Peter R. S. Thomas

Tag: fantasy romance

  • Book Review: Thornhedge

    Book Review: Thornhedge

    There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

    Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

    If only.

    Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

    Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher is a beautiful novella that both honours and subverts traditional fairy tales: This is, after all, not a story about the princess in the tower!

    One of the most striking aspects of the novella for me was the writing style. Kingfisher has a way of writing where the words seem strange and unusual together, but they’re formed in such a way that help you understand what the characters are feeling. Even something like this:

    She would never be able to describe the ride. No one ever asked her, but she would have liked to have the words to fit around it, if only for herself. It was like a dream that went on for many hours, and in the morning the fragments still lay dusted across her shoulders.

    It just reminds me why I love reading. When done well, writing is such a beautiful art form.

    The magic system is well crafted—simple, but effective, and aesthetically very pleasing. Toadling, the main character, is able to draw on the water around her, and that gives the magic a ‘wetness’, which lends itself well to analogies:

    The drops became a stream, became a torrent, and then Toadling was swimming in the magic, surrounded by it.

    The novel’s structure is equally sophisticated. We move between past and present with a growing urgency. As the narrative progresses, these switches happen more quickly as the book goes on, with the backstory and current events drawing closer together until they finally meet.

    And, of course, at the heart of the story are its characters, Toadling and Halim. Toadling in particular is irresistible. Her quirks and imperfections only make her more endearing. She forms a relationship with the self-deprecating and overly apologetic Halim in a way that feels natural and authentic.

    Together these elements combine in a way that feels fresh in a space so heavily saturated—fairy tales and fae are, of course, long-written and well-read genres. But I think even seasoned readers will find something new in this novella. It is a short read that will stay with you for long after you finish.

  • Book Review: Caraway of the Sea

    Book Review: Caraway of the Sea

    Caraway Auclair has devoted herself to protecting her brother, serving as the ship’s first mate and enforcer. Sacrificing nearly all she is to ensure that he becomes the most fearsome pirate Captain to ever sail the Carnelian Sea. She realizes too late, that the seas have only grown darker, and the waves more fearsome, they threaten to pull her under completely and mold her into something akin to a nightmare.

    Caraway of the Sea, a new novel by Madeline Burget, is a welcome entry to the pirate fantasy/romance space. Billed as a ‘grim cozy pirate tale’, it promises slow-burn romance and lots of paranoia.

    And boy does it deliver.

    Caraway, our titular main character, is a young woman in a man’s world. Here, though she did hide herself as a man in events prior to the story, hiding as a man isn’t the main focus. People accept that she is a woman. But, that does not mean she is free from danger—far from it. Indeed, she is still the subject of violence, and in particular sexual violence. This is explored in some depth.

    But Caraway is herself violent, and we get the sense that this is in some part because she is a woman. To keep herself safe, she has to present herself as someone not to be messed with. And this leads to many a brutal encounter. The action sequences are, indeed, brutal, and bloodthirsty readers will find enough swordplay and gore to satisfy. 

    The main focus is on Caraway’s fracturing relationship with her brother. He, as captain of their crew, is becoming increasingly paranoid and insecure, and she, as his protector, tries to prevent him from following a deadly and ruinous path. But events soon turn for the worse as she becomes the latest subject of his dark suspicions. 

    The story is interspersed with flashbacks, and this mostly works well, though there is one jarring revelation (which I won’t spoil) that made me question how it could take so long for Caraway to come to her eventual realisation. On reflection, it does speak to the nature of gaslighting and abuse in a fundamental way, and made me reevaluate Caraway as something of an unreliable narrator—she is slow to understand what becomes plain to the reader, and we watch her come around.

    My one gripe is the overuse of Caraway recalling memories of things recently passed that the reader was not privy to. The emotional weight of such moments is underwhelming if we weren’t witness to the initial occurrence. This happens more at the start, and is in no way disruptive, but it is just one of those things that didn’t work for me. Perhaps things could have been sequenced differently, or some scenes added in place of others, that would have provided more coherence here.

    Above all, the slow burn romance is done well. Enzo, the strong and handsome love interest, is a compelling counterpoint to Caraway, and his affection for her grows even as she is slow to understand her feelings towards him. We can empathise with her reluctance while still rooting for them—even if Enzo isn’t always trustworthy.

    In all, this book is definitely a worthy contribution to the genre. And, it is the first in a series—I will be interested to see where Caraway adventures next…