Mara Rutherford, in The Poison Season, introduces us to an enchanted community full of individuals with powers who live apart from the world on their own island. The society they have developed is insulated and they don’t want any outsiders coming in to destroy what they have built, all they know of the world, their home. Especially the Wandering Forest which those on Endla protect and outsiders believe evil, wanting to burn or chop it down.
The Watchers are their first line of defense, each on the isle in this group mandatory for a year. At times outsiders have found a way in, through the forest or the lake, though it is dangerous. When they are caught, they end up dead, if by punishment or other ways. And, while those on Endla know the waters that surround them are poisonous most outsiders only think this superstition. The island of Endla, enjoyed by its inhabitants for its beauty and power, is not viewed this way by all those who inhabit it.
Leelo, one of the island inhabitants, is finishing up her first year as a Watcher, when are introduced to her in the beginning of the story. She lives with her mother and her aunt, the women's husbands having been killed when she was young. While it was not rare for several generations of family to live together, women were rarely widowed so young. However, the women are resourceful, maken the finest woolen goods in Endle.
Presently though, Leelo’s home is at risk with the spring festival on its way. If Leelo’s little brother, Tate, does not come into his magic by this time he will be exiled from their group and the island, made to join the outsiders the community so fears. That Leelo will no longer be able to care for the brother she so loves fills her with immense terror, so much so, she risks a small blood sacrifice to awaken the hopefully dormant magic in her sibling. Those on Endla with magic see it activated with their song, their voice.
Before those on the island receive their powers they are known as the incantu, the voiceless, and they are not unable to attend the festival until they obtain this “voice”. Along with not having their magic, or voice, the incantu are also treated like outsiders in the community. Personally, Leelo hates this rule, hates that those without magic are subjected to feelings of indifference, when they should be treated all the same as they all live together in Endla. They are all one people.
Jaren, an outsider, comes upon the lake that surrounds Endla one day, while gathering on the new land his family has just moved to, in the kingdom beyond the waters that surround the island. Having moved to a small village with his family, after the matriarch dies, they try to move on from memories of grief that had surrounded them in a home that no longer contained a woman they all loved. His father has heard that the lake is poisonous, asks his son not to return to it, and Jaren promises despite thinking the people who had shared this with his father are gullible and gossipy.
However, after this empty promise, Jaren ends up at the lake. When there he almost drowns. Having seen him, Leelo, forgetting about what others on Endla would think, saves Jaren and in nursing him back to health, forges a link to an outsider. If those on Endla learn of what Leelo is doing, what she has done, she risks punishment, exile or even death. Leelo has recently been made to watch an exile incantu, one who had been part of Endla as a child, but never have developed his magic, pushed out of the community and all he knew, drowned when trying to avoid punishment (which would have been execution by drowning, nonetheless) when sneaking back on the island to see a girl he loved (one of Leelo’s cousin’s).What would they think of what Leelo has done?
Although an enchanted world, Mara Rutherford creates a story which underlines the wickedness which comes with misunderstandings, when rules are made having no exceptions. When people are accepted with conditions, rather than being loved because of who they are, because they are family, community, because they are a person and they are here! Readers will find an insulated community, one that, rather than explain things to others, teach them, rather than listen to reason, act without communication and understanding, act on rules alone that they have created, and be taken into this story, if only to find out how the characters survive.
Happy Reading! You’ll want to pick up this book!
The Watchers are their first line of defense, each on the isle in this group mandatory for a year. At times outsiders have found a way in, through the forest or the lake, though it is dangerous. When they are caught, they end up dead, if by punishment or other ways. And, while those on Endla know the waters that surround them are poisonous most outsiders only think this superstition. The island of Endla, enjoyed by its inhabitants for its beauty and power, is not viewed this way by all those who inhabit it.
Leelo, one of the island inhabitants, is finishing up her first year as a Watcher, when are introduced to her in the beginning of the story. She lives with her mother and her aunt, the women's husbands having been killed when she was young. While it was not rare for several generations of family to live together, women were rarely widowed so young. However, the women are resourceful, maken the finest woolen goods in Endle.
Presently though, Leelo’s home is at risk with the spring festival on its way. If Leelo’s little brother, Tate, does not come into his magic by this time he will be exiled from their group and the island, made to join the outsiders the community so fears. That Leelo will no longer be able to care for the brother she so loves fills her with immense terror, so much so, she risks a small blood sacrifice to awaken the hopefully dormant magic in her sibling. Those on Endla with magic see it activated with their song, their voice.
Before those on the island receive their powers they are known as the incantu, the voiceless, and they are not unable to attend the festival until they obtain this “voice”. Along with not having their magic, or voice, the incantu are also treated like outsiders in the community. Personally, Leelo hates this rule, hates that those without magic are subjected to feelings of indifference, when they should be treated all the same as they all live together in Endla. They are all one people.
Jaren, an outsider, comes upon the lake that surrounds Endla one day, while gathering on the new land his family has just moved to, in the kingdom beyond the waters that surround the island. Having moved to a small village with his family, after the matriarch dies, they try to move on from memories of grief that had surrounded them in a home that no longer contained a woman they all loved. His father has heard that the lake is poisonous, asks his son not to return to it, and Jaren promises despite thinking the people who had shared this with his father are gullible and gossipy.
However, after this empty promise, Jaren ends up at the lake. When there he almost drowns. Having seen him, Leelo, forgetting about what others on Endla would think, saves Jaren and in nursing him back to health, forges a link to an outsider. If those on Endla learn of what Leelo is doing, what she has done, she risks punishment, exile or even death. Leelo has recently been made to watch an exile incantu, one who had been part of Endla as a child, but never have developed his magic, pushed out of the community and all he knew, drowned when trying to avoid punishment (which would have been execution by drowning, nonetheless) when sneaking back on the island to see a girl he loved (one of Leelo’s cousin’s).What would they think of what Leelo has done?
Although an enchanted world, Mara Rutherford creates a story which underlines the wickedness which comes with misunderstandings, when rules are made having no exceptions. When people are accepted with conditions, rather than being loved because of who they are, because they are family, community, because they are a person and they are here! Readers will find an insulated community, one that, rather than explain things to others, teach them, rather than listen to reason, act without communication and understanding, act on rules alone that they have created, and be taken into this story, if only to find out how the characters survive.
Happy Reading! You’ll want to pick up this book!