Daggermouth by H.M. Wolfe is an action-packed story about an executioner and an assassin colliding to either kill each other or destroy the system that oppresses them both. If you like enemies to lovers, sticky situations, and some strong ladies taking back their power, then this one is for you.
The elites of New Found Haven are required to cover their faces, but Greyson Serel wears more than one mask as the President’s son, the government’s brutal Executioner, and a secret supporter of the rebellion. At the cruel hands of both his tyrant father and the corrupt laws he’s enforced, Greyson is suffocating in a life that perpetuates the suffering of people in all city rings: the Heart, the Cardinal, and the Boundary. Having grown up in the poorest sector, Boundary resident Shadera Kael has only ever known violence since the President killed her parents. Over the years, she’s become a notorious Daggermouth assassin, slowly chipping away at the Heart’s powerful elite. When someone puts a hit on Greyson Serel, Shadera finally sees a chance to get revenge. But when the two of them collide, the future of New Found Haven is at the mercy of their ability to trust one another, work together, and fight their shared enemy.
Daggermouth is very plot-driven, and it feels like an action movie on paper. The biggest obstacle of the story is the oppressive system itself, and Wolfe doesn’t go into detail about how the characters are working within the system. Hacking into secure technology happens with a few clicks, goods are smuggled between the rings, and bodies are disposed of without concern. The world feels a little thin because we don’t get to enjoy the inner workings of how the characters are navigating the world’s challenges, but we always get to see a big, flashy culmination of their work. I will say that Wolfe did a great job of capturing just how oppressive New Found Haven is. She made me feel like I was suffocating in Greyson and Shadera’s world through lots of violent and tense, brutal scenes. Not knowing how these characters exploited the world was a little disappointing, but the action does a lot of heavy lifting to make up for the more shallow parts of the world.
I loved how solid Greyson and Shadera’s hatred is for one another in this story’s “enemies to lovers” trope. This is one of my favorite tropes, but over the past few years, I’ve often been disappointed by it because many authors go too light on the ‘enemies’ territory before quickly moving characters to lovers. It’s so unsatisfying when that happens. An author is at their best when they make characters sit with their conflicting emotions and act unpredictably, never letting the reader know when the character’s hatred is going to win out. Daggermouth absolutely delivers a tense enemy situation, and I ate it up like a starving dog. From beginning to end, Greyson and Shadera navigate uncomfortable situations and truths, but their ingrained beliefs are never so easily discarded. Wolfe perfectly develops two opposing characters stuck in a hopeless situation, making it believable and so juicy as the two alternate between taking out each other and the system.
My biggest issue is with the end of the book when all of the shocking reveals are delivered via dialogue. These are huge twists that affect characters, their relationships, and their understanding of the world. Each secret was exposed a little too easily, never giving the reader a chance to earn the information and feel the satisfaction of uncovering something. The reveals exacerbate the shallow worldbuilding because there wasn’t enough of a foundation to allow the information to happen organically or simply be shown to the reader. The story is so plot-driven and dialogue-based that we are at the mercy of the characters telling the reader everything. It’s not that I was blindsided; there were several suspicious elements that tipped me off that we didn’t have the full truth. The issue is that there were never any breadcrumbs left to piece a theory together.
You won’t get lost in the sauce when reading Daggermouth; instead, this story wants to show you a high-level view of how characters react to and manage the oppressive system they’re in. It’s fast-paced and bursting with interesting and cruel scenarios that will keep you engaged until the very end.
Rating: Daggermouth – 7.5/10
-Brandee
