Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Oak King Holly King

AUTHOR: Sebastian Nothwell

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 521 pages

RELEASE DATE: February 14, 2022

BLURB: 

Shrike, the Butcher of Blackthorn, is a legendary warrior of the fae realms. When he wins a tournament in the Court of the Silver Wheel, its queen names him her Oak King – a figurehead destined to die in a ritual duel to invoke the change of seasons. Shrike is determined to survive. Even if it means he must put his heart as well as his life into a mere mortal’s hands.

Wren Lofthouse, a London clerk, has long ago resigned himself to a life of tedium and given up his fanciful dreams. When a medieval-looking brute arrives at his office to murmur of destiny, he’s inclined to think his old enemies are playing an elaborate prank. Still, he can’t help feeling intrigued by the bizarre-yet-handsome stranger and his fantastical ramblings, whose presence stirs up emotions Wren has tried to lock away in the withered husk of his heart.

As Shrike whisks Wren away to a world of Wild Hunts and arcane rites, Wren is freed from the repression of Victorian society. But both the fae and mortal realms prove treacherous to their growing bond. Wren and Shrike must fight side-by-side to see who will claim victory – Oak King or Holly King.

REVIEW: 

Sebastian Nothwell’s Oak King Holly King is a decadent high fantasy treat. It’s more like a flourless chocolate cake than a meringue, though. Sweet, delicious, indulgent, but dense. Like the cake, it takes time to savor.

Oak King Holly King is a big book at 521 pages, and those pages easily hold a thousand pages of content. It’s packed with intricate, meaningful, gorgeous details that you’ll want to explore rather than gloss over.  So it’s not a quick read.  It needs time to consume and digest.  But it is time well spent. 

Nothwell’s world-building is sublime, especially his vibrant descriptions of the Fae realm.  Perhaps the only thing more detailed is his plotting.  He runs this story on two parallel tracks:  We have Wren’s story as it plays out in repressed Victorian-era London and Shrike’s story as it plays out in the magical yet treacherous Fae realm.  The human realm is just as perilous for Wren, though.  He’s a gay man secretly writing homoerotic works in a time and place where his sexuality is against the law.  Shrike, for his part, has been handed a death sentence due to his crowning as the Oak King by the Queen of the Court of the Silver Wheel.  And each of these stories has many layers and complexity to it that I haven’t even mentioned.

Nothwell then takes these two threads and weaves them together in stunning fashion. Shrike improbably, and initially for Wren, unbelievably, crosses over into the mortal realm to seek out Wren.  Wren is Shrike’s only hope of surviving the change of seasons now that he’s been crowned Oak King.  So Nothwell seamlessly merges the two storylines into one interwoven otherworldly experience, with Shrike and Wren forming an unlikely alliance that develops into feelings and ultimately love as they cross back and forth between the two realms addressing aspects of each of their storylines as well as the story of their relationship. 

Because of this structure, we have to wait to get information about certain story aspects longer than we’d prefer.  But Oak King Holly King doesn’t embrace instant gratification in any way, shape, or form.  We have to wait to find out until Nothwell deems it the appropriate time to tell us.  But the waiting makes sense once you get the answers. We similarly have to wait for Wren and Shrike’s slow-burn relationship to come to fruition. You won’t get titillating high-heat scenes in this story, which is fine.  The tone and content are consistently in keeping with the time period and the book’s tenor.   

Oak King Holly King delivers storytelling you can get lost in.  There’s a lot to parse and understand, but the way Nothwell spins the story out for us, it’s as easy as following breadcrumbs on a magical journey.  Nothwell deftly balances an overarchingly well-moderated pace while including enough variation in the dynamics and events so that it never becomes monotonous. Could the story have been made more linear?  Probably.  But why would you want to???  Even the aspects that feel a bit tangential are so artfully constructed that stripping them away would be a disservice to the story and the reader.

Ironically, the part of this story that surprised me the most was the ending.  Not because of the resolution itself, but because after 500+ pages, the story just stops.  I found myself flipping forward to see if there was another chapter I was missing. The story is resolved, though.  Nothwell doesn’t leave us with an incomplete conclusion. We just weren’t allowed to bask in the resolution, and after the long journey, I was looking forward to doing so.  (This is precisely why people (read: me) love epilogues!)  I can only hope that Nothwell’s contemplating a follow-on story.

Overall, Oak King Holly King is a gorgeous story with a fascinating plot, superbly written narrative, and breathtakingly vivid imagery.  It’s a rich, engrossing reading experience that I highly recommend.

RATING: 

BUY LINK: 

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