DNF Early Review – House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren Wiesebron (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 512 pages
Publisher:‎ Harper Voyager
Release Date: July 15, 2025
ASIN: B0DH81F6RJ
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Marisha’s time is running out. She’s already lost her family to the sleeping plague, and she fears she’ll be next. Penniless and desperate for protection, Marisha is forced to accept a job as apprentice to the notorious koldunya, the sorceress Baba Zima.

But Baba Zima is renowned for being both clever and cruel. And most difficult of all is her current apprentice, Olena, who wants nothing to do with Marisha. Despite her fears and Olena’s cold demeanor, Marisha finds herself drawn into the magical world of koldunry and delves further into Olena’s research—a cure for the sleeping plague.

Accompanying Olena on an increasingly dangerous, seemingly impossible search for a cure, she finds hidden connections between the sleeping plague, her own family’s history, and her bizarre, recurring dreams: dreams of a masked ball where the deep sleepers are trapped endlessly dancing—and a monstrous beaked man who haunts her every step.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this as an ebook for review from NetGalley.

Thoughts: I stopped reading this about 50% of the way in. There just isn’t a lot happening in this book. We spent most of the time in this magical house while a sleeping plague threatens outside. It was very slow and the characters weren’t very interesting.

Marisha is penniless and doesn’t want to marry. Desperate to escape a bad marriage she accepts a job as an assistant to Baba Zima’s apprentice Olena. Baba Zima is a famous koldunya (sorceress) and Olena feels threatened by Marisha’s presence. Olena is trying to do the impossible which is to solve the sleeping plague that has taken so many lives. Marisha must survive Olena’s tricks if she is to prove her worth to Baba Zima and keep her place in the house.

The POV here changes between Marisha and Olena and neither of them is very engaging or even likable. The book is decently written and the writing flows well, but I found it fairly boring. We spend nearly all of our time in this magical house watching the women there try to trick each other and tear each other down.

That was the other thing I really didn’t like about the story, all of the characters are trying to hurt each other rather than help each other. Baba Zima is constantly testing Olena in cruel ways, Olena is constantly punishing Marisha for basically existing. Even the magical house gets in on the cruelty. It wasn’t something I enjoyed reading.

The Russian folklore throughout is intriguing. The idea of the sleeping plague is also interesting, but we only deal with it from a distance. There was a lot of potential here, but it just fell short for me.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this wasn’t for me. The story was too slow, the characters weren’t engaging and I didn’t like how they tried to push each other down rather than help and lift each other up. The magical house is intriguing, but we never leave it….the sleeping plague is also interesting, but we are distanced from it. There was a lot of potential for a good story here, and I do think the writing flowed well and was easy to read, there just wasn’t anything here to keep my interest.