Last year, I read Rachel Gillig’s The Shepard King duology (consisting of One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns). While I found it somewhat overhyped, I did still enjoy it enough to want to read the author’s future works. The Knight and the Moth, the first in a new series, released last month, so I picked it up.
Sybil is a Diviner, a young woman who is serving for 10 years at a cathedral, along with 5 others. The Diviners are referred to by number (Sybil is “Six”), veil their eyes, and do not remember their lives before coming to the cathedral. Their service includes regular drownings in the cathedral’s spring water, which causes them to have prophetic dreams. Near the end of the 9th year of their service, Sybil performs a reading for a visiting King. Shortly after, her sister Diviners start to vanish, so she sets out from the cathedral in search of them.
The highlight of this book was definitely Sybil’s bat-shaped living gargoyle companion, who calls everyone “Bartholemew” and speaks almost exclusively in mixed metaphors. My complaint though is that the plot feels almost too much like that of One Dark Window. Once all of the setup is complete, the bulk of the story revolves around Sybil joining a group of people working in secret to complete a set of magical items to defeat a greater evil. It just felt a little too familiar, where I was hoping for something more novel.
I enjoyed this but almost wish that I hadn’t read this book so soon. Much like One Dark Window, the book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I will need to wait some time for a resolution.