YA out there. What I’m trying to say is, such endings kill me. They make me die inside. I mean, for heaven’s sake, you don’t remember the girl, you’re supposed to be creeped out by her mad affection, not immediately reciprocate her feelings of love. And that, my friends, is the ending of Gates of Thread and Stone.