Helpful Score: 1
McKillip is one of my favorite authors: she has an unrivalled ability to take a seemingly simple story and invest it with a beauty of language and depth of meaning seen in few books. Her fairytales are for adults, as well as younger people (as such stories were originally meant to be); she stays true to the heart and soul of this most enduring and significant form of tale-telling.
This book is based on the legend of Tam Lin, with a bit of Andersens Snow Queen thrown into the mix
Set in a timeless rural village, two sisters: wild and irresponsible Rois and the stable, engaged Laurel, are both fascinated by a young man recently arrived in town. Corbet is heir to the tumbledown hall outside of the village, but he is surrounded by rumors of a curse: his father is said to have murdered his grandfather and mysteriously fled town. Now the curse is suspected to have settled on Corbet is he doomed to repeat the past? What really did happen, all those years ago?
Rois is determined to find out the truth about Corbet but in doing so she may find more than she bargained for. The woods that Rois has always loved seems filled with some cruel and bitter otherworldly presence, as secrets and obsession threaten to lead both sisters on a path to destruction.
The story is simply told, and not long, but it has an emotional truthfulness that is not easy to come by. It meshes this world with that of faerie (?) in a masterful - and believable - way.
This book is based on the legend of Tam Lin, with a bit of Andersens Snow Queen thrown into the mix
Set in a timeless rural village, two sisters: wild and irresponsible Rois and the stable, engaged Laurel, are both fascinated by a young man recently arrived in town. Corbet is heir to the tumbledown hall outside of the village, but he is surrounded by rumors of a curse: his father is said to have murdered his grandfather and mysteriously fled town. Now the curse is suspected to have settled on Corbet is he doomed to repeat the past? What really did happen, all those years ago?
Rois is determined to find out the truth about Corbet but in doing so she may find more than she bargained for. The woods that Rois has always loved seems filled with some cruel and bitter otherworldly presence, as secrets and obsession threaten to lead both sisters on a path to destruction.
The story is simply told, and not long, but it has an emotional truthfulness that is not easy to come by. It meshes this world with that of faerie (?) in a masterful - and believable - way.
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