Reviews

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

bookwrm526's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

preciatis's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

auora1484's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

ashley_elizabeth's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Wow, that was... not what I was expecting. Especially since this is classified as YA, which I think almost does it a disservice. It is a quiet, brutal story about a girl who destroys (or does she?) ghosts, supposedly at the behest of a mysterious deity
that may or may not be just some BS dreamed up by a man. Aren't they all.


The writing is fairly sparse and yet conveys such incredible detail and imagery; the characters are well conceptualized and believable; and the story never really felt like it was trying to do too much but only just enough (if that makes sense?). Definitely a good fit for the post-apoc fans and those who don't mind a decently dark, unflinching tale about a girl's quest for autonomy and answers.
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sunabridged's review against another edition

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5.0

still hits all the right notes, still so so so good

marmoo's review against another edition

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5.0

In its clever blend of science fiction, fantasy, and fairy tale, this novel manages to find something new in an overstuffed field of the post-apocalyptic survival novels.

Nicole Kornher-Stace wisely eschews impenetrable slangy dystopian babble in favor straightforward language that brings the emotional weight of the story closer to home. Our recognition of how much the world has changed comes through in more subtle exchanges—in what the protagonist knows and what she doesn’t—than through the incomprehensibility of the dialogue.

Archivist Wasp stands apart too in its avoidance of clunky exposition. Instead, we figure out the rules of the world along with the characters, refracted through a filter of centuries of myth and misinformation. The end result is a weird and wonderful novel with a deep reservoir of roiling emotions under a stoic surface.

logarithm's review against another edition

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3.0

(2.5)

breew's review against another edition

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Just wasn’t that into it

lmreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad

4.5

joelanichols's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a great world and I loved Wasp. Structure felt unbalanced during the long quest part that makes up most of the narrative. At a certain point the narrator wonders "whether Wasp can take much more of this" and they were speaking for me as a reader, too...