Ash

I adored this book -- not necessarily the plot, though that was excellent, but the feel, the whole experience. This book was magical, but not in a cheap, Vaudevillian way, and not even in a silly, childish way with pixies and fairies tugging at your braids. It wasn't even necessarily magical in the deep, Tolkien-esque magic of characters like Gandalf and Saruman, where things are clearly happening but they are undefined. This was the best kind of magic: eternal, elegant, tragic. This was the old magic of the old fairy tales. This was the kind of magic that I loved so dearly when I was a child. This book gave me those same feelings I had then: serene, elemental, uncreated. It was ancient and fresh all at the same time. Best of all, it tied into the fairy tales I always liked best as a child -- the haunting Celtic and Scandinavian ones. My favorite was about this girl who stole her brother back when he got trapped in a fairy ring. Another favorite was the polar bear king story, like Psyche and Cupid but clearly with a polar bear. Those stories would have been right at home in Aisling's book of fairy tales.

More than that, this book just had everything. It had that traditional story woven in but it didn't feel forced, it had great and enchanting romance that absolutely swept me off my feet, it had high stakes and heart-wrenching moments, and it had that beautiful sense of wonderment and mystery of things we couldn't possibly really know for sure about. I read this in just one day, mostly sitting out on my porch while it rained lightly beyond the edge of my roof, and just completely lost myself in it. This book settled into me and wrapped itself around my soul. I don't really know why or how but this book was just everything I needed and the most special brand of magic and I loved it.

I loved it.

It was alright.
Little boring for me.