Review: To Clutch a Razor

To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

V-Roth returns with her second novella of dark Polish magick and monsters. I said after reading When Among Crows last year that that book was simply too short to really capture its full worldbuilding potential…well, be careful what you wish for and all that. Not that this book was bad - it was still a pretty good exploration of this extended family of creepery and Halloween appropriate chills, all in a bite sized Dresden Files package - and incidentally, if I remember correctly, Dymitr’s part in the ceremonies of Empty Night shares its name with Jim Butcher’s projected final Dresden novel, capping off a planned apocalyptic finale trilogy. And then there’s the John Wick of it all too, particularly drawing inspiration from the sequels and their depiction of Wick’s extended family of death angels. While this series continues to annoy with its tantalizing but all too brief glimpses of its demimonde, paired with oddly interchangeable POV’s (a longtime flaw for Roth, well documented), Roth always deserves praise for weaving in the diverse influences on Polish myth and culture, from old Slavic to Orthodox to Catholic and, of course, Jewish.

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