Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova*

A long awaited book review for the book I don’t stop recommending and raving about (lol). First off, an author’s note*: I received this book as an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my review in any sense!

With that out of the way, let’s get to the book review! As usual, all applicable links will be down below as well as the YouTube video! This is not the script of the video and will not be the same as the video.

So when I saw this book, I was instantly intrigued - first by the Slavic folklore notes because duh, if you know me, you’ll know that I will read anything new that has Slavic folklore/Slavic tales/Slavic inspiration, especially if the author themselves is Slavic.

I’m pretty sure I was denied on NetGalley (which…fair because my ratio is awful) but then I sent an e-mail to Tor for like the third time because they hadn’t answered the first two times and kindly asked (read: begged) them for a copy because I was Slavic and aimed to promote Slavic stories obviously as a Slavic person and they kindly sent me an e-book (yay me!)

So this story follows Kosara who is a witch and one thing to know about witches is that their strongest aspect is their shadow - a witch with a shadow means that she will develop a sickness and eventually well…die.

Kosara lives in Chernograd (for non Slavic speakers, “chernoe” is black in Russian. I imagine it is similar in Bulgarian), a walled city that, during the 12 days that follow New Year’s (note that Slavic countries primarily celebrate New Year’s and not December 25th as their Christmas), the veil between the real world and the realm of monsters, so to speak, is thin enough for all the monsters to come through. On the other side of the wall is Belograd (“beloye” is white in Russian, possibly similar in Bulgarian) - a city with no monsters and generally happy people who are also deeply suspicious and wary of anything relating to witches, magic, and, of course, monsters. As explained in the brackets, the names of the cities are clearly deliberate - Chernograd is a place that’s dark and people where dark clothes whereas Belograd is cheerful and happy and people wear colourful clothes.

Anyways, Kosara decides to bargain her shadow in exchange for passage to Belograd - the wall is sentient, meaning it is alive and will actively try and block any attempts made to leave the city and the only way out is through a very complicated spell orby air balloon which is insanely dangerous. Kosara loses her shadow but gains access to Belograd although there she realizes she’s developed the sickness that shadowless witches develop except that it’s spreading faster for her than it should be. Kosara does this in order to escape Zmey, the Tsar of Monsters, and unfortunately Kosara’s ex. One thing to note is that this isn’t a light hearted fantasy in any sense - it does get dark and gritty and it also explores a past abusive relationship so please check the trigger warnings and if you cannot handle it, do not read this book. There are moments where Kosara remembers her relationship with Zmey but we don’t see it in real time during the events of the book. This book is meant to be one about Kosara finally leaving her abusive relationship and getting away once and for all.

In Belograd she meets Asen (my sweet golden retriever Belogradean goody two-shoes cop) who is at first suspicious about Kosara but then they end up reluctantly teaming up with each other.

I loved this book so much. I thought it was such a unique way to present various creatures and stories from Slavic and Bulgarian folklore (there were a few creatures that I didn’t know about that were specific to Bulgarian folklore) and it kept me guessing the whole time and it was just so well written.

I really like how the romance was very minimal and there were only hints of it - clearly Kosara and Asen were still traumatized and mourning certain events in the past and they weren’t ready and both the characters and the author recognized that and for that, I applaud her because it is too often that we get one character or both characters thrown into a relationship when neither are fully ready or it doesn’t make sense in the over-arching themes of the plot.

All in all, really enjoyed this book and I thought it was a fantastic mix of fantasy, Slavic and Bulgarian folklore and plot twists upon plot twists. I can’t wait for all of you to experience this wonderful book!

Get the book here*: Amazon Canada | Amazon US | Waterstones | Libro.FM | Bookshop.org | Kobo Canada

*Some are affiliate links which means I may receive a small commission at no cost to you if you buy through my links!

Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Love,

Mila

Watch my YouTube review video below!