The Knight And The Moth – Cocooned Heroine

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig is a gothic romantasy featuring a young woman whose entire belief system gets challenged. While the religious traditions are strong and the people reverent, there’s a lot of humor to soften the story. If you fancy a life-altering quest, a divine mystery, romance, and a crude knight, then this may be the story for you.

A group of shrouded Diviners stands atop the wall surrounding the cathedral grounds, but only one will interpret the omens for the king. The young women have spent almost a decade divining for the realm, and their service nears its end. And even Six, usually the most obedient of the Diviners, cannot resist the pull to have a little fun and prepare for the new life that is about to open up before her. But when the Diviners start to go missing, Six’s imagined future with her friends begins to slip through her fingers. When Six petitions the king and his unruly knight to aid her, she’s met with truths that have her questioning her purpose and the gods that have ruled over her for so long.

The world seems pretty dour and serious at first glance when we’re introduced to its shrouded Diviners, deeply-held belief system, and the oppressive cathedral walls. But quickly, Gillig challenges our reverence by showing us a group of lively young women who are unserious, fun, and not afraid to break rules in the pursuit of some happiness. From the Diviners’ temperament to the sarcasm and humor infused throughout the story’s dialogue, what seemed like a dark, gothic, and dreary world is suddenly lightened. I was honestly surprised by the story being presented this way because it felt so natural to expect fear and reverence to avoid ire from the ominous gods. But props to Gillig for making the story her own and stripping away any haughty respect so Six’s mission could be enlightening and adventurous.

In true romantasy fashion, the Knight’s plot gets abandoned for a while so the romance can take center stage. And as frustrated as I get when that happens, this particular instance was made worse because the romance wasn’t even that good. If a book wants to emphasize the romance angle above all else, then it needs to really shine and enhance the story. But when you ditch the plot and skim over character development to give me a boring, unremarkable romance, I begin to question why I’m even reading this story. I can’t for the life of me figure out why the main characters fell in love besides being single and stuck in close proximity to one another.   

There is something that I did love in Knight, and it was Six’s freakin’ gargoyle. Oh, how I cherished that fanged, stone creature. Many of the characters will provide comic relief from time to time, but no one could make me genuinely laugh like the gargoyle. He is precious and naive after a lifetime living behind the cathedral walls, so his observations and reactions always felt like they came out of left field, adding a level of insanity to serious and dramatic situations. Instead of being a statuesque and fearsome guardian, the gargoyle’s stony appearance all but melts due to his curious, genuine, and obstinate personality. I love all the common sayings he gets wrong, his exasperated exclaimations, and his temperamental mood swings. He is so full of heart and oftentimes feels like he contains more depth in his layers of limestone than all the main characters combined.

My experience with Rachel Gillig’s books has followed a similar pattern, and I find that I always enjoy the start of her stories but quickly lose interest in their execution and middling romances. The Knight and the Moth was no different, so I will be leaving the rest of this series behind a shroud.

Rating: The Knight and the Moth – 6.0/10
-Brandee