Book Review: The Unicorn Hunters: A Novel by Katherine Arden

It started with The Bear and the Nightingale for me, the first book I found by Katherine Arden. Something about the title called to my heart and my mind, the way the words fit, the lyrical sense making me think of fairytales and magic. I loved that book so much. I managed to get a signed copy of The Girl in the Tower and then I pre-ordered my copy of The Winter of the Witch. I loved these books so much my sister got me a special edition box set of the series with newly designed covers and stained edges that are gorgeous and have lived wrapped up in their shipping box for years until I finally took them out to display last year. When I saw that Arden was writing a middle grade novel, Small Spaces, I immediately ordered it, no questions asked. Obviously I adored it along with the rest of the series and I have plans to read all of the books to my kids once they're a little older. I found The Warm Hands of Ghosts to be haunting and it continued to prove to me that I would follow Arden to each and every single book she writes from now unto forever. So when I saw The Unicorn Hunters set for release, there was no doubt in my mind that I would order it, read it and love it.

This book will haunt me for a while, like the rest of Arden's books are able to do, lingering in my mind with its beauty and loss and the pain and its strength. This is another magnificent book from Arden and it will be a prized possession once it is finally on my shelf. I'm contemplating ordering other special editions because I loved it that much but I'll try to curb that impulse. No promises though.

The Unicorn Hunters: A Novel follows Anne of Brittany, whose country was invaded by France when she was a child. As duchess, Anne has done her best to do what will keep her country safe. Now France has threatened war unless Anne marries the King of France. Desperate to find a way out of this marriage and keep her country from being taken over by France, Anne secures a marriage with an enemy of France. In order to keep this from being discovered, Anne takes her court and enemies into a legendary forest where magic cannot spy and report back any information to France. The people believe they are on the hunt for a legendary unicorn, supposedly seen for the first time in centuries, a rumor created by Anne and her trusted confidantes to hide their true purpose of Anne's secret wedding. But when in the forest, a unicorn comes to Anne, followed by a man who comes out of the trees with no memory of what he has been doing since entering the forest some centuries before. Now Anne is forced to come to terms with a magic that could change her destiny and keep her country free if she can manage to understand and save herself and what she loves before it is too late.

Okay, you know that moment when you're trying to read a book but you're also doing five different things at once and suddenly in the book a character makes a decision and suddenly your trying not to cry? That happened with this book. I have another one. What about that moment where the tensions are rising and you're not sure what could happen to help the leads and then one of your favorite characters bursts onto the page and you want to stand up and cheer and jump around? Yes, that one happened to me as well. I was so completely invested in this story, in every character in this book, in the journey this tale took and honestly, sitting here now to write this review, I'm still feeling a bit of awe towards this story. I want to go back and mark my favorite passages. I have started researching the real Anne of Brittany to truly understand the woman that inspired this magical tale. I've raved about this book to my book group chat and I have been telling the readers in my family about it, telling them they need to read ALL of Arden's books because they are each so brilliant.

The world was lush with magic and history and I was immersed in the story within the first few pages. I loved how Arden made a world that drew from what is known and then filled in the spaces around the facts with things that could make the world expand and allow for a new fate to be found by our lead Anne. The fact that diviners were used as a means of communication and to make predictions about other courts and even to spy made the tensions concerning Anne's destiny that much more dire. Anne was working with the role she was given and doing everything she could to protect her country and I loved her every move and thought. I believed in every person that she held dear like her elder brother Henri, who trusted every decision his sister made, and Isabeau, the devoted younger sister with firecracker personality. I loved Elesbed and her cat Butter, and my heart ached for Louis, Duke of Orléans. Every person was filled in with such detail and care that when they breathed on the page, I held mine, waiting for what would be revealed for them. Only Arden could make me care so much for these characters and after so many books, I expected no less than to feel my heart swell with emotions I could barely contain which is where I still am now, hours after finishing this book.

In terms of the plot, I found it interesting to learn so much about the bare bones that this story has in its foundation. I've been researching every key name from this book to truly understand the inspiration and honestly, I'm hoping to find a list of sources that Arden might have consulted so I can really delve into this history. I love when a book inspires me to study something I would never found on my own and I'll be reading up on everything I can find about Anne and Louis and the history of Brittany for at least the next month or so. I wanted Anne to succeed in keeping her country safe and in making a choice that could actually bring her happiness with the role she was given as being born to be duchess. I know the history but it was lovely to see a new opportunity given to a woman who had the world foisted onto her shoulders at such a young and to see her have a new destiny. The magic added to the tale, the legends of the region and the creatures in the forest, all added to make this book memorable. 

Arden keeps getting better and better with her writing. Everything is given to readers with such care and detail that it is easy to envision every moment, to growl at the machinations of France and to cheer when Anne was able to sidestep every obstacle she faced. There were elements of fantasy with the sea drakes and the unicorn that made my heart so happy along with a few moments of suspense and maybe even a little horror at the idea of what could hide in the shadows between this world and the Lost Lands seen in the book. The visions of the anoan, the community of the dead in Breton, made chills creep across my shoulders and now I'm researching Breton mythology as well. Now that I think about it, this book has actually given me homework and I think a book that makes me eager to find out more is a book to be admired and to be extolled to anyone who will stop and listen.

I have so many notes for places to research, names to read up, myths to discover and my reader's soul is so happy after concluding this book. I can't wait for my copy to arrive so I can read it again with new eyes and treasure it for years to come.

Rating on my Scale: 10 Magical Stars! I want to go back and read The Winternight Trilogy again since I just finished the Small Spaces series again during the winter months. If you've never read Arden before, this book will show you everything you've been missing out on and if you're already a fan, I guarantee that you won't be disappointed by what you find in the beautiful tale of magic and history.

My thanks to Netgalley, Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore and Katherine Arden for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.