To produce a story of any length is to invest countless hours of writing and moreover, of thought, consideration, and emotion. The fact that Barbieri initially put up White Stag, which she began writing when she was eighteen, on Wattpad, speaks to her dedication to storytelling and her love of writing. However, while the idea of the story itself is very solid, the execution is at times, flawed.
Synopsis: “As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren.
Janneke’s survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. But every action he takes to bring her deeper into his world only shows him that a little humanity isn’t bad—especially when it comes to those you care about.
Through every battle they survive, Janneke’s loyalty to Soren deepens. After dangerous truths are revealed, Janneke must choose between holding on or letting go of her last connections to a world she no longer belongs to. She must make the right choice to save the only thing keeping both worlds from crumbling.”
I actually really like that we start one hundred years into her time in the permafrost realm. Presumably there could be a story about her capture and how she becomes a thrall of Soren—although it would be very dark given what the story indicates about the extensive abuse she suffers. This would be a good point to post a trigger warning, which isn’t present in the blurb, but the sense of history and backstory is a really interesting and unusual place to start. While this decision was great, removing any possibility of an ‘instalove’ (a pet peeve of mine) the passage of time could have been more skilfully managed. After one hundred years, the clarity of memory would surely be degraded, but the events of her life in the human world from a century earlier, seem to be quite fresh in her mind. It does make sense to me though that her abuse is etched into her mind, despite the time which has elapsed. Given the story is set in a realm where magic is very real, it’s likely that this magic alters how the passage of time is perceived or something similar, but that’s intellectual legwork I really had to do myself. Occasionally, Janneke laments something she has almost forgotten, but this inconsistency seems to be determined by the immediate need of the chapter, rather than properly explained or integrated into the story.
Equally, the love story between Janneke and Soren is quite nice once it gets going. Although, it does tend to become Janneke’s overriding raison d’être in the final few chapters rather than a component of the life she ultimately chooses to pursue. That being said, Barbieri could have done more work in the expository chapters setting up the long-bubbling attraction and pull between them in more explicit terms.
There was a sparsity to the worldbuilding, which was a bit frustrating. A contrast which immediately springs to mind is Girls of Paper and Fire, which I read and reviewed last year. This example perfectly executes mentions to other parts of the world which aren’t relevant to the story and thus only touches upon them, which in turn generates a concrete sense of history and the world. For instance, how long had the old goblin king reigned? The fact that the throne is vacated should really only be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for all goblins, but it’s more of a passing aside to get to the hunt for the stag itself. However, while this may initially read as work to ground the setting and introduce the final ‘big reveal’, this was not adequately laid out in the first half of the novel. It could also be that this was introduced in the second half of the story in anticipation for the second book in the series. Thus, I would encourage all who read it to withhold judgement on this matter until they read the second book!
However, this is not overly problematic if you allow yourself to swept up within the profoundly emotional world which Janneke seems to inhabit most of the time. The turbulent emotions and inner conflict she experiences do pull the reader along, but if you do pause for a moment (say, you’re thrown out of the narrative flow), one does ask questions about the history of the characters and the world which have no hint of an answer.
Nevertheless, the world is an interesting one, the relationship between Janneke and Soren is quite sweet, and the plot is quite well-paced.
The writing itself was quite solid, but when we start talking about endorphins or adrenaline in the context of a relatively primitive society, it tends to ruin the flow and shatter the illusion Alongside this is the too-frequent use of contractions—“should’ve” is probably best left for speech rather than narration as it sounds truly awkward; Barbieri seemed to avoid saying that characters had or did something, instead saying, for instance “Soren’d”. This really threw me out of the narrative whenever I encountered these awkwardly used contractions. The writing was otherwise solid, but when reading an emotionally fraught scene, a weirdly used word really detracts from the point trying to be made. These are probably two elements of the execution that will really bother only a small group of people, but unfortunately, they truly frustrated me.
Overall, White Stag is a relatively easy read and an interesting enough story. The lack of rounded worldbuilding and the quirks of writing which irked me shouldn’t overly detract from the overall enjoyment of the book individually. However, together, they did leave me a little frustrated. That being said, this is a debut work from a young author, so I believe we can expect promising things from her in subsequent publications!
White Stag is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The first book in a brutally stunning series where a young girl finds herself becoming more monster than human and must uncover dangerous truths about who she is and the place that has become her home.
As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren.
Janneke’s survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. But every action he takes to bring her deeper into his world only shows him that a little humanity isn’t bad—especially when it comes to those you care about.
Through every battle they survive, Janneke’s loyalty to Soren deepens. After dangerous truths are revealed, Janneke must choose between holding on or letting go of her last connections to a world she no longer belongs to. She must make the right choice to save the only thing keeping both worlds from crumbling.
