Dan
Pick your favourite word for non-realism to describe this, be it surreal, magical realist or just plain fantasy. Either way, Yagi uses the idea of talking in a dead language to delve into how we put up barriers against others and shut ourselves up. It’s a short book, but a very rich one, with plenty going on, and many threads to draw on and consider.
Also, I have a degree in Latin and I quail at the idea of speaking it conversationally so fair play to the narrator here.
Pick your favourite word for non-realism to describe this, be it surreal, magical realist or just plain fantasy. Either way, Yagi uses the idea of talking in a dead language to delve into how we put up barriers against others and shut ourselves up. It’s a short book, but a very rich one, with plenty going on, and many threads to draw on and consider.
Also, I have a degree in Latin and I quail at the idea of speaking it conversationally so fair play to the narrator here.
Look, if a dark medieval fantasy version of Seven Samurai featuring the undead, shape changers and evil wizards set in a small medieval village in England isn’t for you then we can never be friends, okay?
Look, if a dark medieval fantasy version of Seven Samurai featuring the undead, shape changers and evil wizards set in a small medieval village in England isn’t for you then we can never be friends, okay?
Updated a reading goal:
Read 100 books by December 31, 2025
Progress so far: 75 / 100 75%
This is the story of two troubled young women spiralling round each other, bound by a small Irish town and the child who disappeared there twenty years ago. There’s the one who left, running wild and addicted to chaos, and the one who remained, turned inward and curdled. Neither of them are especially likeable, but by the end of the book we are at least approaching understanding. There’s a song I was reminded of when reading, with a lyric that goes “once you’ve touched the poison, you poison everything you touch”, which isn’t so far from the character work here. DeeDee and Caitlin are vividly drawn, and their interior lives are convincing. This characterisation is one of the key strengths of the novel. Part of me wishes we’d seen more of this with other character’s points of view bought in (there’s one character who maybe gets unfairly short shrift), but that would risk undermining the other pillar here, which is the intensity of the story. I tore through this, reading the whole thing in a day and a half, and that laser focus on the two leads is a big part of the reason. A very accomplished debut that deserves to do well.
This is the story of two troubled young women spiralling round each other, bound by a small Irish town and the child who disappeared there twenty years ago. There’s the one who left, running wild and addicted to chaos, and the one who remained, turned inward and curdled. Neither of them are especially likeable, but by the end of the book we are at least approaching understanding. There’s a song I was reminded of when reading, with a lyric that goes “once you’ve touched the poison, you poison everything you touch”, which isn’t so far from the character work here. DeeDee and Caitlin are vividly drawn, and their interior lives are convincing. This characterisation is one of the key strengths of the novel. Part of me wishes we’d seen more of this with other character’s points of view bought in (there’s one character who maybe gets unfairly short shrift), but that would risk undermining the other pillar here, which is the intensity of the story. I tore through this, reading the whole thing in a day and a half, and that laser focus on the two leads is a big part of the reason. A very accomplished debut that deserves to do well.
