Review: A Scandinavian Christmas

A Scandinavian Christmas is a slim anthology of sixteen short stories written by a range of authors both classic and modern. It includes three very famous tales from Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), as well three from the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature, Selma Lagerlof (1858-1940). 

I am a terrible sucker for a pretty cover and this one is gorgeous. The book would make a beautiful stocking filler for someone who loves classic short stories that lean towards literary fiction but it won't suit everyone. Despite the cover, these tales are not all-out 'sleigh bells and mistletoe' festive tales, but unusual, poignant and sometimes downright sad stories that just happen to be set at Christmas.

My favourites were the three Hans Christian Andersen stories - beautifully written but incredibly sad. I also enjoyed The Forest Witch (about a girl trying to outwit a witch), The Christmas Rose (about a beautiful garden that only appears at Christmas) and Christmas Eve by Vigdis Hjorth (a clever but poignant story about an alcoholic trying to get through Christmas dinner with their family).

Thank you to Vintage/Random House for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

I downloaded this book after reading the blurb as the cover was not available at the time. I love stories based on folk tales and fairy tales (particularly ones I am not familiar with) and this sounded right up my street.

The Wolf and the Woodsman is a re-imagining of an event in medieval Hungarian history, woven with strands of Hungarian and Jewish folk stories.  Evike lives in a pagan village, hidden in a forest, the only one of its inhabitants without some kind of magical power. This is blamed on her father being an outsider: a 'Yehuli'. When soldiers from the Holy Order of Woodsmen arrive to claim a seer for the King, the villagers are only too happy to offer Evike up rather than lose one of their own girls.  But on the march back to the capital, the woodsmen are attacked by various supernatural forces and soon the Evike and the Captain are the only ones left. To survive, they will have to learn to not only trust each other, but work together.

Although I loved all the folk story and historical stuff, The Wolf and the Woodsman was a bit too gory for me! In order for a character's magic to work they had to use blood sacrifices, which usually involves blood-letting or the loss of a body part. I was uncomfortable with the parallels with self-harm and couldn't help wondering that if you had to sacrifice a finger every time you wanted to do a spell, what happened when you ran out of fingers? While the gore meant this read like an novel aimed at adults, by contrast the romance was a bit teenage-y and I'd have preferred more ambiguity about Gasper's character, rather than the too-early flagging that he's A Nice Guy Really.

Recommended to fans of grittier YA fantasy and books such as The Bear and the Nightingale (Katherine Arden).

Thank you to Ava Reid and Del Rey/Cornerstone for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner

YA fantasy, particularly with fairy tale and folklore references, is my new favourite genre. So that, combined with the beautiful cover, is what drew me to this book.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood is set in the village of Dubossary, on the border of Moldova and the Ukraine, in 1903. It combines traditional folk tales and real-life history (the Russian pograms). The author's note at the back of the book explains which scenes really happened, and how she drew on her own family history for inspiration. The story is about two Jewish sisters, Liba and Laya, who live in a village where Jews and non-Jews live quite happily alongside each other, until a band of handsome men arrive in town to sell the most wonderful fruit at the market - and spread dissent. Suddenly everything bad that happens (deaths and disappearances) is blamed upon the Jews. It's hard to explain more, without going into spoiler territory, so I'll go with what it says on the blurb: 'Faced with a magical heritage they never knew existed, the sisters realise the old fairy tales are true . . . and could save them all.'

While I did enjoy the story (for me, it's a solid four stars) it is aimed firmly at the YA market, so at times I found it a bit teenage-y. Most of the drama deals with the two girls' discovery of who they really are and the pains of first love. The growing tension in the village, and the mystery of who was responsible for the deaths and disappearances, kept me gripped and I read the book very quickly. I found the historical parts fascinating. I liked the characters and thought the way the author alternated the viewpoint of each sister - Liba spoke in prose, Laya's voice was more like poetry - was clever.

However, the amount of Yiddish and Hebrew words at the start of the book made it hard to get into at first (there is a glossary at the back), and while I like stories that reference classic fairy tales and folk tales, I did feel The Sisters of the Winter Wood borrowed a bit too heavily from Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, particularly towards the end. Meaning that if you've read that, you'll have no trouble working out the plot. (The author, in her notes, admits this is deliberate.)

So, while older folk like me might find The Sisters of the Winter Wood lacks crossover appeal, the target audience will love it and probably give it an extra star. 

Thank you to Rena Rossner and Orbit for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

Review: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

I chose this book because one of the book bloggers I follow (Chelsea at The Suspense is Thrilling Me) was raving about it and we have similar taste in books. Anyway, I absolutely adored it and now Naomi Novik is one of my favourite authors.

When I began reading Uprooted it reminded me at first of a cross between Beauty and the Beast and Howl's Moving Castle. It starts, very cleverly, with the tale of a village by a wood, guarded by a Dragon who chooses a maiden every ten years to take back to his tower. Our heroine, Agnieszka, is confident he won't choose her, because she's messy and clumsy and outspoken - surely he'll pick her pretty friend Kasia instead?

The first trick the author plays on us is that the Dragon is actually a very powerful wizard, and the plans he has for those girls he's taking from the village are not quite what everyone believes...

As the story develops it grows into something different, into its own fairy tale, about a Wood that corrupts and why, and the battle between what lives there and those who want to raze it to the ground. Rather than having a beginning, middle and end, Uprooted is almost episodic, detailing Agneiszka's adventures as she learns to work with the Dragon to help her people and solve the mystery of the Wood's power.

Uprooted is a YA fantasy with crossover appeal, and while there is a bit of a romance it is mainly about Agneiszka's journey as she learns more about her surroundings and herself. It is a thoroughly enchanting story and I loved the characters, especially Agneiszka and Sarkan, and the unusual ending, which I won't spoil for you. The only parts that left me cold were the battle scenes, because that's not my thing, and sometimes Agneiszka seemed a bit immature - but then Uprooted is YA and I'm not the target audience!

One of my favourite reads this year!