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A childhood nostalgia reread. Gail Carson Levine is known for her fairy tale retellings, and this book is definitely fairy-tale-inspired, but not based on any particular story. It tells its own story instead, and I am deeply fond of many of the things it does!
It's the story of two teen sisters, one who's brave and forthright and eager for adventure, and one who's a quiet and anxious homebody. When the brave sister (Meryl) is struck down by a magical illness that has beset the country of Bamarre for centuries, the anxious sister (Addie) goes on a quest to find the cure to save her sister.
I love that this is a story where the most important relationship in it is a sibling relationship; and that although the sisters are extremely different from each other, they both love each other and value each other deeply. It's wonderful!
I also love that an extended portion of Addie's questing time is taken up with her being the captive of a dragon, Vollys. Addie may not be a fighter like Meryl is, but the way she handles the situation with Vollys shows her strengths and abilities, and honestly the whole thing is really interesting. I love Vollys as a character! She may be terrible, but also she's genuinely understandable as a person with her own priorities and sense of appropriate behaviours, even if that conflicts pretty directly with those of her "guest"!
My other favourite thing about the book is the constant poetic references. Bamarre is a country with a founding myth written in epic poetry, and the characters are constantly thinking about and referencing that founding myth. There's extensive sections of poetry quoted within the text, even, because it's so deeply important to the characters. Not all of the poetry is...amazing.... But some of it really manages to capture something, and there are sections of poetry from this book that have stuck with me decades later because it's just right. (and then we get a snippet of dragon poetry at one point too, to contrast with the heroism of Drualt the killer of dragons, and I LOVE that we get to see that alternate perspective!)
The book does have a Compulsory Heterosexuality ending for both sisters, which is a bit of a yawn; Meryl's is particularly bad because she and her partner in heterosexuality meet and get together in a fairly permanent-seeming way in like....a day or two. All off-screen. The romances feel Very Tacked On is what I'm saying. So that's annoying!
But overall I still have an immense fondness for this book. I love it.
It's the story of two teen sisters, one who's brave and forthright and eager for adventure, and one who's a quiet and anxious homebody. When the brave sister (Meryl) is struck down by a magical illness that has beset the country of Bamarre for centuries, the anxious sister (Addie) goes on a quest to find the cure to save her sister.
I love that this is a story where the most important relationship in it is a sibling relationship; and that although the sisters are extremely different from each other, they both love each other and value each other deeply. It's wonderful!
I also love that an extended portion of Addie's questing time is taken up with her being the captive of a dragon, Vollys. Addie may not be a fighter like Meryl is, but the way she handles the situation with Vollys shows her strengths and abilities, and honestly the whole thing is really interesting. I love Vollys as a character! She may be terrible, but also she's genuinely understandable as a person with her own priorities and sense of appropriate behaviours, even if that conflicts pretty directly with those of her "guest"!
My other favourite thing about the book is the constant poetic references. Bamarre is a country with a founding myth written in epic poetry, and the characters are constantly thinking about and referencing that founding myth. There's extensive sections of poetry quoted within the text, even, because it's so deeply important to the characters. Not all of the poetry is...amazing.... But some of it really manages to capture something, and there are sections of poetry from this book that have stuck with me decades later because it's just right. (and then we get a snippet of dragon poetry at one point too, to contrast with the heroism of Drualt the killer of dragons, and I LOVE that we get to see that alternate perspective!)
The book does have a Compulsory Heterosexuality ending for both sisters, which is a bit of a yawn; Meryl's is particularly bad because she and her partner in heterosexuality meet and get together in a fairly permanent-seeming way in like....a day or two. All off-screen. The romances feel Very Tacked On is what I'm saying. So that's annoying!
But overall I still have an immense fondness for this book. I love it.
