Flight into Fantasy

I love fantasy, and I love Gothic novels, and I’ve recently discovered that I love Juliet Marillier. So, of course, when I realized she had written a historical fantasy with Gothic undertones, I was all over it like white on rice. And with Heart’s Blood, which I bought when it first came out, she has succeeded in becoming one of my favorite fantasy authors.

This novel resembles the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale in several crucial aspects, but I wouldn’t call it a straightforward retelling. Marillier takes the story and makes it her own, and it works well. I loved it, and except for one quibble which is spoilerific and which I’ll talk about below, I’d recommend this wholeheartedly.

Caitrin is running away from home. Her father has recently died, and her scheming, opportunistic distant relations have moved in and taken charge. Cillian and his mother Ita are downright abusive, and eventually Caitrin just snaps and runs away. She travels west, eventually reaching the settlement of Whistling Tor. It turns out that Whistling Tor is cursed, but its chieftain has need of a scribe, and since that’s actually what Caitrin is trained for, she offers her services, since the alternative is continuing to run from Cillian and Ita. Whistling Tor is cursed, and even though she doesn’t really believe in the curse, she figures Cillian wouldn’t be foolish enough to risk it. Of course, Whistling Tor is cursed, and Caitrin is soon embroiled in trying to figure out how to break the curse and deal with the magic of the keep. She’s also drawn to Whistling Tor’s chieftain, Anluan, a complex man who has always felt that he was a prisoner at the Tor.

As with the other Marillier books I’ve read, I loved the characters. Caitrin is timid, and good at underestimating herself. But she’s stronger than she realizes, and it’s that strength that stands her in good stead. I liked how she takes her own advice to Anluan to heart about being brave in small steps.

Anluan is also wonderful. He’s basically a good man, trapped by the curse that afflicts his home. He’s given up hope that things will ever be any different, and he’s never really had to grow up and accept adult responsibilities. At least, not until Caitrin shows up and makes him think about what his duties are and makes him feel hope. The romance between Caitrin and Anluan is sweet. It develops gradually, and at a satisfying pace, and I definitely felt the chemistry between them. There’s no explicit sex, although there are sexual references throughout.

The rest of the cast was varied. I loved the various inhabitants of Whistling Tor, with one exception, and they certainly added color to the story. Some of them could very well have had their own books, and I liked that Caitrin came to care for all of them as much as she did Anluan.

The atmosphere is very Gothic. There are some downright spooky moments, and Whistling Tor certainly is exemplary of a Gothic castle. There are also lots of elements that the heroine must fight against, from Anluan’s initial hostility to the very real supernatural forces surrounding the castle.

The story is set in Ireland, during the time of the Norman conquest. It’s clear Marillier has done her homework, and she made the setting come alive for me. Now I’m even more anxious to read her much more famous Sevenwaters books, also set in the British isles.

So, with all that going for it, why doesn’t this rate an A? I’ll tell you why, but it involves a major spoiler, so please stop reading if you don’t want to know.

I hated Muirne, the eventual villain of the piece. She was the only character who doesn’t get even a bit of a sympathetic portrayal. She was basically an ambitious, power-hungry bitch who enjoyed making people miserable but remaining completely unnoticed. And of course, she doesn’t like Caitrin, and makes no bones about it. Given that both Caitrin and I distrusted her from the beginning, I found it irritating that no one else anywhere had ever suspected her of being so eeevil, especially since she doesn’t bother to hide her true motivations from Caitrin.

I guess I’m just tired of reading about shrill ambitious bitches who turn out to be the villain. Why can’t a woman be both ambitious and a decent person? It’s a cliche that bothers me, but might not disturb other readers.

The villain aside, I very much enjoyed this book. I love Marillier’s writing style, and I love the atmosphere and the sense of wonder she evinces in her books. This one rates a B+, and I can’t wait to read her Sevenwaters books!

Other Opinions

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Hi, Internet,

Back when I was a proto-human, my mom, in an attempt to broaden my reading horizons and introduce me to the world of adult fiction, spent a couple of rainy days reading aloud Thunder Heights by Phyllis A. Whitney. This spawned a meme in my childish heart, and I soon devoured several of her books. Sure, even my ten-year-old brain was well aware that they were formulaic. But it was a formula I enjoyed.

So, when I found out about Aarti’s Flashback c hallenge, I knew that I wanted to reread some Phyllis Whitney and see if I still found her enjoyable. After perusing Bookshare, I selected Columbella, which I remember being kind of confused about when I read it as a girl. Still, there was a deliciously evil villain, and I remember being surprised that Whitney broke away from her formula by having the token love interest be a married man.

Here’s the deal. Jessica Abbott’s vain, shallow, bitchy mother has died. Jessica, a spinster, isn’t quite sure how to cope with this new sense of freedom because she basically took care of her mom during the last few years. So she goes to stay with her aunt in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. After spending time moping on the beach, Jessica is approached by Maud Hampden, a rich island resident. Seems Maud has a problem. She has a skanky whore daughter who, sadly, reproduced. Maud thinks Catherine, the skank whore daughter, is going to exercise an undue influence on Leila, Catherine’s daughter. Catherine’s husband, our token love interest, Kingdon, wants to send Leila back to Colorado, which would solve the problem, but then we wouldn’t have a story. Maud thinks Jessica can exert some positive influence on Leila, thus making her need to go away moot. So off Jessica goes to Hampden House.

The formula that I remember is very much in place. Lots of the characters distrust Jessica for no discernible reason. Kingdon starts off cold and autocratic, but eventually he is won over by Jessica’s kindness and her fiery spirit. Leila is a precocious child, pulled in several different directions, torn between her worshipful adoration of her mother and her mom’s skanky ways and her need to be her own person. Sadly, I would much rather have read a YA from Leila’s POV, since she was by far my favorite character.

The characterization isn’t particularly wonderful, though most of the characters do have a few hidden depths. There just isn’t much to a lot of them, even if they go in surprising directions. As I was reading, I kept wishing we were in the heads of characters that were not Jessica, who I actually found rather dull. Maud’s eldest daughter, Edith, for example, was just fascinating. She’s married to a snarky, sometimes cruel man who mostly seems to ignore her but who it’s revealed early on may or may not have had a thing for Catherine, Edith’s sister and the aforementioned skanky whore. Edith exists mostly as a background character, and I found that a shame.

As for Catherine, well, basically, she reminds me of Cathy Dollanganger from Flowers in the Attic. She’s conceited, she has a high opinion of her own beauty, and while she may not have engaged in incest, she’s very good at twisting the knife and tends to get pissy when she doesn’t get what she wants. There is basically nothing redeemable about this character, and her spoiled upbringing is only the flimsiest of justifications. Plus, she’s a skanky whore. And if I never have to read about a woman who likes sex being considered depraved, it will be too soon. Not that I condone Catherine’s behavior–she was happily screwing around with men that were not her husband, which is never OK–I wanted more from her personality than skanky whoreishness.

Even if I didn’t really like Jessica, who was just quite dull, I did appreciate Whitney’s ability to keep things interesting. I was never bored, even though there were several long, descriptive passages. Whitney manages to make even a tropical setting come off as gothic and creepy, which is all to the good. Her only misstep, plotting-wise, was the romance. Like Jessica and Kingdon themselves, it just wasn’t terribly interesting, and I didn’t quite believe it. It was hard to accept that for Kingdon, Jessica wasn’t just a rebound girl. And I found their eventual getting together somewhat hackneyed in its development.

Overall, this one was a mixed bag. I’m not sorry I read it, but I’ve come to appreciate a bit more in the way of nuance from my books. I’m going to have to give this a C.

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If you, too, have read this book, let me know what you thought of it in the comments.