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blueshifted 's review for:
Spindle's End
by Robin McKinley
This is the first time I've cracked a book by Robin McKinley. This is a interesting take on a Sleeping-Beauty-esque tale. Of a Princess who is cursed to prick her finger on a spindle somewhere between her first Nameday and her 21st one.
A young teenage girl, Katriona, who won the village contest to represent her Village at the celebration, comes home with a much more surprising souvenir from her trip then expected. She comes home with "Rosie".
Even though 20 Fairy Godmother's have done their best, with wishes of golden hair (that at the age of 4 Rosie detests and takes the scissors to) a voice like a bell (which should have been specified what sort of bell) and the like...Rosie is a stocky little force of nature, stubborn and gregarious. The Village character.
In the world of Spindle's End, Fairies are common, a little bit distrusted, but much needed by the gentry. Magic is a wild, untamed and unpredictable thing, that can cause all manner of mishaps. Under stressful times, a person could find all their cups turning into confused frogs, or even more unpleasantly that they have turned into a frog. Some children are born with a kind of baby-magic, where nightmares come exasperatingly true, to the child's secret delight or terror, and often they are boarded till the magical storm passes at Aunt's (she's everyone's Aunt) and her Niece Katriona's house. And this is where Rosie grows up "as safe as ordinariness can make her".
Even though all Royal families are strictly to come from no-magic genes. Rosie adopts some of Katriona's ability to speak to animals, and she, having a gregarious nature, not just for humans, but for animals, quickly becomes beloved by all, and also begins to double as the Village Veterinarian (though with the less dignified title of "horse leech").
All the while, this whole Spindle business looms overheard, every year is like turning the handle of a spindle bearing Jack-in-the-box, as everyone (who knows, which is very few) waits, hoping Rosie is well hid enough to make it past her 21st birthday.
The end, or resolution, which comes at the very, very end, as far as Pernicia, the Evil one is concerned, is very indistinct. Where one is left with puzzles of how a situation like, I spun some hair on a fake spindle, and then it made a chain that we threw over a castle in the air, and then we pulled it really tight, and that weakened the Evil Fairy Pernicia, happens? While, that's creative in it's way, I would have preferred some good old fashioned magical fisticuffs. A well placed fist right into the old evil Fairies mug would work just as well, as a hair chain for weakening anyone's resolve...right?
One one hand this book is really well written, very detailed and thoughtful. On the other hand, it's VERY detailed, meticulously so, fastidiously so, every little detail is so groomed with perfectionism, and well turned phrases, that it despite it being amazing that the author can come up with all these details, and invent all these stories...not a lot is actually happening during this process and it drags the pace of the novel quite a bit.
I'll be checking into Robin McKinley's other books, I'm certain. She's too gifted an author not too.
A young teenage girl, Katriona, who won the village contest to represent her Village at the celebration, comes home with a much more surprising souvenir from her trip then expected. She comes home with "Rosie".
Even though 20 Fairy Godmother's have done their best, with wishes of golden hair (that at the age of 4 Rosie detests and takes the scissors to) a voice like a bell (which should have been specified what sort of bell) and the like...Rosie is a stocky little force of nature, stubborn and gregarious. The Village character.
In the world of Spindle's End, Fairies are common, a little bit distrusted, but much needed by the gentry. Magic is a wild, untamed and unpredictable thing, that can cause all manner of mishaps. Under stressful times, a person could find all their cups turning into confused frogs, or even more unpleasantly that they have turned into a frog. Some children are born with a kind of baby-magic, where nightmares come exasperatingly true, to the child's secret delight or terror, and often they are boarded till the magical storm passes at Aunt's (she's everyone's Aunt) and her Niece Katriona's house. And this is where Rosie grows up "as safe as ordinariness can make her".
Even though all Royal families are strictly to come from no-magic genes. Rosie adopts some of Katriona's ability to speak to animals, and she, having a gregarious nature, not just for humans, but for animals, quickly becomes beloved by all, and also begins to double as the Village Veterinarian (though with the less dignified title of "horse leech").
All the while, this whole Spindle business looms overheard, every year is like turning the handle of a spindle bearing Jack-in-the-box, as everyone (who knows, which is very few) waits, hoping Rosie is well hid enough to make it past her 21st birthday.
The end, or resolution, which comes at the very, very end, as far as Pernicia, the Evil one is concerned, is very indistinct. Where one is left with puzzles of how a situation like, I spun some hair on a fake spindle, and then it made a chain that we threw over a castle in the air, and then we pulled it really tight, and that weakened the Evil Fairy Pernicia, happens? While, that's creative in it's way, I would have preferred some good old fashioned magical fisticuffs. A well placed fist right into the old evil Fairies mug would work just as well, as a hair chain for weakening anyone's resolve...right?
One one hand this book is really well written, very detailed and thoughtful. On the other hand, it's VERY detailed, meticulously so, fastidiously so, every little detail is so groomed with perfectionism, and well turned phrases, that it despite it being amazing that the author can come up with all these details, and invent all these stories...not a lot is actually happening during this process and it drags the pace of the novel quite a bit.
I'll be checking into Robin McKinley's other books, I'm certain. She's too gifted an author not too.