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acaciathorn 's review for:
The Moorchild
by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
This thing sat on our bookshelf in middle school, and I can't even count the number of times I pushed it aside while looking for new stuff to read. It was written by the same author as my all-time favorite book, Mara Daughter of the Nile, and I always meant to pick it up...but somehow I never got around to it. Well, 15 years later, I found it at my local library.
Eloise McGraw's writing career spanned nearly 50 years, and she manages to create so much depth within a relatively simple plot. The protagonist of The Moorchild is Moql'nkkn, a half-human, half-folk changeling. At first she's raised by the faeries, but she fails to fit in and is deemed "a danger to the band". She's exchanged for a servile human baby and must start life all over again with a new name - Saaski - and a completely new identity. Over time she forgets that she was ever a member of the folk, and she cannot understand why the superstitious people in her village treat her with such suspicion and contempt. Caught between two worlds, and belonging nowhere, Saaski/Moql must come to an understanding about her true nature and find a place she can call her own.
This is definitely an outcast/misfit story and will resonate with anyone who was ostracized as a child. Even though Saaski is a strange and even occasionally unsettling character, it is impossible not to empathize with her. I was rooting for her the entire time, and the ending was very satisfying.
I had a lot of fun with this book...I've been reading it out loud to my mom while she gardens, doing my best impression of an Irish accent during the dialogue bits. A+ summer entertainment; 4.5/5 stars.
Eloise McGraw's writing career spanned nearly 50 years, and she manages to create so much depth within a relatively simple plot. The protagonist of The Moorchild is Moql'nkkn, a half-human, half-folk changeling. At first she's raised by the faeries, but she fails to fit in and is deemed "a danger to the band". She's exchanged for a servile human baby and must start life all over again with a new name - Saaski - and a completely new identity. Over time she forgets that she was ever a member of the folk, and she cannot understand why the superstitious people in her village treat her with such suspicion and contempt. Caught between two worlds, and belonging nowhere, Saaski/Moql must come to an understanding about her true nature and find a place she can call her own.
This is definitely an outcast/misfit story and will resonate with anyone who was ostracized as a child. Even though Saaski is a strange and even occasionally unsettling character, it is impossible not to empathize with her. I was rooting for her the entire time, and the ending was very satisfying.
I had a lot of fun with this book...I've been reading it out loud to my mom while she gardens, doing my best impression of an Irish accent during the dialogue bits. A+ summer entertainment; 4.5/5 stars.