To Clutch A Razor

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5/5 ducklings

tl;dr: Never make a deal with Baba Yaga. You’ll probably get stabbed.

Oh. My. God. What a read. This is the first book I’ve read this year that made me feel something. I loved this just as much as I loved When Among Crows, it’s bleak, it’s beautiful, the prose is on point, and the world building is incredible.

To Clutch a Razor picks up a few months after When Among Crows left off: that is, with everyone dealing (or not) with the trauma of breaking Ala’s curse and Dymitr’s transformation. Except Niko, Niko is pining.

Dymitr is called home for a funeral and Ala accompanies him, each with their own motivations and goals. Dymitr to steal the Knight’s book of curses and Ala to kill the woman who cursed her family, Dymitr’s grandmother. Niko is contracted to kill one of the most notorious Knights in the world, who happens to be Dymitr’s mother.

What follows is a powerful exploration of what it means to be family and the very definition of love. All three main characters learn that family can be chosen and that chosen family is often made of better, healthier relationships than blood. Each of them discovers this is different ways, but it is Dymitr’s slow revelation that is most satisfying and heartbreaking to witness.

Where as Crows was about self acceptance, coming to love yourself, despite your past, and understanding that sometimes the only way to make up for past misdeeds is to keep living and make real change, To Clutch a Razor is about accepting love and support from others and letting go of things that hurt us.

The idiom that gave this books its name is “A drowning man will clutch a razor.” Roth has an excellent post about this phrase and why she chose it for this book on her Instagram. Go read it. But it boils down to people in desperate situations will cling to whatever is closest, even as it hurts them. It feels like a brutal and universal truth.

I loved this book. It’s beautifully written, the themes are dark and thought provoking, and it has just the right amount of body horror. God, those swords…

Releases September 16, 2025