REVIEW: Threads That Bind

“Dripping with atmosphere and edged with danger, Threads That Bind weaves together a gorgeous dark tapestry of mystery, fated romance, and modern myth. You won’t be able to put this one down.” —Alexandra Bracken, New York Times bestselling author of Lore

In a world where the children of the gods inherit their powers, a descendant of the Greek Fates must solve a series of impossible murders to save her sisters, her soulmate, and her city, for fans of Song of Achilles.

Descendants of the Fates are always born in threes: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love and to life itself. The Ora sisters are no exception. Io, the youngest, uses her Fate-born abilities as a private investigator in the half-sunken city of Alante.

But her latest job leads her to a horrific discovery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill. To find the culprit, she must work alongside Edei Rhuna, the right hand of the infamous Mob Queen—and the boy with whom she shares a rare fate-thread linking them as soul mates before they’ve even met.

The investigation turns personal when Io’s estranged oldest sister shows up on the arm of her best suspect. Amid unveiled secrets from her past and her growing feelings for Edei, Io must follow clues through the city’s darkest corners and unearth a conspiracy that involves some of the city’s most powerful players before destruction comes to her own doorstep.

Threads That Bind, Kika Hatzopoulou
Pub 30 May, 2023

Threads That Bind was a nice fast paced read–until about half way through.

We follow Io through her investigation into some wraith assassins who are targeting people in the Silts (the poor part of town) and her romance with her partner Edei.

Like I said, the first half was super quick. There was a lot of action, there was a lot of worldbuilding (more on that in a bit). I wanted to know what happened, I needed to know what happened.

And then the midpoint came, her sister Thais shows up as promised by the back copy and I felt like it all stalled out.

The Greek mythology inspired world was interesting but most of it was presented through paragraph length descriptions that told us all about what the other-born did and who they came from, rather than showing us. And those paragraphs happened a lot. Once I hit the middle mark, I was dissapointed to see these definitions over and over again.

Around the same point, I found myself skimming, looking for dialogue and action words but I skimmed for a while.

I think Threads That Bind has a lot of merit, but the sudden drop off in interest that I had really sunk my rating.