by Samantha Cohoe
Published on October 13, 2020 by Wednesday Books
ISBN: 1250220408
Format: eARC
Pages: 320
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult
Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.
While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.
But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.
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Entertaining, Intelligent, and Feminist
The Highlights:
- Unique! Different from all the other fantasy books blurring together in my head right now!
- Great lead character
- Fast-paced, lots of action
A Golden Fury hooked me from the first page, and only sleep got me to put it down. This was exactly the book I needed right now, and was such a fun read.
This book starts off fast. The inciting incident kicks things off right at the beginning, and it drew me in completely. The pacing holds up through most of the book, with lots and lots of action. A little past the half way point it did slow down just a bit for me, but not nearly enough to deter me from reading. Things really picked back up for the end, and everything came together really nicely for the climax and the conclusion.
If you’re looking for a book that subverts typical YA romance tropes, A Golden Fury is so the book for you. I can’t go into detail on why because of spoilery things, so I’ll just say that the “romance” storyline in this was so refreshing because it was different that what I usually read in YA fantasy. And it complimented the main character, Thea, so well.
Speaking of Thea, she was a fantastic lead. I loved her right from the beginning. Her story reminded me of the stories of other feminist leading ladies that I love in YA, like Audrey Rose from Stalking Jack the Ripper or Henrietta from A Shadow Bright and Burning. Thea knows what she wants, and no matter how much society and the men in her life stand in her way, she still goes after it.
Maybe it’s just because I don’t know all that much about the Philosopher’s Stone and its surrounding lore, but this take on it was another reason why I enjoyed the book so much. Alchemy is not a subject I’ve read a lot of, I’ve been exposed to it more through video games, so it made for a unique and fresh reading experience for me.
I really enjoyed A Golden Fury. It’s a book I would definitely revisit because of how quick it was for me to read, and the story was just so much fun. If you enjoyed the other YA books I mentioned above, you’ll love this one.
About Katie
I'm a twenty-something aspiring writer who really, really needs to get back to revisions. I've been reviewing books since 2014, and am determined to somehow make stories my day job. I truly think that every book out there contains something good and is meant for somebody.
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