Rhiannon
Added to listOwnedwith 2773 books.
A stunning, modern take on the Blodeuwedd myth from the Fourth Branch of the Welsh Mabinogi, this gorgeous debut novel is both heartbreaking and horrifying in equal measure. The story of a boy, Rory, and his friend and playmate, the girl Daye, who his sister created from flowers through a sort of modern green witchcraft. The story is set in an amorphous, contemporary Welsh-like setting where studying this kind of crafting is not entirely unusual. The writing, setting and tone is reminiscent of de Lint’s Newford stories and Crowley’s Little, Big – that being enchanting with an underlying gothic darkness.
As Rory grows older, he discovers that keeping Daye ‘alive’ is a complex endeavour that requires specialized knowledge, and he sets out to learn all he can to keep his most precious friend with him forever. And this is where the quiet horror slowly starts to creep up on you. You’re so engrossed with the beauty of the language and the story of this peculiar flower girl that you become uneasy… you start to realize just how awful this situation is as the pure beauty of their childhood relationship also begins to transform and subtly rot at the edges:
“𝑰𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒂𝒍, 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑.”
This is body autonomy horror at its most subtle: skillfully and softly depicted through the beauty of nature and love as it morphs to codependence and ultimately obsession and possession and a fight for true independence and self-determination.
A devastating and haunting debut! I can’t wait to see what this author does next.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Books US for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.
Originally posted at www.instagram.com.
A stunning, modern take on the Blodeuwedd myth from the Fourth Branch of the Welsh Mabinogi, this gorgeous debut novel is both heartbreaking and horrifying in equal measure. The story of a boy, Rory, and his friend and playmate, the girl Daye, who his sister created from flowers through a sort of modern green witchcraft. The story is set in an amorphous, contemporary Welsh-like setting where studying this kind of crafting is not entirely unusual. The writing, setting and tone is reminiscent of de Lint’s Newford stories and Crowley’s Little, Big – that being enchanting with an underlying gothic darkness.
As Rory grows older, he discovers that keeping Daye ‘alive’ is a complex endeavour that requires specialized knowledge, and he sets out to learn all he can to keep his most precious friend with him forever. And this is where the quiet horror slowly starts to creep up on you. You’re so engrossed with the beauty of the language and the story of this peculiar flower girl that you become uneasy… you start to realize just how awful this situation is as the pure beauty of their childhood relationship also begins to transform and subtly rot at the edges:
“𝑰𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒂𝒍, 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑.”
This is body autonomy horror at its most subtle: skillfully and softly depicted through the beauty of nature and love as it morphs to codependence and ultimately obsession and possession and a fight for true independence and self-determination.
A devastating and haunting debut! I can’t wait to see what this author does next.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Books US for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.
Originally posted at www.instagram.com.
When you go into these reimaginings and retellings you really do have to let go of all that has come before in order to buy into the creative changes. And I’m all for it, because really? these old myths and legends are so old that viewing them from our distant 21st century lens means we really can’t know the specifics and quirks of relationships and how people felt and what happened, so these retellings always open the story back up in new and interesting ways.
In this case, the old obscure story of Melantho, a slave girl and minor character in the Odyssey who was essentially raised as a foster child by Penelope, is retold by realigning their relationship (and ages) into one of a romantic nature. Hewlett does a decent job of reconstructing the story in such a way that the bits we know of Melantho from the Odyssey believably take on new meaning with understandable motivations so that she doesn’t come off as quite the ‘betrayer’ she did in the old stories.
The relationship between Penelope and Melantho in this book is one of a long and drawn-out complex affair of master and slave dynamics and childhood friendship morphing into that of a forbidden love affair. Unfortunately, the emotional aspects of it (including the interactions between all the female characters, really) felt forced and flat and draggy and wasn’t very interesting for me. I found the smaller plot points and changes that Hewlett made to the story far more interesting to consider and much more engaging.
My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.
Originally posted at www.instagram.com.
When you go into these reimaginings and retellings you really do have to let go of all that has come before in order to buy into the creative changes. And I’m all for it, because really? these old myths and legends are so old that viewing them from our distant 21st century lens means we really can’t know the specifics and quirks of relationships and how people felt and what happened, so these retellings always open the story back up in new and interesting ways.
In this case, the old obscure story of Melantho, a slave girl and minor character in the Odyssey who was essentially raised as a foster child by Penelope, is retold by realigning their relationship (and ages) into one of a romantic nature. Hewlett does a decent job of reconstructing the story in such a way that the bits we know of Melantho from the Odyssey believably take on new meaning with understandable motivations so that she doesn’t come off as quite the ‘betrayer’ she did in the old stories.
The relationship between Penelope and Melantho in this book is one of a long and drawn-out complex affair of master and slave dynamics and childhood friendship morphing into that of a forbidden love affair. Unfortunately, the emotional aspects of it (including the interactions between all the female characters, really) felt forced and flat and draggy and wasn’t very interesting for me. I found the smaller plot points and changes that Hewlett made to the story far more interesting to consider and much more engaging.
My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.
Originally posted at www.instagram.com.
Added to listIndiginous First Nationswith 40 books.
Added to listHorrorwith 868 books.
Added to listOwnedwith 2772 books.
