Review by sierra_rosemarie -- The Gryphon by Paula Grover
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Review by sierra_rosemarie -- The Gryphon by Paula Grover
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Gryphon" by Paula Grover.]
The Gryphon by Paula Grover follows the story of Sunsky, next queen of the gryphon people. In their society, the winged gryphons rule over all others, the wingless. The divide between the society has controlled it for ages. But Sunsky’s whole life is turned upside down when she mates with a winged horse and now will give birth to their child, invalidating her right to rule. Change is coming for the gryphonic society. Will it be for better or for worse?
I absolutely loved the story this book told. It took several turns I was not expecting and kept me engaged the entire time. I think the story’s themes of acceptance and overcoming prejudice are very relevant in today’s world. It can be appreciated by a young adult audience in the fantasy genre.
My favorite thing about the book is that you get to watch as a society realizes the error in their biased ways and make a change. It felt very uplifting and refreshing to watch as they decide to use peaceful means to actually bring about a big shift in their civilization’s thinking and structure.
I really don’t have much complaint and there wasn’t anything in particular I didn’t like. Grover did a really good job writing this novel. Additionally, it was well edited. While I did find a few sentences that could have been edited for clarity, there were no catchable grammatical errors. That is why The Gryphon definitely earned its 4 out of 4 stars.
The book used a gryphon society going through the process of social change and learning the values of accepting others despite differences of race, culture, and appearance to illustrate the changes that we as humans could make in our society. I found this very moving and at times quite profound. Additionally, the main character finds her own connection to her spirituality throughout the narrative. Many of her insights are extremely philosophical and beautiful. I would note that even though there is talk of spirituality, this book would not offend or clash with people of any religion.
The last thing readers should be aware of is that there is no explicit description of sexual intercourse between characters, but there is a considerable amount of talk of “mates” and “mating” with breif description and/or reference to sexual activity. Despite that, it is a bit less bawdy in this book than it might be because it is talked about more through the eyes of an animal and less how we view it in modern society. Additionally, it is because of this angle that it is seen as acceptable in the world of The Gryphon for a gryphon to have multiple mates and one primary mate. Personally, and knowing that I much prefer minimal to no sexual content, it did not make me uncomfortable or feel it was too descriptive or erotic. Because of this, I think very young readers might not be best suited, but any teen or older would be perfectly fine.
Overall, a great book that I highly recommend!
******
The Gryphon
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
The Gryphon by Paula Grover follows the story of Sunsky, next queen of the gryphon people. In their society, the winged gryphons rule over all others, the wingless. The divide between the society has controlled it for ages. But Sunsky’s whole life is turned upside down when she mates with a winged horse and now will give birth to their child, invalidating her right to rule. Change is coming for the gryphonic society. Will it be for better or for worse?
I absolutely loved the story this book told. It took several turns I was not expecting and kept me engaged the entire time. I think the story’s themes of acceptance and overcoming prejudice are very relevant in today’s world. It can be appreciated by a young adult audience in the fantasy genre.
My favorite thing about the book is that you get to watch as a society realizes the error in their biased ways and make a change. It felt very uplifting and refreshing to watch as they decide to use peaceful means to actually bring about a big shift in their civilization’s thinking and structure.
I really don’t have much complaint and there wasn’t anything in particular I didn’t like. Grover did a really good job writing this novel. Additionally, it was well edited. While I did find a few sentences that could have been edited for clarity, there were no catchable grammatical errors. That is why The Gryphon definitely earned its 4 out of 4 stars.
The book used a gryphon society going through the process of social change and learning the values of accepting others despite differences of race, culture, and appearance to illustrate the changes that we as humans could make in our society. I found this very moving and at times quite profound. Additionally, the main character finds her own connection to her spirituality throughout the narrative. Many of her insights are extremely philosophical and beautiful. I would note that even though there is talk of spirituality, this book would not offend or clash with people of any religion.
The last thing readers should be aware of is that there is no explicit description of sexual intercourse between characters, but there is a considerable amount of talk of “mates” and “mating” with breif description and/or reference to sexual activity. Despite that, it is a bit less bawdy in this book than it might be because it is talked about more through the eyes of an animal and less how we view it in modern society. Additionally, it is because of this angle that it is seen as acceptable in the world of The Gryphon for a gryphon to have multiple mates and one primary mate. Personally, and knowing that I much prefer minimal to no sexual content, it did not make me uncomfortable or feel it was too descriptive or erotic. Because of this, I think very young readers might not be best suited, but any teen or older would be perfectly fine.
Overall, a great book that I highly recommend!
******
The Gryphon
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Latest Review: The Mindset by Ace Bowers
