Charlotte Kersten

Year published: 2014

Category: YA fantasy, fairy tale retelling (Bluebeard)

Summary: Young Rhea is a miller’s daughter of low birth, so she is understandably surprised when a mysterious nobleman, Lord Crevan, shows up on her doorstep and proposes marriage. Since commoners don’t turn down lords—no matter how sinister they may seem—Rhea is forced to agree to the engagement.

Lord Crevan demands that Rhea visit his remote manor before their wedding. Upon arrival, she discovers that not only was her betrothed married six times before, but his previous wives are all imprisoned in his enchanted castle. Determined not to share their same fate, Rhea asserts her desire for freedom. In answer, Lord Crevan gives Rhea a series of magical tasks to complete, with the threat “Come back before dawn, or else I’ll marry you.”

With time running out and each task more dangerous and bizarre than the last, Rhea must use her resourcefulness, compassion, and bravery to rally the other wives and defeat the sorcerer before he binds her to him forever.

My thoughts: I liked this less than Paladin’s Grace, unfortunately. In this review, I think I have the most to say about T. Kingfisher’s authorial voice, as it was the thing that most impacted my enjoyment of the book. Now that I’ve read two books by her, I can definitely see the patterns in her writing, and I’m just not sure they work for me. She has a very quirky, self-aware style of narration with lots of little asides and characters’ internal monologues frequently making note of how weird their circumstances are. This doesn’t sound like such a bad thing as I write it here, but it becomes very repetitive and I am just personally not as charmed by it as many others seem to be; it just feels a bit grating and overly precious to me. Yes, the story is quirky and off-beat – but how much is really gained by constantly nudging the reader with little reminders of just how quirky and off-beat the story really is?

It’s almost like Kingfisher hits upon particular little ideas/turns of phrase that she is very charmed by and then uses them quite a bit in each book. Here, for example, the heroine reflects on the logic of doing chores while things are bad and how having a magical hedgehog companion can skew your perception of what is normal a few too many times for my taste.

That being said, I do think this is an inventive Bluebeard retelling that strays off the beaten YA path in a good way. The book explores the horror of the wives’ situation well, with some light messages about self-blame, denial, and power that I liked. Each of the wives gets an ending that feels very suitable, and I’m particularly fond of the clock wife and what a unique, interesting being she is. The star of the show, of course, is the hedgehog companion (!!!!!!!) who is absolutely adorable. I couldn’t help but grin during the parts where it summoned all of its hedgehog friends to croon to the moonlight and summon slugs (!!!!!!). More hedgehog companions in fantasy books, I say!