Thanks to author H.M. Wolfe’s effective social media marketing, I discovered her book, Daggermouth, before its release in December. It sounded so fascinating and so creative, so I was excited to dive into the pages of this dark, dystopian, enemies-to-lovers romance.
In the heavily segregated authoritarian society of New Found Haven, love outside your ring is a death sentence. Greyson Serel, the son of the all-powerful president, knows this all too well. He’s the Executioner, standing on a public platform and putting bullets into the citizens who don’t obey.
When Shadera Kael, a member of the dangerous gang that runs the desolate outer ring, the Boundary, gets the order to kill the Executioner, she’s more than willing to go on this nearly impossible mission. Her parents were killed on that platform, and her people are starving under the Serel’s brutal regime. For her, this is personal.
But when the job goes south, both Greyson and Shadera find themselves and everyone they love under threat. Greyson’s father is forcing them into a marriage to send a message, and any wrong move will get them killed.
With President Maximus Serel growing increasingly tryannical and unpredictable, Shadera and Greyson have to avoid killing each other for long enough to stop him, which is easier said than done for these two furious and fractured people from opposite worlds.
Their eyes locked, assassin and heir, caught in a moment of perfect, terrible understanding.
Daggermouth is a study in truly morally grey characters, with layers of complexities to uncover. The book is written from many points of view, with multiple love interests and a secondary love story.
It’s artfully done and never hard to follow and adds significant depth to the story. These characters and their relationships give the story a very creative and unique feel.
Amidst these different couples and a rather different version of a potential love triangle, this story is an excruciatingly slow burn, with lots of building tension. Given that the main characters try to kill each other multiple times, marking them as true enemies, this makes sense.
Daggermouth is at times a tense and riveting story filled with action, but it also explores essential themes: income inequality, classism, authoritarianism, and corruption. New Found Haven is a fundamentally terrifying place, and it’s easy to see how a society, with the aid of advanced technology, could fall into this hellscape. It is both terrifying and enthralling to read.
There are long chapters with lots of detail, and the prose is gorgeous. The story is infused with a certain sense of humor despite the dark landscape. There are some typos, but none that affect the story or its continuity in any way, so I was unbothered by the little mistakes in an otherwise beautifully written tale.
It was the song of defiance, of hope in the midst of despair, of unity in the face of oppression.
With a moving, powerful spirit of rebellion and some tear-jerking moments, Daggermouth provokes both deep feeling and inspiration. It is a profound and intense story, with both complexity and exciting action. The ending is heart-wrenching and incredible, with shocking plot twists and a cliffhanger that might leave you screaming.
Daggermouth is the first in a duology, and Python, the second book in the duet, will hit the shelves late 2026. I’m already starving for it.
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