Book Review: Blackthorn and Grim series, by Juliet Marillier

Note: This review is about book 1 (Dreamer’s Pool) and book 2 (Tower of Thorns), sort of combined. I haven’t read book 3 (Den of Wolves) yet, but I’m looking forward to it. While I think you could probably read book 2 on its own if you really wanted to, I don’t think it works well as a stand-alone.

TL;DR: Read the clean rating section. If that doesn’t stop you from wanting to read these books, read them. If you’ve read and liked Marillier before, read them. If you like complicated characters with horrific backstories who are nevertheless doing their best to live reasonably decent lives, read them. They’re great.

Rating: 4.5

Clean rating: PG-13 definitely. Largely for thematic elements (there’s some pretty majorly violent/awful backstory for both our main characters, including rape, torture, injustice, and various other horrible events). The backstory is neither glorified nor described in depth, but it’s pervasive in how these characters experience life. The books are not light, fluffy reads, though I also didn’t find them dark and depressing.

Book 1 also has some sexual content that I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I don’t like reading the sexual elements (though there was not a lot of detail, and it was all told in a very repressive tone by a character who clearly didn’t approve of his own behavior). On the other hand, whereas some sex scenes are just thrown in for fun, the couple of incidents in this book are absolutely integral to the storyline.

So while I can’t recommend the books to various of my friends and family who I know share similar values, I have loved them and will continue to read them.

Short summary: Blackthorn is a healer who is too angry to want to heal anyone anymore. When she’s given a chance to escape a terrible situation or die, she takes the deal that lets her escape, even with some conditions on her freedom that tend to ... chafe. Grim is big, strong, and loyal to Blackthorn. He’s got his own ugly past to deal with. Together they get drawn into complicated challenges to help people who may or may not deserve help.

Blackthorn and Grim’s characters and growth create the series arc, along with some mysteries from their pasts. The individual challenges create the individual book arcs.

What I liked: Oh, Marillier. It’s probably easier for me to just skip to what I didn’t like. But I’ll hit the highlights here.

Blackthorn. Grim. Although I think I like Grim a little better. He is not my usual kind of character; I tend to like witty, funny, clever—though not obnoxiously charming. But Grim is wonderful. He’s strong, determined, steady, kind, loyal. The revelations of his backstory throughout book 2 didn’t surprise me overmuch, but they gave such lovely depth to him as a person. I kind of want to hug him—except that would be super weird, because he’s also kind of this huge ogre sort of a fellow. It would be kind of like hugging a slightly friendly rock.

Blackthorn, for all her thorniness, is a lovely character too. Not the sort of person you want to sit and chat with (she would hate that anyway), but reliable and stronger than she thinks. I like how we see both of them slowing growing and changing and softening. Plus, without giving spoilers, I love what happens with the characters in the end of book 2. It made me happy and sad and yelling-at-the-characters-for-their-idiocy all at the same time.

As with the other Marillier I’ve read, the writing is exquisite. The storytelling is excellent. The twists worked—though I figured out what was likely to happen with large parts of the plot, there were plenty of surprises along the way. And the stuff that wasn’t surprising was still an enjoyable journey.

What didn’t work for me: Ummm... I’m thinking... Okay, I do admit I would have preferred some sort of workaround for the sexual content in Dreamer’s Pool (although I giggled just a little bit every time the character mentioned his “manhood”).

I was about to go on a bit about how I had no idea how to pronounce stuff. But then I saw that book 2 had a pronunciation guide that I just missed. Oops. I listened to the first one, so I got pronunciation of names like Flidais (Fliddiss) and Emer (eh-ver!) and Laois (leesh!) from that. But in Tower of Thorns, I spent the entire book wondering how I was supposed to pronounce Geilèis (ge-lace, apparently). So I guess I can’t complain about that now.

Last words: I recently had a friend do a critique for me on some stuff I’m working on, and she compared the writing to Marillier, and I kind of wanted to reach through the computer and hug my friend and then do a little happy dance. If my stories could one day be classed even remotely close to Juliet Marillier, I would feel like I had won at all the things.

The Cosmically Cool Katherine Cowley*

* Dorky alliterative title because I can.

Why, yes, I am really terrible at getting good photo lighting.

ONE DAY UNTIL THE OFFICIAL RELEASE! (Also, if you want to buy a copy and haven’t yet, tomorrow is the perfect day to do it and benefit us authors. Amazon likes it when there’s an uptick in purchases on a single day.)

Now let’s talk about how nifty Kathy Cowley is!

In the process of joining this project, I let Kathy know that I was willing to do some of the copyediting/proofing. I felt so privileged to be able to help with a little bit of this work, and it meant I got a preview of many of the stories along the way. In doing this, I also got to make friends with Kathy Cowley, and I consider that definitely one of the highlights of working on Unspun. I’d already read and loved some of her flash fiction. (“Celestial Accounting” in last year’s Mormon Lit Blitz was my favorite piece other than mine. It is so good! Also, “The Last Bathroom” is just the right level of weird-but-fun.) So getting to know her as a person was fantastic.

In looking at her blog again to find links to some of her stories, I made an amazing discovery. Kathy wrote “In Which Eve Names Everything Else,” one of my favorite pieces from a different year’s Mormon Lit Blitz too! I had no idea this one was hers, but people, it is beautiful. Kathy just keeps getting cooler and cooler the more I know about her.

We’d been working together for a few months when she emailed to let me know she would be visiting family in Arlington—and did I want to get together for dessert somewhere in between there and here? Yes! Of course! I will even brave my driving phobia about new places!

So we met up at a restaurant one night and sat and ate tremendous quantities of cheese (no dessert in the end, but the cheese was definitely worth skipping the cake). We talked writing, our latest projects, family, etc. As expected, Kathy is as fun and cool in person as via email and phone (and on the phone she sounds like one of my dearest friends, Sariah). She’s working right now on a book that just sounds so very fun (if I get permission, I’ll tell you what it is).

Kathy took on so much of this project. It absolutely wouldn’t be the lovely book that it is without her. She coordinated people, arranged multiple edits, and probably did about a thousand other things that I don’t know about. Oh, and did I mention she did all the interior design?

Since we met, she has also given me fantastic (and speedy) critiques of a ton of my short stories, and her suggestions have been invaluable in them all. Finding a great critique friend is awesome, and I’m so glad to add her as one of mine.

Anyway, I’ll stop fangirling now. Let’s just say she’s awesome, and when she publishes more books, you should go buy them. Immediately.

The End.

P.S. Her website is down at the moment (stinky hackers!), but as soon as it is back up, you should go check it out.

COVER REVEAL: Unspun!!

Cover Reveal: Unspun!!!

People! I have been waiting impatiently for the day I could post this news officially. I have a story, “Breadcrumbs,” coming out in this gorgeous anthology on April 10th, and I’m so excited about it. Unspun is an anthology devoted to what happens after the “happily ever after.” There are stories both happy and sad, scary and silly, beautiful and just a little bit crazy. I am thrilled to be associated with them. Here’s the back cover blurb:

Whatever happened to “happily ever after”?

Heroes search for happiness, villains plot revenge, and nothing is as easy as it once seemed. Gretel suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, an orphan girl questions Rumpelstiltskin’s legacy, a monster cat searches for a child to eat, and the pied piper realizes stealing a hundred and thirty children may not have been his smartest idea.

Fairy tales have endured for centuries even though—or perhaps because—their conclusions are often more unsettling than satisfying. In Unspun, eleven storytellers come together to challenge and explore a few of those classic tales. Unexpected twists are sure to provoke both thought and laughter.

Gorgeous illustrations by Ruth Nickle accompany each piece.

My contribution, “Breadcrumbs,” feels like a little bit of a different direction from much of what I’ve written. I tend to write young adult, for starters, and this piece is definitely not YA. Featuring Gretel (of “Hansel and Gretel” fame), it’s a little heavier than my YA work, but I’m so pleased with how it came out, and I hope you will be too.

But more than that, I am thrilled to get to tell you about the stories in this collection. It’s hard to know where to begin. Should I start with the tense, fast-paced “Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter,” by Ruth Nickle? Or with Kathy Cowley’s novella about Tatterhood, a fantastic heroine who rides a goat and fights with a wooden spoon? Maybe I’ll mention how cool it is that I get to be related by marriage to two of the contributors. Sarah Chow’s story about the firebird is delightful, and Chris Cutler’s “Heart of a Thief” is such a sneaky post-beanstalk tale. Then there’s a story about a child-eating cat, a light romance featuring orange dresses and a heroine who’s still figuring out what she wants, a tale of Jewish grieving customs and a magical nutcracker, and a coming-of-age about what happens when you decide to off the evil witch in a rather gruesome manner.

I have to confess, though, my favorite is Scott Cowley’s “The Pied Piper’s Revenge,” which is an absolutely hilarious look at what happened after the pied piper wandered off with all those children. Oh, this piece made me laugh and laugh. My other favorite is PJ Switzer’s lovely poem “The Little Mermaid,” which is just a perfect, gorgeous slice of her life as sea foam (way better, incidentally, than my effort at this same topic last year on my blog).

But though those two are my favorite, I really love this whole anthology. Have I mentioned that I’m excited to be a part of it? You will love it. You should definitely buy a copy (it will be up on Amazon soon). Maybe two copies. Maybe three, just in case. You never know when you’ll need a gift to offer some poor old woman who just happens to be a sorceress in disguise.

P.S. Here’s a link to Chris Cutler’s fabulous reveal as well.
P.P.S. And here’s the purchase link!

Author Crush: Kiersten White

I have three qualifications for an author crush:

1. The author must have written something inconceivably awesome that makes me wildly jealous that I didn’t write it and may never write something that awesome.

2. The author must have some other quality that makes him/her shiny-spiffy aside from said inconceivably awesome book(s).

3. In most cases, the author’s awesome books must be books I can recommend to other people (therefore, generally fairly clean of swearing, sex, gore,* and general ickiness**).

I don’t have a lot of author crushes, but Kiersten White has made that list.

It started with Paranormalcy, which was an awesome title. This was a fun book—not mind-blowingly awesome to me, but a fun, clean, fantasy read. Plus it involved a girl who is so sparkly pink you kind of want to barf on her—in a happy, loving way. Because she has things like a sparkly pink Taser, and really, who doesn’t want one of those?*** The other two books in the series were fun too, though Paranormalcy was my favorite.

So I kind of loved Kiersten White a little bit already.

Partially it was silly things—like the way her character said “bleeping” instead of swearing (and she had a backstory for this, so it fit the character). Partially it was that in a realm of YA fantasy/paranormal wherein sex and sexual tension always kind of made me gag, roll my eyes, or want to throw the book in the trash, here was a paranormal that felt like good clean fun.

But if it had just been the Paranormalcy series, I probably wouldn’t have loved Kiersten White enough to gush about her here. What really did it for me was Mind Games. I bought it on a whim, on a Kindle deal, because I knew the author’s name and suspected I could trust it to be not trashy. It turned out to be so much more.

I thought Mind Games was unequivocally amazing. It’s a psychological thriller with a bit of scifi/magic (it depends on how you look at the powers involved—reading people’s thoughts and such; there’s theoretically science behind it, but that doesn’t matter to the story—so it’s essentially magic).

Why was it amazing? The essential brokenness of the main character was, I thought, well-written and believable. The plot, the complexities the characters had to deal with, and the eventual resolution of the difficulties—awesomesauce. When you’re sitting there looking at the characters and screaming with them at what they are dealing with, that’s good stuff. Also, the switching between timelines kept me on my toes, heightened suspense, and made me want to see what happened next (my dishes and laundry did not thank White, but oh well).

If Mind Games wasn’t enough, its sequel, Perfect Lies, was equally gripping. Everything just got worse and worse for the main characters (and I was happy to see Annie, who I didn’t really like in the first book, get super-cool by the end of this one). And then it got resolved! Hoorah! But there were still scars, still problems that the characters would have to deal with—probably for the rest of their lives. Which I think is fair and fitting and, for me, deeply satisfying. To have suffered so much and come out unscathed would have felt fake.

Speaking of the suffering, I will add this caveat: I have recommended Mind Games to some others, and I know that for one, the story and the psychological trauma and violence was too much. So it’s not exactly gentle. But I thought it was incredible.

Okay, so now I’m hooked on Kiersten White’s writing, but who is she as a person? When I like someone’s writing this much, I sometimes like to know a bit about what they’re like in the real world. It turns out that, judging from her tweets and blogging, she is funny, delightful, supportive, and kind of sparkly. So she’s awesome. Check. I will now read pretty much anything she writes.

Which brings us to the next book, In the Shadows. This was quite interesting, simply because of its format. In the Shadows is part regular novel and part graphic novel (that part is written by Jim DiBartolo). It alternates between two stories that are clearly linked, but the linkage is not explained until very near the end. I spent a great deal of the book having no clue how the two stories matched up (this is partially due to the fact that I was hung up on “Maple Leaf Rag,” which was not even remotely written when I thought it was—but that’s beside the point). It took me longer to get into this book, probably mostly because I’m not very visual (it was about a third of the way through the book before I realized that the character in the graphic novel section was all the same guy—even though he clearly had a scar through his eye that I just never noticed—because I’m observant like that). I enjoyed it and was happy to see White do something very different and have fun with it.

Also note: All her covers
are so pretty you could pretty
much crush on them too.

Since then I have also read The Chaos of Stars, a lovely story about complicated family relationships, a dreamy boy, and also Egyptian gods. Here’s another event that shows my love of Kiersten White: I wanted to read it without ever having read the book flap. If you know my reading habits, you know how unusual this is. I read cover copy obsessively; I read front matter—heck, I even read the copyright page!**** I never choose books without knowing what they’re about. Ever.

So far, even though I have not loved all her books equally, I have enjoyed each of them. I also love that she has tried out some different ways of telling stories (most notably in In the Shadows). And not once have I felt icky from reading them, which is a big deal to me. It’s lovely to have an author you love and who feels morally good. It’s hard to describe what I mean here, but it’s something I appreciate. So go buy her books—lots of them! Or at least go read them and talk about them and make other people buy them too.

Kiersten White has at least one new book coming in the fall (Illusions of Fate), and I’m super excited to read it. I may even buy it early (which is a huge compliment because even though I love books I’m also pretty cheap, especially if I haven’t read the book yet). I will also continue to internet stalk her in a friendly, nonpsychotic way, because I think she’s shiny. And someday, should I get the chance to meet her, I will probably say something incredibly stupid like I did that time I literally walked into Shannon Hale.***** Because that’s just how cool I am.

* Violence is okay; gore is not so much.

** Don’t ask me to define this. It’s totally subjective.

*** Okay, I don’t want one of those. But I appreciate the contrast so much that I kind of love it even when I don’t.

**** I’m not kidding.

***** Here’s what I said: “You’re Shannon Hale.” Here’s what she said: “Yes, I am.”

First Love: A Book Review of Shannon Hale’s Palace of Stone

I think I should establish something here: If a genie popped out of my just-finished pickle jar right now and granted me three wishes, I would have a hard time not saying, “Please make Shannon Hale move into the house across the street!” And then my next wish would be that Shannon Hale would be my best friend. And then my last wish would be that I could grow up to be just like her. (Let’s not quibble about the fact that I have already, theoretically, grown up.)

Now, re-entering reality… It is unlikely there are any genies in my pickle jars, my peanut butter jars, or even my honey jars, so I’m probably out of luck. And I probably shouldn’t be spending my wishes all on Shannon Hale. … Maybe just one?

Given my adoration for Shannon Hale, you can probably imagine that I enjoyed Palace of Stone, of which I received an ARC last week. (I was jumping up and down all day when I discovered I’d won it. Then I was jumping up and down—with book in hand—all day when I actually got it in the mail.)

Well, I did enjoy it. In beautiful Shannon Hale fashion, the story was both lyrical and fun. Miri in the middle of a revolution just made sense; she’s a person who looks at the world to discover how her presence can improve it. I think we could all use a little more of that. I also loved the Rhetoric rules she learned and put into practice, keeping with the rules of Conversation and Diplomacy she learned in Princess Academy. I kind of want to type up all those rules and put them up as a reminder on my wall. Or on the walls in lots of public places. Or on every “comment” form on every controversial online article ever.

But what I was thinking about most as I read it was first love. We have so many young adult novels that center around first loves—and make them last forever. As if the person you fall in love with at age sixteen is the person you’ll love when you’re ninety.

I hope you won’t consider it a spoiler when I tell you that Miri meets someone else who is fascinating and interested in her—and at the same time Miri and Peder seem headed in different directions. Who will she end up with? I won’t tell you; that would be a spoiler.

So I found myself torn, at times, thinking how much I love Peder and his solid steadiness like the stone he works with. But in real life, when you are so young, just a teenager, there’s still so much growth left to do before you can even get a sense of who you are. How can you choose someone so young? But on the other hand, love that lasts is absolutely a decision you make; it will not always be easy, no matter how fabulous it was in the beginning. So can’t you decide that your first love, that guy you fell for at sixteen, is the one you’ll love forever?

Peder. Timon. Peder. Timon.

My husband was my first love—at nineteen, not sixteen—so I can vouch that it can work out marvelously. Nope, I definitely can’t knock first love. It’s good stuff. And I admit that in books I’m (almost) always rooting for it. But there is something bittersweet as well about the idea of letting it go* and choosing a second or a third or a fifteenth love.**

Did I mention I’m not going to tell you who she ends up with, though? You’ll just have to read it and find out.

*Ah, how to insert a serious caveat without getting up on my soapbox? Let’s just say quickly that I only consider it bittersweet if the “letting go” occurs before the “committing and getting married” portion of the story. “Letting go” afterwards is no longer bittersweet—it’s just tragic (no hatemail please—I know it’s sometimes the best solution, etc. etc., but it’s still tragic). The end.

**Although perhaps if you’re on #15, you should be a little more selective about who you fall in love with?