The aura of menace is deftly woven into this story of unwelcome change coming upon a world of powerful females. The new king is peevish and destructive and you can understand the unease others feel around him. You’re not quite sure what is the cause of his anger but perhaps being ripped from his homeland accounts for it.
Dreams and spirits are alive and potent in this ancient world. In fact, they intermingle so much among people, you wonder what exactly is true or illusion.
The second portion takes us into the life of a abused girl, one whose gift is exploited by her coercive mother. While this portion is more mundane, without the dreamlike quality of the first part, this is a girl who actually talks to spirits not merely receives incoherent dreams that need interpreting. Like Rapunzel to Mother Gothel, Saya strives mightily to appease Celay even though the other woman is of uncertain temper and prone to physical acts of malice.
The prose is at times lyrical, at other times stark and fang edged. We sense that the paths of these people are on a collision course but we can’t see how or when it will happen. That uncertainty permeates the story, giving us the uneasy sensation of a world on the cusp of unwelcome and terrifying change.
This novel promises to be an unusual adventure story, one that takes place as much in a land of nocturnal phantasms as it does in the waking world. It’s worth taking a look if you care for stories of matriarchal societies in flux.
Dreams and spirits are alive and potent in this ancient world. In fact, they intermingle so much among people, you wonder what exactly is true or illusion.
The second portion takes us into the life of a abused girl, one whose gift is exploited by her coercive mother. While this portion is more mundane, without the dreamlike quality of the first part, this is a girl who actually talks to spirits not merely receives incoherent dreams that need interpreting. Like Rapunzel to Mother Gothel, Saya strives mightily to appease Celay even though the other woman is of uncertain temper and prone to physical acts of malice.
The prose is at times lyrical, at other times stark and fang edged. We sense that the paths of these people are on a collision course but we can’t see how or when it will happen. That uncertainty permeates the story, giving us the uneasy sensation of a world on the cusp of unwelcome and terrifying change.
This novel promises to be an unusual adventure story, one that takes place as much in a land of nocturnal phantasms as it does in the waking world. It’s worth taking a look if you care for stories of matriarchal societies in flux.