Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Date Read: June 24 to 27, 2015
Read Count: 1
Recommended by: friends on Goodreads
Recommended for: people who like dark fairy tales
Minor disclaimer:
I liked this book well enough and much more than I thought I would because, since it’s marketed as YA, I went in with some reservations. To my surprise though it’s not YA. Sure, the main character is a young woman and there’s some romance, but it’s not YA in the usual sense. So that was a relief. I just wanted to put that out there in case it helps anyone decide whether or not this book is for them.
First off, great story, solid writing, and an interesting take on combining fairy tale elements to tell a familiar yet original story. The style reminds me a lot of the Brothers Grimm but Naomi Novik adds enough of her own flavor to keep it interesting, and there’s a distinct medieval Eastern European feel to the setting and mythology which I really like. I don’t usually read or even like fairy tales, unless they’re dark and violent, but I enjoyed a good amount of this book because of its fairy tale elements.
Those the walkers carried into the Wood were less lucky. We didn’t know what happened to them, but they came back out sometimes, corrupted in the worst way: smiling and cheerful, unharmed. They seemed almost themselves to anyone who didn’t know them well, and you might spend half a day talking with one of them and never realize anything was wrong, until you found yourself taking up a knife and cutting off your own hand, putting out your own eyes, your own tongue, while they kept talking all the while, smiling, horrible. And then they would take the knife and go inside your house, to your children, while you lay outside blind and choking and helpless even to scream. If someone we loved was taken by the walkers, the only thing we knew to hope for them was death, and it could only be a hope.
What the book boils down to is a whimsical and funny, but at times dark, tale about a young peasant girl, Agnieszka, with latent magical powers who grows into them as she battles the evil plaguing her land. Every ten years, villages in the valley supply the Dragon, a powerful wizard who lives in an ivory tower, with a girl. His job is to educate and train her in the ways of magic so that she could help him hold back the Wood, the evil presence taking over the valley. And this year Agnieszka just happens to be the “lucky” girl.
As she adjusts to her new life in the tower, Agnieszka struggles with simple tasks and household chores which is quite amusing. It’s like a combination of the Disney-fied Beauty & the Beast and Cinderella with some Snow White mixed in. I enjoyed this bit of the story the most. Gradually though, the story progresses into darker realms as the Wood advances on the valley and more is revealed about what the Wood actually is. That’s when the story incorporates darker fairy tale elements from again Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel. And many more are woven into the plot. Novik uses quite a number of fairy tales, many of which seem vaguely familiar to me but I haven’t been able to identify them yet–and I’m still working it.
Overall, I like the way Novik writes. She has a nice way with words and her prose is oftentimes lovely but not saccharine like other fairy tale retellings I’ve read. And the way in which she uses fairy tale elements in the story is really clever. She makes them an instrumental part of the story. In many ways it’s subtle and organic and doesn’t encroach on the story at all, and in other ways it’s familiar and comforting to be reminded of all these stories I used to read as a child. Even the darkness in these stories bring back fond memories–of summer afternoons spent reading in the cramped library cubbies.
If you’re a fan of the Grimms’ classics, you’ll recognize many references and mentions and will enjoy how they’re made part of the magic and mythology. And if you’re familiar with Baba Jaga, you’re in for a treat.
That said, there are a few issues I have with this book, but it could be just me though. Other readers might be able to overlook these things just fine.
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* * * * some spoilers & notes for myself * * * *
From Cover to Cover 