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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
Charles de Lint's Newford books are always so comfortable to slip in to. His romantic fairytale heart beats strong and Newford is one of my favorite places to go when I feel the need to restore my faith in the triumph of good over evil. I do feel that this novel suffered a little from Jilly overdose. She is so idealized that a little often goes a long way for me, in spite of de Lint's attempts to balance Jilly's cloying presence with the expansion of her horrific backstory. But this is really a minor quibble about a story I enjoyed very much. I will be going back to Newford again.
Very enjoyable. An enjoyable mix of the gritty real world, and a fantasy universe. Sad story of a womans accident getting paralyzed and her personal history of child abuse. Had that mix of the “real world” and the fantasy world that i really like, and don't find enough of. The story and subject matter was really heavy. The author dealt with it well, and it was good. But it was somewhat hard to read at points. I enjoyed the characters, particularly the female dominated character list. There were a lot of unique and believable characters. I would definately recommend this book. I will probably read more of this authors work in the near future.
This is a long book, or at least it seemed that way to me since I listened to it on my Ipod. It's not something that I would normally have picked up, I'm not that into fantasy stories, but this was actually an interesting combination of "real life" and a "dreamworld" that the characters can cross over to by various means and forms. The majority of the story is set in a big town or small city, and starts with the main character, Jilly, being hit by a car. She is seriously injured and confined to a hospital bed. From there the story takes off and takes you through poor rural towns, Los Angeles, the fictional city of Newford and of course the mystical dreamworld. The characters were all interesting especially the "good girl" Jilly and her "bad girl" sister, Raylene. The concept of an onion is used not only as a literary device but also as a way to describe the lives of Jilly and Raylene and their feelings and emotions. I would probably give this a 3.5, with my one issue being that the book dragged in parts and seemed to repeat the same theme multiple times.
I haven't read anything else in this series and this book stood alone just fine for me. I liked the dream world and the story of the sisters. Had to go searching for this quote though since I listened to the audio and was happy to have found it: “I suppose the other thing too many forget is that we were all stories once, each and every one of us. And we remain stories. But too often we allow those stories to grow banal, or cruel or unconnected to each other. We allow the stories to continue, but they no longer have a heart. They no longer sustain us.” Now I'm off to think about what I want my story to be!
I was actually rather disappointed in this book. I'd had so many people tell me I just HAD to read Charles deLint if I was interested in Urban Fantasy. This was the first book I've read by him and although it hooked me right in the first paragraph, it became quite bogged down and getting through to the end took sheer effort for me. Where he really lost me was in the middle where he gets far too pedantic and preachy. I read fantasy to escape, not to be lectured. If this is what Urban Fantasy is all about, maybe I'm not as interested in it as I thought. Everything I have read so far that is classified in that category has turned me off.
The subject of this book, Jilly, has some real social issues she's dealing with and the whole book turns into an expose on the perils of child abuse, hatred, and pack mentality. All subjects I'd rather escape from than escape to. I have a couple of other deLint books in my "to read" pile that just got relegated to the bottom of the pile. Maybe if I'm desperate someday I'll give them a look. But for now, I think I'd rather visit interesting fantasy worlds where modern issues don't exist.
The subject of this book, Jilly, has some real social issues she's dealing with and the whole book turns into an expose on the perils of child abuse, hatred, and pack mentality. All subjects I'd rather escape from than escape to. I have a couple of other deLint books in my "to read" pile that just got relegated to the bottom of the pile. Maybe if I'm desperate someday I'll give them a look. But for now, I think I'd rather visit interesting fantasy worlds where modern issues don't exist.
A difficult book to read. Onion Girl deals with the effects of child abuse, on the survivors and everyone else in their lives. I cant say I enjoyed it, exactly, but it is a compelling read. Charles de lint manages to get you to sympathise with characters who in another book, would be the villains. And no - those are not the abusers. The abusers are almost peripheral to the story.
He also manages the incredibly difficult task of writing about fairies, sprites and other magical beings without seeming twee. I prefer "Memory and Dream", of which this is the companion book, but still worth reading.
He also manages the incredibly difficult task of writing about fairies, sprites and other magical beings without seeming twee. I prefer "Memory and Dream", of which this is the companion book, but still worth reading.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Finally, in Newford's eighth book, Jilly Coppercorn is the main character. And this was as good as any book in the series so far, and better than most. For those new to DeLint and Newford, I would not suggest starting with this book. If you have at least three books behind you, this would probably work as a standalone. That said, there may be some references here to earlier characters/works that I didn't quite catch. Although this would probably work as a very good stand alone, my sense is that there is much more emotional content that comes through here because of its resonance with earlier books.
The rest of this review is likely to contain spoilers, so read no further if you don't want to know.
Jilly, the perpetual optimist, takes a very dark turn in this book. It opens with her as the victim of a hit and run, paralyzed on one side of her body and from the hips down. This coincides with her having recently discovered the ability to enter the world of Faerie in her dreams. The story revolves around whether she will give up her real life and just vanish into the other world (which would spell her doom).
Also, for reasons that are never exactly clear, before she can heal her body, she has to deal with some longstanding, deep trauma that stems from her family. This book takes a very stark look at child abuse, and while those sections are riveting, they aren't pretty. It seems Jilly was the victim of abuse from her older brother, for which her mother blamed her, and that she finally escaped from it, which propelled her into her addiction and prostitution before she turned her life around. When she escaped, she left behind her younger sister (three or four at the time) who promptly became her older brother's next victim.
Now, her younger sister, Raylene, has heard about Jilly, the artist, and has come back to Newford for revenge -- on Jilly, not her older brother. She feels Jilly betrayed her, and Jilly's emotional scars largely come from guilt over the same thing. Both sisters have the ability to traipse through Faerie, Raylene as the leader of a pack of wolves who have recently taken pleasure in hunting and drinking the blood of unicorns.
I know this sounds weird, right? But deLint is at his best when he makes this sort of weirdness make sense. And I think he pulls it off really well.
Because Raylene is giving canids a bad name, the elder Canids, including Bone (one of my favorite characters in this series) have decided they have to end her killing spree, even if it means ending Raylene. At the same time, Jilly comes to learn that she needs to come to some sort of reconciliation with Raylene.
All this makes for an intricate and satisfying denouement. As always, the magic here seems truly magical, and thus is ultimately incomprehensible. And the magic is not used to solve any of the real world problems (a rule of deLints). But it makes the story richer, and there is a fairly compelling magical world problem here that coincides with the real world problems.
On top of that, deLint does his usual excellent job of characterization with some nice story arcs with rich character development. There's a bit less of the romanticizing of the homeless than deLint can be prone to, and also a little less of the overwhelming importance of art. Instead, I felt like he struck an excellent balance here, weaving a story that is both very dark, and hopeful at the same time. Probably the best book of his I've read so far.
The rest of this review is likely to contain spoilers, so read no further if you don't want to know.
Jilly, the perpetual optimist, takes a very dark turn in this book. It opens with her as the victim of a hit and run, paralyzed on one side of her body and from the hips down. This coincides with her having recently discovered the ability to enter the world of Faerie in her dreams. The story revolves around whether she will give up her real life and just vanish into the other world (which would spell her doom).
Also, for reasons that are never exactly clear, before she can heal her body, she has to deal with some longstanding, deep trauma that stems from her family. This book takes a very stark look at child abuse, and while those sections are riveting, they aren't pretty. It seems Jilly was the victim of abuse from her older brother, for which her mother blamed her, and that she finally escaped from it, which propelled her into her addiction and prostitution before she turned her life around. When she escaped, she left behind her younger sister (three or four at the time) who promptly became her older brother's next victim.
Now, her younger sister, Raylene, has heard about Jilly, the artist, and has come back to Newford for revenge -- on Jilly, not her older brother. She feels Jilly betrayed her, and Jilly's emotional scars largely come from guilt over the same thing. Both sisters have the ability to traipse through Faerie, Raylene as the leader of a pack of wolves who have recently taken pleasure in hunting and drinking the blood of unicorns.
I know this sounds weird, right? But deLint is at his best when he makes this sort of weirdness make sense. And I think he pulls it off really well.
Because Raylene is giving canids a bad name, the elder Canids, including Bone (one of my favorite characters in this series) have decided they have to end her killing spree, even if it means ending Raylene. At the same time, Jilly comes to learn that she needs to come to some sort of reconciliation with Raylene.
All this makes for an intricate and satisfying denouement. As always, the magic here seems truly magical, and thus is ultimately incomprehensible. And the magic is not used to solve any of the real world problems (a rule of deLints). But it makes the story richer, and there is a fairly compelling magical world problem here that coincides with the real world problems.
On top of that, deLint does his usual excellent job of characterization with some nice story arcs with rich character development. There's a bit less of the romanticizing of the homeless than deLint can be prone to, and also a little less of the overwhelming importance of art. Instead, I felt like he struck an excellent balance here, weaving a story that is both very dark, and hopeful at the same time. Probably the best book of his I've read so far.
Powerful and moving. This was a difficult read, because it addresses childhood sexual abuse and the inner processes people go through in recovering from such abuses, very directly. And it was a compelling read, almost impossible to put down, because it is so compassionate and well-written. DeLint's voice has gotten stronger and much more complete over the years, and the complexity and emotional depth of this book far surpasses his earlier work. Highly reccommended.
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was wonderful. I felt like it could have ended a chapter or so earlier but it was lovely.