Charlotte Kersten

Year published: 2019

Category: YA fantasy

Summary:  For Maresi, like so many other girls, the Red Abbey was a haven of safety in a world ruled by brutal men. But now she is a young woman and it is time for her to leave. She must take all that she has learned from her sisters and return to her childhood home to share the knowledge she has gained.

But when Maresi returns to her village, she realises all is not well – the people are struggling under the rule of the oppressive Earl, and people are too busy trying to survive to see the value of her teachings. Maresi finds she must use all the terrible force of the Crone’s magic to protect her people, but can she find the strength to do so when her heart is weakening with love for the first time?

My thoughts: The bad news is that there are no more Red Abbey books for me to read. The good news is that this was absolutely beautiful and powerful in the same way that each of the books in this series has been.

Turtschaninoff truly excels at writing gorgeous descriptions of nature and what it is like to live in a deep relationship with nature. Everything from the changing seasons to Maresi’s tasks and chores, the quiet details of life Rovas, the festivals and rituals and songs and the many descriptions of food is incredibly evocative and creates a strong sense of location and the beauty of daily life.

Maresi is also a very strong character, and her story is one of standing up to injustice and making a positive change in her world that is immensely satisfying. People in her village judge her for being different and dismiss her attempts to build a school at first, but through what I’ve come to call “vindication catharsis,” she manages to show her community the power of education and bring her people together in a powerful, effective rebellion against tyranny.

I love every bit of how she settles back into her home village, from becoming something of an idol and mentor to a girl who was assaulted to navigating her developing sexuality. I’m very fond of the man she ends up with, Karun, who has chosen gentleness and kindness instead of cruelty, takes her goals seriously when no one else does, and actually builds her an entire school. Interestingly, Maresi makes something of a fool of herself in the initial stages of getting to know him, partially because of how little experience she has had with men at the Abbey and how traumatic most of that experience has been. This is all written very well; I just wish that there had been more of their relationship.

Her relationships with her family members are also really interesting, especially the way that different people have varying and complex feelings about her going away, coming back, and being so strange and educated when she returns. Maresi thinks that her mother resents her nonconformity but in reality, her mother is struggling between regret for having sent Maresi away and awe for her new power (which her mother recognizes before Maresi does). Her sister Naraes is jealous of Maresi and all the opportunities she got, and she gets incredibly angry when she feels that Maresi is squandering her learning and settling into an unremarkable life instead of pursuing her goals. Together her family and community face tragedy and loss and hardship, and together they make it through time and again. And in Maresi’s final letter back to the Abbey, written decades later, we see the amazing difference she has made in the lives of her loved ones and in her world. It is a beautiful ending to a beautiful book and a beautiful series, and I can only hope that Turtschaninoff’s upcoming works will be translated into English as well.