WOW! What a great story and it's hard to find the words to express how much I loved it.
Everything can be summarize using the adjective "excellent": world building, storytelling, style of writing and characters.
I hope to read soon another book by this talented storyteller.
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The Second Bell is a lovely book that left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I absolutely loved the premise and that this was Slavic inspired, and I loved the folklore that was used and explored, and I feel that was used well to create a refreshing story in a time where there are quite a few folklore-inspired stories. I also adored how this book explores motherhood and the bond with the child and doesn’t lean into the far too typical trope of killing off the mother. However, while I enjoyed those aspects as well as Houston’s writing, particularly the descriptions, I didn’t find myself as gripped as I wanted to be by this book, the pacing threw me off in a few places and while I enjoyed the exploration of the relationships, I was not particularly engaged with any of the characters. A fascinating premise and world, but the execution wasn’t quite for me, however I can see why this book will be loved by many people, and I will certainly keep it in mind because it’s approach to motherhood.

I am astounded at the amazing storytelling in this book, it’s just so wonderful and beautiful, like the writing. It’s a completely magical read , I’ve never read anything like this before it’s so unique. It’s an absolute thrill-ride to read. The story isn’t perfect, I would have loved to see more background for some characters and what happened during events of the book for others, but these are t major issues I have. It’s a fantastic read overall

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

4.9 / 5 ✪

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2021/03/08/the-second-bell-by-gabriela-houston-review/

In the mountain village of Heyne Town, there exists a tree known as the Hope Tree. Here, before they are due to give birth, women will leave blankets, food or provisions outside the village—just in case. In case their children are born as stryga.

Stryga (or strzyga or strzygón in Slavic mythology) are children born with two hearts. The first heart is their primary, human one—tying them to humanity and the path of normalcy and righteousness. The second is a much darker heart connected to a second soul, one that indulges its evil desires and preys on humanity. If a stryga were to follow the darker desires of its second heart even once, it would never be able to stop, turning this human into a dark demon. Although, in Heyne Town, all born with two hearts are considered evil and banished upon birth. Thus their parents faced a choice—to abandon their child outside the village; to dispose of them some other way; or to join their inhuman offspring in seclusion, never to set foot in the village again on pain of death.

Nineteen years ago, Miriat and her newborn Salka were exiled from Heyne Town, and taken to the remote haven where all exiled stryga live. Here they live in squalor, unable to leave and hated by the outside world. Here they are taught to control their darker nature, to never once listen to their second heart.

But Salka is young and headstrong. When she is exiled to the far off Windry Pass for a moment of weakness, she must do everything she can just to survive. But as the snow piles high and the temperature plummets, food becomes scarce and predators start to hunt humans as prey, Salka will be forced into a no-win situation: will she use her second heart to survive, or pay the ultimate price for the sake of her human soul?

By in large I really enjoyed the Second Bell. While I’d heard of strygas before, Gabriela Houston introduces a fresh take on the creature more often depicted as a monster in other media. In Slavic lore, it refers to a child born with two hearts and two souls, the second pair of which transforms it into a demon much alike a vampire. In the Witcher, a striga is a child cursed before birth. It is born a demon—a foul-smelling, heavily-muscled monster that runs about on all fours and violently attacks anything that wanders too near its lair. Houston’s take on the stryga humanizes it tremendously compared to these, as the child must only suppress the desires of its second heart in order to retain its humanity. Even so, not all parts of the legend seem to hold true. As with any other story, what is fact and what isn’t is open to interpretation. The villagers in Heyne Town fear and loathe all strigoi in equal measure. Whether or not they have ver indulged their second heart is immaterial. All are evil.

Note: I’ve been talking a lot about stryga being cursed children, born with two hearts. This is true, but not complete. While the affliction dooms from birth, strigoi will grow up like anything does. The only cure (in this book, at least) is death. Likewise, one can’t catch stryga. You’re either born one or you’re not—there’s no in-between.

The Second Bell is all about the story and its characters. Salka and Miriat share a unique relationship that should be quite relatable, and yet unlike any other. While they are obviously kin, only one is human. Her mother is Salka’s link to her humanity—by refusing to indulge her second heart, she feels closer to her mother, to her humanity, but in denying it she feels like she is cutting off a part of her own soul. The Second Bell is therefore a tale of what it means to be human. Salka is Miriat’s child and her whole world. But if her daughter were to listen to her demon heart, would she lose her humanity, the main connection she has to her mother? The Second Bell is also a tale of a mother and a daughter, and their bond.

While the world-building of this story was a bit patchwork, I understand the choice was instead to focus on the story of Salka and Miriat, the story of what it means to be human. Still, I would’ve liked to see a bit more from the world. There are some things—like the tree and the dola and more—though the entire world seems like it was built for ‘men and strygoi, but nothing more. While the story centers on the strygoi, they cannot possibly by the only legend in this land: I would’ve liked to hear about some of the others, if only just in passing. The land itself was often painted in greens and browns and white, rather than showing any real detail.

Otherwise, I really have no other notes. The story was good and thorough and made for a quick and immersive read, while still leaving lasting connotations after the book is finished. I hope to see more from the author and this world!

The Second Bell provides a refreshingly unique story based in slavic folklore, of which I have only come accross once previously. The premise was interesting and compelling, however for me the characters were a bit flat. I found that I didnt really feel anything for them, and their emotions and motivations were only touched upon. Overall this was a fast paced and enjoyable read.

In the mountain community of Heyne Town children born with two hearts, one human, the other darkened by the magics that make them striga, are left in the forest to be claimed by other striga or to die. Should their mothers choose to keep the child they are banished with it, never to return. Miriat was one such mother, leaving her husband, her community, and everything she had ever known for the sake of her daughter. She builds a life for them in the striga village. But Salka grows into a stubborn young woman and, when a foolish adventure with friends sees the community risk the threat of broken treaties with the people of Heyne, she will be forced into a months long exile in the dead of winter. To survive Salka will have to break all the rules she has been taught, all the rules that have bought a safe home for her and her mother. A home that may never be safe for either of them again.

Gabriela Houston’s The Second Bell drives me more than a little up the walls. It often feels like everything that happens to Salka or Miriat is due to someone else’s choices or actions. Neither character feels like she has much say in what happens, so it feels like the plot just sort of happens to them both. This is not something I find myself enjoying because it feels like there was a fair deal of potential to the setting and the divide between regular humans, the striga, and the much feared stigoi could have been fascinating.

The whole idea of the stigoi, the dangerous result of a stiga using the power of their second heart and opening themselves to the full extent of their potential, is fascinating. The threat of a stigoi is pounded into the reader’s head over and over. The punishment for giving in and becoming a stigoi is exile at best and the magical equivalent of a lobotomy at worst. The local humans refuse to keep children who are born with a second heart out of fear of them eventually becoming stigoi. And I would have loved to have seen that worked with more.

That especially in light of how terrible many of the side character came across as. Everyone seemed to be either using or planning to use Salka or very willing to pin blame on her for things she did not do.  Miriat was often ignored or reminded of her status as a human living among the striga because they allow her to when she tried to stand up for herself of Salka. Characters make what feel like extreme choices for the situation or just decide not to deal honestly with anyone else. This applies to both protagonists as well as antagonists, which leads to many of the characters feeling more than a little flat.

I find myself frustrated by The Second Bell. Houston does a wonderful job with her setting descriptions were gorgeous and the ideas behind the striga and the stigoi were fascinating. The protagonists had some good moments between themselves, and I did quite appreciate that they clearly were written to care about each other. But there were a couple of things that felt like more could have been done with them, the lamb and the stigoi who were exiled early on. I would have liked to have seen more of Salka’s time in exile and more of Miriat interacting with the striga villagers. I wanted more of the antagonistic side characters to give them a little more character and develop them past just being antagonists because things needed to be worse for the protagonists.

I wanted to like The Second Bell, and I did in some places, but it felt small and mean and no sprawling mountainous forests or promising ideas about magics could make it work for me. Houston’s writing has a ton of potential and I would love to see what she does with a wider focus and more expansive story. But as it stands, The Second Bell gets a two out of five from me.

A quick warning, there is a moment late in the book that features the death of a pet. It was not graphic, but it does feel worth noting.

Might just turn out to be Angry Robot’s very own Marmite… ‘You’ll either love it or hate it’.

When I first learnt of The Second Bell’s conception I knew I needed a copy at the earliest opportunity. After reading the synopsis and seeing that amazing cover with its strong and bold colours I was sold. I have never before read anything based off of Slavic folklore before and I do enjoy my fair share of folklore so I should enjoy this one right? That’s what I thought anyway. Now I’m not going to say that I didn’t enjoy The Second Bell because I did but there are a few key aspects that stopped me from falling in love with this one.

I want to get straight into the element of this tale that just didn’t gel for me. For me it is a big issue because if it worked then this read would have been a top pick for sure. The issue is with the characters. There is a good host of characters and several are strong independent women of which Salka comes straight to mind and this is always great to see in a book however they are all a little flat in detail. I would have loved a little more background info on Salka and Miriat, the daughter and mother the story revolves around, and I would have been able to establish a deeper connection with them. Then there is the actual folklore surrounding the Striga. The book intrigued me enough to look into the Striga a little more and I like what I found out and I wish the Striga received a little more background in the book. We just arrive at the ‘they’re not good’ conclusion without any build up as to why. I think this would have gone a long way to help build the story more.

Don’t worry though it’s not all bad. Remember when I referenced Marmite? Well let’s get into what I believe to be some great strong points about The Second Bell and why some people will love it. Gabriela Houston clearly has a talent for world building. The level of detail is brilliant and just how Houston unravels the world around the reader is fully immersive and I found myself absolutely in love with the setting. I could easily imagine the rolling hills breaking off as we hit the monstrous pine covered mountains. This level of detail really helps put the reader into the shoes of the characters traversing the land. There is a section in the book where Salka finds herself being punished and during that section I truly found escapism at its finest. The world around me melted away and I was there with Salka in the snow-capped mountains. Perfect. I often wondered, while reading, if Houston pulled any inspiration from her own life and if this area exists in real life.

The second aspect I loved is that of the view of parenting. We often get the trope of children/teens being unintentionally oppressed by their parents and how this can damage the child however what we see less of is the view of the parent and why they do what they do and that came as a nice breath of fresh air. I found a slight connection here with Miriat as a parent myself and I could find her actions and choices relatable. Hats off the Houston for highlighting this view in The Second Bell.

Overall I would lean towards liking The Second Bell but I could have been totally in love if the characters held up to the beautiful world in which they live. A little more backstory and depth to the characters could have gone a long way. The Second Bell is worth the read and I think a lot of reads will really enjoy the story however if you are like me and like more depth to your characters then The Second Bell might leave you a little deflated. Going forward I will without doubt be keeping an eye on Gabriela Houston’s future works.

Salka is a striga who has spent all her life suppressing her second heart, which, if given any power, would turn her into an evil monster. It's their way of life, and the only way to keep their community safe. But when Salka is sent away, it comes down to a matter of survival: continue starving the monster and die or finally tap into her striga nature and live.

The Second Bell is a story of choices - not just the choices Salka has to make, but how the choices of others in their community have direct and lingering impact on her life. As Salka is forced into increasingly limited and difficult choices, she needs to decide if she will continue living within the boundaries of the community that has sheltered her so far, or if she should strike out and make a new way for herself.

This brings us to the question of nature versus nurture. In the striga village, the conventional wisdom is to starve the second heart, the source of both power and evil; yet the most experienced at - and legalistic about - starving their second heart turn out to be those whose choices cause the most harm to others. Are all strigas evil just because they have a second heart? Or is it what they do with the power that they are born with that makes them dark? What if Salka's experience is something totally different? And what if there was a way to tap on to that power and still remain good?

What is the balance between personal responsibility for your actions and the sinful nature of a person?

The story starts off well - Chapter 1 draws you into the history of Heyne Town, Salka's birth, and the stigma around strigas, then jumps 19 years into the future in Chapter 2 to see Salka all grown up. However, Chapters 3 - 6 hits you with a choppy series of POVs that read like a series of short stories that are somewhat related to the plot but not quite. Houston seems to hit her stride around Chapter 7 - whilst we still get multiple points of view, they start to flow together in a cohesive narrative to its heart-wrenching end.

Overall, The Second Bell is an enchanting and thoughtful read.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from Angry Robot via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
[will be posted on blog.annatsp.com on 3 March]

This was such a great read. I had chills when i read the first chapter. Its safe to say that was one powerful intro. The second bell is a unique story following Salka, rejected by her village for how she was born and who she were, and Miriat, a mother who would not let go of her child, no matter the circumstances. This book profoundly navigates through the themes of motherhood and sacrifice, executing it in such an amazing way.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was the different characters. When i say i hated Dran in the beginning, i really mean i hated him. The hot spoiled brat who’s mother, the chief, favors him and gets away with everything. And then we got his perspective 🤡. Yeah now what am i to do with all that hate? And the way how characters were handled, especially with character dynamics and having a realized role in the story, the author truly showcases gray morality and the idea that someone’s anatomy does not make them a monster. The plot was very well written and it had all the elements to allure and make me stay fascinated by the plot. The world building and magic element, too was fleshed out and not in the info dumpy way, because we got snippets all throughout the book which I appreciate a lot.

I want to highlight the themes explored in this story, especially motherhood and what a mother would do for their child, no sacrifice, no turmoil, and certainly no challenge would stop them from giving it their all, no matter where they end up because of that. I also like how Miriat and Alma was mirrored on this aspect, it provides more realism to the story and made it so worthwhile to read.

Despite that, one criticism i have is that there were too less time spent with each character. i would have loved this more, if we had spent more time with each character for some of the scenes to have a greater impact on me. On top of this, we had multiple pov character changes within a lot of chapters that felt a bit off and Salka i felt could have been better developed as a character and given more depth and reading her pov initially kind of felt boring.

All in all this was a very enjoyable read and the fantasy aspect felt really unique, i’m glad i got to read this. Thank you to the publisher for providing me an ARC via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review

I think what got me interested in The Second Bell at first was the fact that it’s inspired by Eastern European based myths and folklore. You do not often come across something like that – The Witcher series probably being the most prominent. Though I did not read that series and I’m not familiar with said Eastern European myths and folklores. So I pretty much went blindly into The Second Bell and I really can’t comment on how much was taken away from old folk tales or how well that part of the story was done – reading some Wikipedia pages did not give me sufficient knowledge on the matter, though it still was interesting to read about the stryzga which inspired the striga in this novel.

But first things first. The Second Bell is the story of Salka and Miriat, striga daughter and human mother. But it’s also a story of prejudice and superstition. At the beginning of the book, Miriat decides to leave her home, Heyne Town to go up higher in the mountain to live in the striga village because she can’t bear the thought of abandoning her child. Which would have been Salka’s fate otherwise. Being born with two hearts is something to be feared. But living among the striga does not mean she is free to be whoever she wants to be. The striga fear their own powers and they are to repress themselves, no matter what. The striga treat their own just as harshly as the humans of Heyne Town treat strigas. I think this was the most interesting aspect of the book, which also delivered an important lesson. It not only deals with topics of

While I found The Second Bell compelling enough to read it to the end, overall I walked away from it a bit underwhelmed. For starters, I didn’t like any of the characters. And there was only a handful I could tolerate – Salka (so, so, so naive, OMG), Maladia and Dola, and even then they weren’t the most loveable out there. Most of the villagers and townspeople were just horrible. Look, I get it, they are leading a hard life, but it doesn’t mean they have to be selfish bastards. And they are mostly pretty one dimensional to add anything extra to the story. They all had one purpose which they fulfilled, but they are more disposable than interesting. And this novel was supposed to be a character-driven one. Too bad it fell flat in the execution.

The story is pretty small scale. It’s not action-packed and there isn’t much happening, not toward the last third anyway- it has a bit of slice-of-life feel to it – but that was actually refreshing in a way. I quite liked that as I’m not really into big epic fantasy and Houston did an awesome job at bringing nature and the environment to life. I would have liked a bit more showing than telling when it came to the strigas and stigois though, to better understand where the deep fear for their kind is coming from. Besides of “that’s how it is”.

The Secon Bell is a refreshing read with its Slavic setting. If you like dark themed folktale inspired stories, you probably will like it. Personally, I have mixed feelings and think it could have been better at some aspects, but it also did well in others. It shows the deep bond between mothers and their child as well as how closed groups work especially when it comes to beliefs and age-old prejudices. The need to fit in even if one’s nature is against everything the rules represent. Sometimes you need to follow your other heart in order to find happiness. Even if it comes with a price.

This was really entertaining although I had issue with the use of Slavic terminology at times, being Slavic myself.

Those born with a second heart are the striga, monsters that aren’t safe to keep in town. When Miriat gives birth, she never expected to hear that second heartbeat and she makes the decision to leave with her baby and go to the striga village up the mountain. Nineteen years later, her daughter Salka and her are still trying to survive in a world against the striga, as Salka tries to fight the urges of her second heart.

The Second Bell is a Slavic inspired fantasy novel, which is what immediately caught my attention. I love finding new books inspired by different cultures and especially different folklore, and Slavic folklore is fairly new to me. Houston manages to weave such an intricate story that very much had that traditional folklore feel to it, while using a striga, what we normal view as the monster of a book, into an amazing protagonist.

Salka was such a delight of a main character to read about - she was smart, headstrong, and determined, all while maintaining a naïveté about her as she learns about the world, and herself. Seeing her grow throughout the book was really one of the highlights of the story. Her relationship with Miriat was also very wholesome. It was a relatable mother and daughter relationship, showing strain as Salka is a rebellious teenager, fear for Salka when she is in trouble, and yet still showcasing the deep love they both had for each other and how important their relationship was to each other.

Seeing Salka come to terms with being a striga, and learning what having a second heart really means was very interesting. There were some tense moments as she grapples with the dangers and fears of using her shadow and heart, and some very exciting ones when you see the sheer power Salka has. The last quarter of the book when the story just starts flying was definitely the most exciting as we see Salka, the other striga, and humans learn just what being a striga can mean. It also hits you right in the feels for that last bit, so don’t be surprised if you need some tissues when it’s over.

The Second Bell is one of those beautiful, wonderful books that is just so easy to fall in to. The characters were well rounded, relatable people that you could read about while they do even the most mundane of tasks and feel right at home and comfortable with them. Just a beautiful book, that balances sweet and tense moments alike. I can’t recommend this enough, to those that love fantasy, to those that love reading about family, and to those that like to see that the monster isn’t always what you expect.

My hard rule is that if I don't care how a book will end by the 25% mark, I walk away. And unfortunately this is one of those times. I loved the premise, but the writing style felt blunt and rushed, and the dialogue badly scripted. Definitely not for me.

I will not lie to you, I've actively thought about putting this book on my DNF. This would mean it would be the first to be on my DNF, but for the sake of the review I decided to push through it and end the book.

The Second Bell tells the story of the striga, someone born with two hearts. Striga can turn into strigoi, which are considered dangerous demons. The protagonist of the story is Salka. Salka's mother, Miriat, chose to not abandon her infant daughter but chose to go with her to the striga village. In the striga village there are strict rules, especially when it comes to following the second (striga) heart.
But Salka is headstrong and young, and when threatened with losing everything, she is forced to explore the depths of her true nature, testing the bonds between mother and child.

Let me start off by saying that this was the first I've ever read about striga/strigoi, which interested me. The Second Bell seems to only touch the surface of what striga/strigoi can do or their place in folklore. Which quite disappointed me, because I would have loved to read more about it.

The plot of the story was lost on me, because the story went all over the place. At one moment it's about Salka being banished, the next moment it seems to be about the pregnancy of Dola. There didn't really seem to be a clear plot well until the second half of the book. At this point I had already actively considered putting this book on my DNF. The first half of the book is slow, to put it mildly. There are some scenes that could be interpreted as exciting, but they felt rushed and flat to me.

Another thing that made me consider not finishing the book, was the odd POV reading. The reader seems to be reading from a whole lot of POV's, not only the protagonist. I quite like different POV's in a book, but to me it wasn't clear from which character I was reading since there didn't seem to be a difference in chapter or anything. You would often switch POV in the middle of a chapter, which confused and annoyed me.

The characters in the book are just okay, though I felt I could not really relate to any of the characters. The protagonist seems to be lacking some of the depth that made me want to read this book when I read the synopsis. The other characters also lack this depth, even when reading from their POV.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, however harsh that may sound. The book lacked depth and excitement. It was a mess reading all of the different POV's when it wasn't clear which character you were reading from.

A 3.75 stars.
I didn’t know much about Striga/Stigoi, so I was really excited for this book.
This book is basically ‘life as a Striga’- with all it’s hardships. I never read fantasy written unlike fantasy(?), so this was a new experience. The setting was small- the story revolves around some mountains and there’s no heavy world building but the descriptions of the environment were rich.
I didn’t like Salka as the main protagonist but I did like the POVs of all the other characters. Salka, despite being the main protagonist didn’t have much arc in the latter half of the story except for being the little good Stigoi. The ending was easily made comfortable for making Salka the ‘good Stigoi’- eliminate all bad guys and lift the MC as high as possible. I know that, that was the premise pointed to from the beginning but I would’ve loved if the story had taken a dark turn ending with a message for caution- to avoid Stigoi etc., just like the folklores- which would have made this a much more chilling and an interesting read.
All in all, an okay one time read- no twists and turns in the plot but with an interesting premise and a satisfactory ending.
Ps: Btw what happened to the Dola? Was she able to continue as Dola or did she give it up?

Total time spent: 5h 44min.
~ ARC received through NetGalley for an honest review.

When Salka was born, her mother had two choices - leave Heyne Town forever with her baby, or leave the infant in the woods to die. All because Salka was born with two hearts. Salka's mom took her to the only place that would have them, a community of banished outcasts. Salka knows only the poverty of the striga village and their strict, constant counsel to keep her second heart quiet at all costs. Nearly everyone in the village was born like Salka, and breaking this law comes with dire consequences.

When teenage Salka is accused of endangering her friends in an ill-fated trip to the forbidden Heyne Town, the striga village sends her away for the winter, where she grows as she fends for herself and begins to question the fears the Town and village have always had about the second heart.

Salka returns to the village changed, and finds herself caught in the manipulations of several villagers who each have something to be gained by forcing Salka to reveal the powers of her second heart. As their schemes come tumbling down around her, Salka and all the members of the village and the Town are uprooted and forced to reconsider the hearts they have – one or both.

I was drawn to this story from the start because I enjoy watching characters confront all the aspects of who they are and decide what to keep, what to grow, and what to throw away. One of the things I loved about Second Bell was that even though I consider Salka the main character, just about every named character faces at least one moment when they have to face their choices and decide whether or not to change. The book seamlessly weaves multiple character points of view throughout, which enriched the story for me and gave each important character choice its own weight beyond impact on Salka. Together, the characters sort of create the persona of the village. I got invested in each of them and wanted to see how things would turn out for them.

The world of Heyne and the mountains felt vivid and wild to me, with the characters of the village and the Town both beating back the harsh winters and scrabbling for what they could, even though the Town was so much better off than the village. The ways that nature challenges the characters kept me turning the pages just as much as the characters themselves.

The final act really had me reading! Looking back, I’m impressed with the way the book juggles multiple settings and groups experiencing the same disaster, building to the ultimate showdown. In the moment I was just biting my nails wanting everyone to be ok (too bad for me...).

Also looking back, though I didn't realize it at the time, the story is also about mothers who put their children first in different ways, to different ends, and at different costs to everyone involved. I love that meta aspect and it's probably partly why the story felt so well-assembled.

I really enjoy complex fairytales and detailed retellings, and I think Second Bell hits a sweet spot in terms of feeling like a fairy tale (I believe this is an original tale inspired by folklore, and not a retelling) but giving me enough character and world to fully immerse me in the plot. Definitely recommend to anyone who likes fantasy and fairy tales :)

Something amazing will be hitting bookshelves a month from now: ‘The Second Bell,’ by Gabriela Houston. I was very fortunate to have received an advance reading copy from Angry Robot through the NetGalley service I’ve written about in the past. My sincere thanks to the publisher, NetGalley, and to the author – I just finished reading this an hour ago, and still have gooseflesh.

Let’s set the stage: a mountain community seems to frequently see the arrival of babies born with two hearts – known locally as striga. The striga are known to have qualities and powers that can, and apparently often do, lead to cataclysmic events to those around them; in order to protect the little hamlet, these newborns are sent away to the Hope Tree, where their arrival is made known in advance to others similarly afflicted and banished, to be raised in another location many leagues from their birthplace. When they come of age in their new home, they are taught that they can never return whence they came, as they would then be put to death. Further, in their new home, they must abide by the rules of never tapping into the source of their power fed by their second heart due to the improbability of being able to harness it for good. Should they abuse the power or fail to abide by this rule, they will find their second heart psychically burned away, along with the striga power, leaving them a shell of their former selves. Because performing this ritual is imperfect, there is every risk that the striga will be left dead or in a vegetative state.

It should go without saying that many of the newborns’ mothers cannot accept being separated from their babies, and elect to make the journey to their children’s new homes. This choice is not reversible – once they are gone, they are dead to their old community, and would be put to death upon such a return.

‘The Second Bell’ centers around one such mother, Miriat, who flees the only home she’s ever known with her daughter, Salka, to hopefully make a new life, safe for both of them. For nineteen years, everything appears to flow smoothly, if not flawlessly – the new land’s rules are strict and unflinching, and the punishments severe for transgressors.

It would appear, with that information, that an individual could simply try to stay assimilated into the birth village, were it not for two factors: first, all births are checked for the phenomenon of the second heart; second, even if this were somehow missed, any stirring of the striga is met by an unnatural shifting of the striga’s shadow, making it apparent to all who come into contact with the individual that they possess the striga power.

I. Loved. This. Book. I’ve never read anything like it; the characters are plausible from every angle, their individual histories are compelling, the subplots are interwoven and natural, and it was an absolute thrill-ride of a storyline. There will probably be comparisons – my first thought was to look at the striga as along the lines of Lyra and her daemon from Pullman’s excellent “His Dark Materials.” But unlike Pantalaimon, who has a given and – eventually – fixed shape, the shadows are mysterious, often take on the shape of the striga-afflicted, and cannot “speak”. No good, in Houston’s story, can come of the striga’s power, but not all is as it seems.

The story isn’t perfect, but what story is? I would have preferred to see a bit more backstory for some of the characters; one character is cast out of the striga community for three months – I wish I could have read more of how she came to overcome her obstacles. These are such minor complaints that I’m actually rolling my eyes at the thought of writing them here.

Meanwhile, I did find a little more than a handful of typos in my copy, almost all associated with punctuation (one reference of “yourself” when “herself” was clearly intended). As this was a proof copy, this won’t in any way detract from your reading experience. I wholeheartedly and without reservation recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good, well-plotted fantasy.

Five stars. I vow to keep an eye on anything this author pens, and anything Angry Robot publishes.

Stunning and rich world created by Gabriela Houston that may have started off a little slow, but definitely picked up after a few chapters. I adored the Slavic influence, the morally grey characters and the fallible MC, whose journey was something I continually wanted to go back to.

I've struggled with reading books for a long time recently, mostly coming back to them in bits and pieces, but one night I read The Second Bell for three hours straight, well into the early hours, and if that's not a review in of itself for the book, I don't know what is!

After hearing The Second Bell was Slavic inspired, I knew I had to read it as soon as I could, and I wasn't disappointed. The writing itself was clear and concise, but occasionally went off on little lyrical descriptions that really worked well together. I know a few of my writer and reader friends that were wondering about this novel and I know to definitely recommend it to them after my read.

I really like books about folklore but this one fell a little flat for me. It was hard to keep reading.

This is my first time reading about a strigae, I am still not as informed as I'd like to fool myself into thinking when it comes to supernatural stuff. This was my opportunity to learn a bit and while I don't think that the depiction matches what I've read online, I did like reading about a different type of culture for a bit.

The author is Polish and as a non-native English speaker, I find that pretty fun in itself.

I have received this book in exchange for of an honest review, thank you Angry Robot and NetGalley for the opportunity.

───────────────────

I liked reading fantasy survival stories, this year's #1 book for me so far (and the two creeping behind it) were all survival based in one way or another. This book also has that, because I'm not very knowledgeable about the culture the author is coming from, I was ready for exploration and seeing how people in this world live with the whole striga situation. Did she deliver? Yes, yes she did.

We actually end up spending a considerable amount of time exploring the wilderness, if I can put it like that, and seeing how someone in a place like this survives. It was a tribal setting in a way and to me, that made it easier to set a canvas for Ms. Houston to draw in the details. How they hunt, how they function as a community and the purpose of the members was very interesting to learn about. I kind of wished that aspect was explored in a bit more details, but overall, no complaints on this front.

To me personally, the book has an interesting plot line, and it has the world to back it up. But, it has a very weak cast of characters, it has a set of rules that make zero sense and it has YA undertones that honestly pissed me off. Which eventually made it not as enjoyable as it could have been.

I'll start with the YA undertones. This could have been one incredible growth story, but it is dampened by the fact that everything that happens to Salka happened because of a situation I can only describe as jealous mean girls. I would understand if there were actual reasons to what happens to this girl, but when it comes out as petty revenge because my object of affection looked at the main character for a second too long or as a wasted effort because "I'm lonely and I want to belong", I find myself hard pressed to bother caring about any of them much. I mean, at least with the loneliness, there was some idea of protecting the community hidden there somewhere, but it lacked weight behind it.

It doesn't help at all, that regardless of all the pain Salka had to go through, the minute it's over and she's safe again, all is forgiven and she's all lovey dovey for reasons that I personally can't understand. I'm trying to get away from YA, seeing the stupidity of those heroines in a work as lush as this one, which is seemingly aimed at adults, makes me angry. Especially when it's as baseless and with a terrible history like this one.

Next up, are the rules. Strigae are bad, humans are ready to kill any child with two hearts because it's dangerous. However, after reading this book, I still have zero ideas why they are dangerous when almost every single application of magic in this book was actually a good thing. Everyone is afraid, some strigae might get banished if they listen to the temptation or killed off, but why? I was waiting for an explanation, I really hoped for one, but the pages were dwindling and the answers weren't coming. This actually prompted me to go and look up striga so I can search for something to bridge the gap, and what I found was awful, it shows the monstrosity and I get it if that was the reasoning behind it, but the book doesn't. At. All. and it left me very confused to see them be awful for seemingly no reason.

Now the characters are what I will look at next to hook me, and with the exception of Miriat, they range between unlikable to okay to forgettable. A mother willing to let go of all her comforts for her child is something I find admirable as a mother myself, seeing that no matter what, Miriat is going to stand by her daughter whenever she needs her was fantastic for me:

“There is no me without you, daughter, do you understand?”

However, we come to Salka and she's reckless, she's so ungrateful at times to her mother's efforts and with the thing I mentioned previously in mind about her feelings, I found it hard to care much about her. I did love her exploration part, and I'm really glad that the author was generous with the examples, but in comparison, I would have liked to see her mother's journey in this new society instead if I got to choose.

The rest of the characters felt like they are there to fulfill a single role for the story's progression, not a lot of depth to any of them and while I appreciated the exploration of greed in a sense for the "villain", I did think that the motive was very weak because of how much I didn't understand the reason strigae were feared. Everything could have been solved quite easily if someone just tried, so the weight of the conviction was lost again to me.

So why stay? Honestly, the world and the author's writing were very entertaining to me, even when I started seeing things that could hinder my enjoyment while I read the book, I will find sentences like this and as a lover of words, I was mesmerized:

“She felt like she crossed onto the afterlife, with the ghosts of her past about to stand in judgement of her.”

I also really liked the parallel portrayal between Miriat and another parent, both love their children so so much and will think of them as people who could do no wrong, even if the entire world is against them. Yet, the way one dealt with their child in comparison to the other's blind or more accurately, turned blind eye was an interesting idea. I think I didn't even realize that this was a thing until a bit later since the alternate POVs do take me from one mind to another quite a bit.

It's an ambitious debut, and I really wanted to like it as the author has strengths that would pull me in at times, but there were also a lot of things I unfortunately didn't enjoy much here either.