kleonard 's review for:

The Blue Maiden by Anna Nóyes

4.0

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The Blue Maiden needs one more round of edits before it goes out into the world. The two main sections of the book--the burning of the island's women and the later narrative--could use more connections, and the relevance of the Blue Maiden itself might be brought forward so that readers better understand how the characters understand it. In the primary narrative, two sisters struggle--along with other islanders--to maintain a subsistence life, and when one marries, she finds that she's married the father of her half-sister. She bears his child and suffers postpartum depression, finally finding roots in motherhood. It's a beautifully written and almost unbearably bleak novel that left me enormously sad for the sisters and the child who will grow up in a family created out of obsession and desperation rather than love.