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Thanks to the multiple people who recommended this novel. It is indeed excellent, and not remotely cookie-cutter.
Life and stories are alike in one way: They are full of hollows. The king and queen have no children. They have a child hollow. The girl has a wicked stepmother. She has a mother hollow.
In a story, a baby comes along to fill the child hollow. But in life, the hollows continue empty. One sister continues lonely and unloved; the other coughs behind the door. I sat in the hall. I waited. Father returned from the Alehouse. I waited. He sat before the fire in the parlor. I waited.
Sometimes, of course, the sister's the wicked one, not the stepmother.
In a strange alternate early twentieth century in which magical beings are real and everyone believes in them, and witches are still hanged, teenage Briony lives with her distant father and mentally disabled sister, in a flood- and fire-damaged house on the edge of a creepy magical marsh.
As you can see just from that description, elements of the gothic and of Katherine Briggs-esque folklore mingle in this unusual, original novel. These Old Ones are not the standard elves codified by a million works of modern fantasy, but creatures that seem to have stepped straight out of the British oral tradition, only incidentally familiar by name. The entire story is rich in folkloric motifs from everything from ballads to fairy-tales to nursery rhymes.
The language of this book, which is Briony’s strange, twisted, witty, folkloric voice, is wonderful. At least, I thought it was wonderful. This is a novel which rises or falls on voice, and if you don’t like the voice, you will not like the book. I recommend reading the prologue and first chapter or so to see if you like it.
Better yet, the voice serves a purpose. It will quickly become clear to experienced readers that Briony is a very unreliable narrator, consciously hiding some secrets and unable to admit others, even to herself. Her webs of wordplay and misdirection serve the double purpose of intriguing the reader and protecting herself from the enormous weight of things she’s trying not to think about or remember.
Because the subject of the story is Briony’s unwillingness and inability to come to grips with the truth, there are points when the reader will be way ahead of her. (There are other mysteries that I didn’t figure out until Briony did.) Usually I find that very frustrating, but in this case, it’s justified by the story rather than being a case of the author spinning her wheels.
Unusually for a novel which is so focused on the inner state of the protagonist, the supporting characters are vivid and individual. I especially liked Briony’s sister Rose, who unlike many characters of the sort, is a person in her own right and not just an object of Briony’s guilt.
This is definitely the sort of YA fantasy which appeals as much or more to adults. It probably could have been marketed as adult fantasy – other than some aspects of the romance, the only thing which makes it YA is the age of the heroine.
Chime
I had a few quibbles, which sum up to some revelations being either confusing or relying on unlikely motivations. But that’s as far as I can go without spoilers. Note: contains a non-graphic attempted sexual assault.
I had assumed that Rose really was brain-damaged, but that it either was an accident which the wicked step-mother blamed on Briony, or the wicked step-mother had done it herself. The revelation that Rose had always been that way was one of my favorite ones, because I’d gone through the whole book thinking that she was very convincing as someone on the autism sprectrum, but not so much as a person with acquired brain damage.
So, Briony’s father decided to leave in order to deprive the step-mother of sustenance, and just assumed that she would die? And never checked up on that, even by asking other people without going near himself? It would have been much more plausible if he’d died, leaving Step-Mother to feed on the children.
I was a little disappointed that Step-Mother turned out to be the classic wicked step-mother of every fairy-tale ever. That was the one thing that seemed too obvious. But I was surprised that Briony had actually killed her. It was very thoroughly foreshadowed, but I had been stuck on the idea that somehow her father had done it.
Life and stories are alike in one way: They are full of hollows. The king and queen have no children. They have a child hollow. The girl has a wicked stepmother. She has a mother hollow.
In a story, a baby comes along to fill the child hollow. But in life, the hollows continue empty. One sister continues lonely and unloved; the other coughs behind the door. I sat in the hall. I waited. Father returned from the Alehouse. I waited. He sat before the fire in the parlor. I waited.
Sometimes, of course, the sister's the wicked one, not the stepmother.
In a strange alternate early twentieth century in which magical beings are real and everyone believes in them, and witches are still hanged, teenage Briony lives with her distant father and mentally disabled sister, in a flood- and fire-damaged house on the edge of a creepy magical marsh.
As you can see just from that description, elements of the gothic and of Katherine Briggs-esque folklore mingle in this unusual, original novel. These Old Ones are not the standard elves codified by a million works of modern fantasy, but creatures that seem to have stepped straight out of the British oral tradition, only incidentally familiar by name. The entire story is rich in folkloric motifs from everything from ballads to fairy-tales to nursery rhymes.
The language of this book, which is Briony’s strange, twisted, witty, folkloric voice, is wonderful. At least, I thought it was wonderful. This is a novel which rises or falls on voice, and if you don’t like the voice, you will not like the book. I recommend reading the prologue and first chapter or so to see if you like it.
Better yet, the voice serves a purpose. It will quickly become clear to experienced readers that Briony is a very unreliable narrator, consciously hiding some secrets and unable to admit others, even to herself. Her webs of wordplay and misdirection serve the double purpose of intriguing the reader and protecting herself from the enormous weight of things she’s trying not to think about or remember.
Because the subject of the story is Briony’s unwillingness and inability to come to grips with the truth, there are points when the reader will be way ahead of her. (There are other mysteries that I didn’t figure out until Briony did.) Usually I find that very frustrating, but in this case, it’s justified by the story rather than being a case of the author spinning her wheels.
Unusually for a novel which is so focused on the inner state of the protagonist, the supporting characters are vivid and individual. I especially liked Briony’s sister Rose, who unlike many characters of the sort, is a person in her own right and not just an object of Briony’s guilt.
This is definitely the sort of YA fantasy which appeals as much or more to adults. It probably could have been marketed as adult fantasy – other than some aspects of the romance, the only thing which makes it YA is the age of the heroine.
Chime
I had a few quibbles, which sum up to some revelations being either confusing or relying on unlikely motivations. But that’s as far as I can go without spoilers. Note: contains a non-graphic attempted sexual assault.
I had assumed that Rose really was brain-damaged, but that it either was an accident which the wicked step-mother blamed on Briony, or the wicked step-mother had done it herself. The revelation that Rose had always been that way was one of my favorite ones, because I’d gone through the whole book thinking that she was very convincing as someone on the autism sprectrum, but not so much as a person with acquired brain damage.
So, Briony’s father decided to leave in order to deprive the step-mother of sustenance, and just assumed that she would die? And never checked up on that, even by asking other people without going near himself? It would have been much more plausible if he’d died, leaving Step-Mother to feed on the children.
I was a little disappointed that Step-Mother turned out to be the classic wicked step-mother of every fairy-tale ever. That was the one thing that seemed too obvious. But I was surprised that Briony had actually killed her. It was very thoroughly foreshadowed, but I had been stuck on the idea that somehow her father had done it.