The cover, which shows a girl who seems to be becoming the wind or dissolving into river water, captures the eye even before you read the blurb. Is she a drowning victim? Is she summoning the elements? Is she somehow connected to nature, as hinted by the feather, branch and berries accompanying the image? Is she a force for chaos or order?
The confusion continues as we enter Leelo’s strange and strangely hostile world. It’s one with an inexplicably bloodthirsty forest and a poisonous lake that separates them from the outside world. However, it’s possible to escape the effects of the lake in winter when it freezes over entirely. So why does no one leave?
Instead they remain, protecting their island against hostile outsiders who might destroy their forest. You can understand why outsiders would do so; the forest swallows any life that aren’t trees and plants. Birds fly into trees and don’t fly out again. Deer are swallowed by sinkholes. It’s nuts to live near something like that but no one leaves unless it’s an unfortunate few called the incantu.
When we read Jaren’s chapter, matters settle more comfortably into the mundane, although not completely. Jaren is a dreamer but he has his feet firmly on the ground. It’s everybody around him, including his father, who believes in sprites, malevolent spirits and other fairy tale trappings. Jaren can’t take it seriously but he keeps his mouth shut about it. It’s not hard. He’s an introvert who longs for someone to share his unspoken ideas and emotions and his boisterous family doesn’t understand him.
When a drowning occurs, it’s attended by a kind of celebratory mourning with the attendees both miserable and secretly gleeful at seeing a human sacrifice. Think of the films “The Wicker Man”, “Midsomar” or the novel “Elsewhere” by Alexis Shaitkin to get an idea of this horrific scene. Leelo is baffled by it even as she is forced to attend the spectacle.
This reader is baffled by it as well. The notion of sacrifice doesn’t apply since the young man isn’t being “fed” to the hungry Forest. He’s given a chance to escape but it’s not much of a chance. So what’s the point of it?
Perhaps further reading of the book might clarify matters. As it stands, these baffling opening chapters leave you almost as weary as the islanders watching across the lake.
The confusion continues as we enter Leelo’s strange and strangely hostile world. It’s one with an inexplicably bloodthirsty forest and a poisonous lake that separates them from the outside world. However, it’s possible to escape the effects of the lake in winter when it freezes over entirely. So why does no one leave?
Instead they remain, protecting their island against hostile outsiders who might destroy their forest. You can understand why outsiders would do so; the forest swallows any life that aren’t trees and plants. Birds fly into trees and don’t fly out again. Deer are swallowed by sinkholes. It’s nuts to live near something like that but no one leaves unless it’s an unfortunate few called the incantu.
When we read Jaren’s chapter, matters settle more comfortably into the mundane, although not completely. Jaren is a dreamer but he has his feet firmly on the ground. It’s everybody around him, including his father, who believes in sprites, malevolent spirits and other fairy tale trappings. Jaren can’t take it seriously but he keeps his mouth shut about it. It’s not hard. He’s an introvert who longs for someone to share his unspoken ideas and emotions and his boisterous family doesn’t understand him.
When a drowning occurs, it’s attended by a kind of celebratory mourning with the attendees both miserable and secretly gleeful at seeing a human sacrifice. Think of the films “The Wicker Man”, “Midsomar” or the novel “Elsewhere” by Alexis Shaitkin to get an idea of this horrific scene. Leelo is baffled by it even as she is forced to attend the spectacle.
This reader is baffled by it as well. The notion of sacrifice doesn’t apply since the young man isn’t being “fed” to the hungry Forest. He’s given a chance to escape but it’s not much of a chance. So what’s the point of it?
Perhaps further reading of the book might clarify matters. As it stands, these baffling opening chapters leave you almost as weary as the islanders watching across the lake.