This short book is a delight from start to finish. It’s written in
traditional fairytale style, beginning with ‘Once upon a time...’, with a
charming simplicity which hides a great deal under the surface. The
heroine of the story, who never has a name throughout the book, is a
shapeshifter and magic-user, in a land which doesn’t understand or
respect magic. Orphaned and raised by a kindly old man, she is forced to
leave her home village when he dies, and sets off to find her place in
the world. Her travels, the people she meets and the answers she finds
to her questions about her missing father and her own magic, form the
body of the story.
This is not your conventional fairytale. At
every turn, the author neatly sidesteps the traps and tropes of the
genre, so there are plenty of wonderful surprises in store, and a nice
line in humour too. Every town or village or country the girl visits is a
little different from the others, with its own customs and
peculiarities, and exploring these differences is one of the highlights
of the book, for me. There’s a prince, of course, and a witch, but
they’re not at all as you’d expect. The prince is possibly my favourite
character in the book, but even though it seems things are set fair for a
little romance, things take a different turn. It’s so much fun when a
book refuses to toe the boringly predictable line this way. I do like to
have my expectations subverted.
If there's a grumble at all,
it's that the girl seems a little mature for her age, given her rather
sheltered upbringing. She accepts whatever comes her way with
equanimity, judges people quite well and isn't really bothered at having
to travel around on her own. But then I suppose that being able to turn
into a bear or a bird or something small enough to hide behind a bush
is rather a good self-defence mechanism, plenty good enough to deal with
most of the little difficulties that a not entirely law-abiding country
can throw at her. I liked the way she grows over the course of the
book, finding out what works and what doesn't and using her talents not
for power or glory, but as a low-key way to survive so that she can do
what she really wants to do (mostly haunt the libraries and bookshops,
which I can relate to).
This is the first of four novellas
relating the beginnings of four characters to feature in a full-length
fantasy novel later. [1] The book is intended for any age reader from 9
upwards, and it would work brilliantly with an adult reading it to a
child, whether to draw out the subtleties and provoke discussion, or
just to enjoy the subtext. It would be a great communal read for schools
as well. Whether it works so well as an adult-only read is less
certain. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as a refreshing change of pace from
grittier adult fantasy, but despite the subtleties it felt very
child-oriented at times. Not childish, but perhaps lacking some of the
multi-layering of the best adult fantasy. This is not a criticism, just a
comment and a matter of personal preference. An entertaining read, with
deceptive simplicity and an unexpected degree of humour. Four stars.
[1]
At the time of writing (June 2013) this is the only one of the four
published, and the second novella, ‘Horse Feathers’, is currently being
posted a chapter at a time on the website, which is at Amoeba Ink.
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