Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon: Discovering love and yourself against gorgeous backdrops

Stars: 5.5/5

Age rating: 18+ for high spice

Teacups: TBD, but probably somewhat low; three very violent scenes, including the opening scene

Trigger warnings: Wildfires, blade violence, arm/palm bloodletting, parental abuse (emotional), head voices labeled as demons/spirits

Most Iridescent Inkwell reviews get somewhat analytical and contain mild spoilers, but if

they don’t make you want to read the book even more, I’m doing it wrong.

I purchased my copy of Tusk Love at Lores Untold. You can order it online at Viewpoint Books.

This one surprised me. In the best way. The writing is poetic and masterful. The characters are endearing and rounded. If you want that rare experience of spending some time in a fantasy world with people who feel real and also worth getting to know, this is a good one.

The spice is high, passionate, and well-written.

This story belongs on cozy fantasy lists well enough, but it does take the shape of more conventional high fantasies in several ways. It is a story of violent conflict and rising action. It is not one of those “falling action,” “how to build a happily ever after” stories the genre is known for, but more of a "how to identify happiness to begin with" and "how to escape a trap" type of story. There are certainly cozy elements.

Violence with a real edge and a purpose

There's more violence in this story than in most of my personal comfort reads, but some of the details surrounding the violence are more realistic and serve more of a point in the story than your average violent fantasy story.

For example, during the violent opening moment as Guinevere's guards are dying, she thinks, "She had not learned any of their names since setting out from Texxentrum, and now she never would." For her, the violence throws their humanity into stark relief alongside her own flaws and primes her for a journey of openheartedness and self-discovery.

Characters who feel real and grounded… 

…and who “grow toward each other,” as Sarah Beth Durst might say. As far as nontoxic relationships go, there are more evenly matched couples out there. Guinevere is above Oskar in social standing but Oskar is her guide through the wilderness and she is dependent upon him. In their particular situation, it evens out, and around the same time these things change, their power imbalances even out in other ways.

They are certainly a case of opposites attracting. Guinevere is from a middle class family with upper class aspirations and Oskar is a working-class orc. Guinevere is buttoned up, repressed, and spoiled while Oskar is free to be less inhibited in all ways except emotionally; he finds that, with her, he can let those walls down, just as she can let out her wilder side.

Laugh-out-loud banter

Guinevere and Oskar speak as if they are in our world, with no immediate linguistic barriers or flourishes. This is an aspect of modern fantasy I tend to enjoy; it makes it easier for me to hop right and in and relate to the characters.

When Guinevere and Oskar banter, it feels particularly familiar, like flirtation that could almost have dropped right out of our world and into theirs. I laughed out loud.

Intrusive thoughts as a wildfire spirit

Guinevere has a wildfire demon in her mind; Teinidh speaks to her when her veins start pumping with adrenaline. Over the course of the story, she learns to connect with her through meditation and control her better the more she acknowledges, identifies, and bonds with her. I won't be surprised if this resonates with many other readers on the dissociative spectrum, including those with dissociative identity disorder, borderline personality disorder, and dissociative disorder (not otherwise specified).

Generally speaking, destructive entities such as wildfires spirits don't make for great representation with these disorders, but this story makes clear that Teinidh is a protective and regenerative spirit; even in destruction, she is good.

Descriptions that read like love letters to the English language itself

I was just going to list some examples of Guanzon's breathtaking descriptions, but these warrant immediate further analysis. Fellow writerly folk, this is for you. I am in awe.

Using description to emphasize thematic contrasts

Guinevere's pampered upbringing constantly clashes with and complements Oskar's harsh life. Her delicate features against Oskar's more brutish ones reflects this, and so do many of the snapshots of detail. "Guinevere's lilac eyes strayed to her muddy shoes."

Guanzon also uses descriptions to throw into stark relief the juxtaposition of Guinevere's wild life with Oskar and her starched upper-class life.

"Everything was perfectly calculated, from the neat beds of red chrysanthemum and purple phlox and white verbena to the glimmering marble fountains to the trellises of morning glory and firecracker vine."

This passage is particularly interesting because of it's "run-on," cumulative structure. Each of these things could have been listed with a comma between them, but using full words such as "and" and "to the" mimics the structural separation of each part of the gardens. Referring to the flowers not as "chrysanthemums" or "phlox blossoms" but with the more scientific choice of singular terms adds to the clinical effect.

Descriptions of settings and cities

The descriptions of landscapes could inspire any painter or animator:

"Here the river that snaked through the woods coursed over shale terraces in curtains of white froth and spilled into a lake the bright blue color of melted fine-grade turquoise. The water's glassy surface scintillated with diamond pinpricks of reflected sunlight, bordered by the garnets and topazes of Fessuran. it was a surfeit of jeweled radiance, rendered further dreamlike by the lilt of birdsong that thrummed through the clearing and mingled with the rush of the cascade to form a wistful lullaby."

'The heart of autumn had burst upon the world. The mountains looked as though they'd been dipped in fire, their vast slopes boasting endless waves of scarlet and ocher and magenta, the highest peaks wreathed in silver mist. And slicing into the middle of it all, the burnished carpet abruptly giving way to platforms of barren red rock, was the enormous gorge, which lay as though in wait."

The description of each city gives them distinct atmospheres and personalities.

"Druvenlode had been constructed in response to the rich Silberquel mines; it hugged their entrances in a rough crescent, a gray city carved into the surrounding rock, honeycombed by splotches of yawning darkness that led to the vast tunnels snaking beneath the ridge. Oil lanterns burned valiantly through the steam and coal dust that thickened the purple-hued drape of twilight, and horse-drawn carts laden with silver ore rattled the winding streets. Thongs of people went about their business loudly and at a frantic pace, in a hurry to wrap up the day's tasks and go home."

"Berleben was a ramshackle city that seemed one mild earthquake away from collapsing into the swamp from which it had sprung. Several thatched stone builddings jostled for space atop the wooden stilts and rickety platforms connected by fraying rope bridges, but the entire eastern side of the city was a mess of hovels lying dolefully slumped in several inches of brown water, a general term--by feeble torches that flickered over the ambling silhouettes of Berleben's inhabitants, bringing into soft relief their swamp-colored clothes and catching in their eyes like lanterns."

"The cobblestone streets sloped and curved, affording panoramic views of the sun-dappled Licidian Ocean, stirred by balmy breezes that delivered the shoreline's tang of salt and dried fish to the innermost sprawls."

Setting and mood descriptions that capture psychological phenomena?

This particularly description captures setting and mood as an overlap of psychological self-gaslighting:

"She sighed, gripped by a melancholy sculpted from autumn air."

I feel like I experienced this many times as a gaslighting survivor who thought I had no real reason to be sad. As a mental health sensitivity reader, I stopped and stared a while.

Using passion and description in compelling exposition

Even the exposition was captivating in Guanzon's writing. This passage, from 85 pages in when we as readers are fully invested in the characters and curious about their world, explains the magic system with concise passion:

"There were various types of magic users throughout the world of Exandria. There were the relic smiths, who infused eldritch power into their wondrous mechanical creations; the divine healers, who sewed up skin and mended bone with the blessing of their gods; the fathombound, who sold their souls to dark, otherworldly beings; the arcanists, who stretched the limits of magic with their noses buried in books. then there were the wild mages, whose powers came from nature."

Description and spice

While I'll be minimizing spice on this website for now, it would be remiss not to mention how Guanzon's descriptive artistry contributes to passionate spice.

"Her lithe copper-skinned fingers traced the silver chain where it dangled from her neck and disappeared intot he collar of her tunic. His tunic."

"For the sweat-damp waves of his midnight-black hair curling against his broad oakmoss shoulders, and the beats of moisture that trickled tantalizingly into the divot between his sharp collarbones."

Quality descriptions throughout entire novels

Many stories place all of their descriptive eggs in the earliest chapters to help ground the reader and then neglect description in later chapters. One of the things I love most about cozy fantasy is a heavy, even scattering of lush descriptions throughout entire stories.

Some of the brightest gems of this book are in the climactic scene. Minimizing spoilers, here's an example:

"...an assortment of runs forming across its surface in swirls of molten silver. There was a noise like the grinding of celestial gears, followed by a sharp click...

"...magic surged through her, a s song soft and sharp all at once, like sunbeams falling on lace, like clean sheets and salt air."

A few more absolute works of description art:

"He was tall and imposing in the dappled morning light, his skin a sylvan commingling of golden sunbeams and oakmoss shadows, the threadbare tunic cleaning to his solid chest. His wavy hair was a black halo around his terse face and was pulled back enough for her to glimpse the points of his ears. His strong jaw protruded slightly, making space for those white tusks that sliced upward like crescents."

"...the humid, greenish air took on a brighter tone, the weak sunlight fell in a cloud of gold upon the tiny bird skull dangling from her neck, and the little fern in its hollow rustled amidst a breeze that blew in from another world."