The Stolen Child by Lisa Carey

Tags

contemporary fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, magic

I’m a great fan of fairy tales and folk lore and in The Stolen Child Ms Carey has expertly interwoven both of these with superstition, economic hardship and life on a remote island off the coast of Ireland.

The story is set in 1959-1960 on St Brigid’s Island, named after the saint who lived there with her company of women, and who left behind a magical well whose waters are rumoured to heal and bestow miracle.

Emer lives on the island with her alcoholic husband Patch. Her sister Rose is married to Austin, the better looking and harder working brother of her sister’s regret. Rose is a happy, fecund young woman who produces sets of twins time and again. Emer, however, is shrivelled and bitter and has the ability to impart a sense of hopelessness and misery on all she touches. It is little wonder that she is avoided by the other villagers.She has one child, Niall, on whom she dotes and who seems immune to the curse of her touch. St Brigid’s Island sits uneasily in the middle of the 20th century with the work done and the way of life changed little from the previous century. There is no electricity, no telephone, and bad weather can cut them off from supplies for weeks at a time.

Into this backwater comes an American woman, Brigid, whose mother left the island as a young woman. Her uncle died the year before and she has returned to the island to reclaim the family home and to look for a miracle. She and Emer form an unexpected friendship and Emer learns that she isn’t the only one whose touch can effect people.

This is a marvellous book. Brigid symbolises the modern world intruding into the fairy tale world of the island, and her struggle to be accepted can easily be seen as the struggle the islanders have with the modern world which is being forced upon them. Emer, the main character, isn’t particularly likeable, but as her story emerges I felt great sorrow and empathy for her. Her actions can be selfish and self-serving, but in a life that has given her little it is easy to understand why she acts as she does.

The author has successfully drawn together so many threads, so many influences – fairy tales, folklore, superstition, religion, traditions and mysogeny – to tell a wonderful story peopled by characters you come to care for.

I look forward to reading more from this talented writer.

The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery

Tags

crime fiction, fantasy, literary fiction

I have noticed, with despair, a growing trend to laud the stupid, the ignorant and those who are ‘keeping it real’ (whatever that might mean. If your idea of a good read is a book with short sentences, small words and small ideas, please don’t even bother reading on with this review. If, however, you like to read a book not just for the plot or the story, but for the language, the imagery and the magic, The Life of Elves might be for you.

Clara is a young girl with a human mother and elfin father and a piano prodigy who’s gift allows her to interpret stories and history and enables her to create clairvoyant links with others, specifically with Maria, a girl who despite having elfin parents passes for a human child. Maria has the ability to commune with nature and to bend it to her will. The girls were adopted by human families as babies, their adoptive parents knowing nothing of their provenance. The elfin council believes that together they can meld together the powers of nature and human art and bring about a utopian period for the world, human and elfin.

So much for the plot. Make no mistake, this is no YA book, and not a fairy tale for children. Instead, the adult reader may, like me, become seduced by the beauty of Barbery’s prose and by the magical possibilities she so eloquently describes.

The Life of Elves is hard work: sentences go on for clause after clause after clause and at the beginning I found myself struggling to make sure I was parsing each sentence properly. But after a while the music of the prose, its magic, pulled me in and totally entranced me. In the first few pages I cringed at the detailed descriptions of the girls, or the setting. I thought that the entire book would be over-written and that I’d have to slowly wade through it or give up. Instead, I found myself looking forward to indulging in the rich world the author created.

I guess this is a Marmite book: you’ll either hate it or, like me, fall in love.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Frankenstorm by Ray Garton

Tags

fantasy, horror

I don’t know about you, but I love the modern “B” movies broadcast on the SyFy channel. Give me a title like Big Ass Spider and, of course, Sharknado and I’m there, popcorn in hand, ready for 90 minutes of fun and mayhem. And that’s exactly what you get in this thoroughly entertaining book by Ray Garton.

In a freak of nature, a hurricane named Quentin is headed for the west coast of America and due to hit the small town of Eureka within a few hours.

Meanwhile, the old asylum has been redeveloped in part and is now being used by scientists to research bio-weapons under the guise of developing new antibiotics.

Meanwhile, an army veteran and campaigner for the homeless is taking his militia to look for the homeless people who have been going missing recently from Eureka.

Meanwhile, a psychotic cop has kidnapped a man and his son and is taking them on his murderous trail around the county.

Meanwhile, a woman is driving on the storm-hot roads to deliver s suspicious package in order to earn money to pay for her son’s medical bills.

And, finally, a local radio presenter and conspiracy nut is going to get the story of a lifetime.

You might think that there is far too much going on, and none of it particularly believable, but forget all of that. Accept Frankenstorm for what it is: an OTT tale of the convergence coincidences that I found wonderfully entertaining and thoroughly enjoyed.

Someone, tell the SyFy channel about this book. I’d LOVE to see it made into a movie!

The Exiled by William Meikle

Tags

crime fiction, detective fiction, fantasy, horror

A young girl goes missing in Edinburgh, presumed abducted. No one sees her go, but in the station toilets not far from where she had stood with her mother, a black swan is found, severely mutilated and in a pool of blood.

And the black swan’s wings are missing.

The number of missing girls gets higher, each disappearance accompanied by a broken bird, and no one can fathom how they were taken.

What follows is a police procedural following brothers John (a cop) and Alan (an investigative reporter) as they investigate the missing girls.

So far, so “Stuart McBride.”

But you wouldn’t expect a straight detective story from a writer with a strong back catalogue in well written horror and, as usual, Meikle delivers.

Thanks to Alan, the Granger brothers find a sandwich-board nutter who seems to know a lot about what may have happened to the girls and it’s at this point that the story begins it’s shift into fantasy and horror as we are taken to the land of the fae where an evil is building, intent on tearing down the barrier between worlds.

The book has a real feel for Scottish myth and folklore yet the author manages to make the transitions between worlds believable and natural. The horror is well described and gory without being gratuitous and the book marries the Scotland of a dark Brigadoon with the Edinburgh of Rankine to create an interesting tale of evil ambitions, myth and 21st century detective work.

Being a Scot, I appreciated the setting. I read a lot of horror and it was refreshing for the setting to be somewhere other than America.

A good, satisfying book which leaves the reader with the hope that the sequel the author sets up isn’t long in coming.

4 poodles

A Clockwork Heart by Liesel Schwarz

Tags

fantasy, historical fiction, speculative fiction, steampunk

I can’t believe I forgot to write a review for this book when I read it.I have been a bit busy and ill over the past few months, but that’s no excuse for me not to recommend such a wonderful title as this.

I am a sucker for steampunk and this title by the talented Liesel Schwarz hit the button for me. I must admit to not having read the first book in the series, but I don’t believe this reduced my enjoyment of the story at all.

Eleanor Chance is the oracle, a human with the ability to connect to another world, a world where evil is commonplace, and when an army of automaton zombies begin to wreak havoc on London, she and her colleagues )including Madame Bathory, famed Vampire and wife of Dracula) take it upon themselves to put an end to the terror. As expected, things don’t go exactly to plan and we leave Eleanor on a mission to find her husband who has been “zombiefied”, for want of a better term.

There is a great sense of adventure in this novel and, as seems to be common among the steampunk genre, the heroine is strong and able…and just a little foolhardy. While at times one could be forgiven for likening the automated army to Doctor Who’s Cybermen, there is enough invention and uniqueness in the story to make any such thoughts fleeting.

If you like your novels with polished brass, flying ships and fin de siècle fog, you won’t go wrong with A Clockwork Heart.

4 Poodles