Christina Widmann's Blog, page 24

Leigh Bardugo: The Language of Thorns

Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

Dear Author,

I like how you take apart the typical fairy tale tropes. Setting three tasks is not the best way to choose a husband, and solving the tasks with magical help won't win a man the girl. Treason and deceit give your stories one twist after another. The message of them all: It's never that easy.

Your prose is unobtrusive: It never calls attention to itself nor away from the content. You seem to focus on female characters, but maybe that's only in this story collection. Your fairy tales aren't for children anymore; they're more for teenagers and young adults. I'm going to take a look at your Grishaverse books. If they are like these stories, they'll be nice reading.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

published in 2017 with Hodder and Stoughton

ISBN: 978 1 5101 0443 3

Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk and visit the author on www.leighbardugo.com.

Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale

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Dear Author,

It's strange how the 20th century was drawn to dystopias. Even stranger how none of them seems to depict what we're slipping towards right now: A civil war between men and women, or a feminist dictature where men are used for the dirty and dangerous work, like on oil platforms, and otherwise only serve as semen donators for the few women who still want children. How does that sound for a book?

The Handmaid's Tale is interesting because of its setting and because Offred lets us explore all the roles reserved for women there: Marthas do housework, Wives breed, and if they fail, a Handmaid does it for them. Lower-class Econowives have to do it all: cook, clean the house, bear the children and raise them, too. Jezebels don't officially exist. But they serve as prostitutes. And the Aunts make sure this system works: as midwives, teachers in Handmaid training facilities, wardens at forced labour colonies. Forced labour is for the women who can't fit anywhere else in the system. That or death.

Offred herself is too passive a viewpoint character for my taste. She doesn't plan, doesn't attempt, isn't looking for a way to escape. She reminisces and explains her feelings in long chunks of superfluous inner monologue. She hides a match, but that's all. And she needs the Wive's permission to begin an affair.

You announced a sequel for 2019. I won't read it. Of this dystopia I have seen all I wanted to see.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

first published in 1985

ISBN: 0-7710-0813-9

Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk. Visit the author on www.margaretatwood.ca.

Rachel Burge: The Twisted Tree

Dear Author,

I found The Twisted Tree while looking for a different book, and picked it up because of the cover. It was a quick and nice read. I found it spooky, but not too scary. With all those faces and the draugr, it would probably make a bloodchilling film.

I liked the setting: a cottage on an island off the Norwegian coast. I also liked how the characters evolve. Martha stops whining about her scarred face and learns to live with it. Her mother accepts their heritage. And Stig - you leave that thread hanging loose, in the end, but I believe he, too, grew up.

There's words of wisdom in The Twisted Tree. I hope I won't forget.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

published in 2018 with Hot Key Books

ISBN: 9781471407772

Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk or visit the author on rachelburgewriter.co.uk.

Kendare Blake: Three Dark Crowns, One Dark Throne, Two Dark Reigns

Dear Author,

Three Dark Crowns had me hooked and tense throughout the almost 400 pages. I liked all three of the girls, and they must kill each other: Katharine, giftless in a house of poisoners, always sick from eating at their table, never good enough for her cruel foster aunt. Arsinoe, whom nobody expects to live past sixteen, hopeless but fighting to escape her destiny. Mirabella, who was raised as the Chosen Queen but doesn't want to fight or kill anybody. I liked Arsinoe most because we see her try and fail most: try to awaken a naturalist gift she doesn't have, try to call a familiar with low magic, try to escape the island. Mirabella, too, tries to run away from the fight. But inexorably you push them into the Beltane camp where the High Priestess is waiting with a plot to decide the competition before it can begin.

One Dark Throne begins with less tension. You downgrade the High Priestess to a nodding machine for somebody else's plans. We have no antagonist anymore. Katharine loses all sympathy when she begins sending Mirabelle poisonous gifts. But her sisters are still reluctant to fight, and still I want neither of them to die. The book reads slow. You make up for it with some action - the hunt, the duel and the storm - but these good parts are far between. The second volume feels like the sagging middle of your story.

I hoped the third part would pick up speed again. It didn't. It took you eternity to get Arsinoe and Mirabelle back on the island, get Jules drafted into a revolution, get Katharine past a point of no return. 450 pages I waited for the book to begin, but instead, it ended. In my opinion, Two Dark Reigns shouldn't be a book. It should be the first 100 pages of the final volume.

Will I read book four when it comes out? I'm not sure. I still want to know the outcome, but I don't have the patience for another 400 sagging pages.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

published in 2016 with Harper Teen

ISBN: 9780062385437

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

published in 2017 with Harper Teen

ISBN: 9780062690456

Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake

published in 2018 with Harper Teen

ISBN: 9780062686145

Get your copies on Amazon.co.uk or visit the author on www.kendareblake.com.

Marie-Christin Spiznagel: Eine Sammlung ungewöhnlicher Geschichten

Liebe Autorin,

wie viele Texte braucht man für eine Sammlung? Mehr als drei dürften es schon sein für so einen Titel und für ein Vorwort, das "eine ziemlich wilde Zusammensammelei" aus verschiedenen Phasen Ihres Lebens verspricht. Aus welchen Phasen wohl? Die erste Geschichte kommt, vermute ich, aus Ihrer Schulzeit. Zumindest liest sie sich wie ein Schulaufsatz: In einer Stunde hingekritzelt und keine Zeit gehabt zum Mitdenken. Zum Verbessern erst recht nicht. Die Leute reden mal nachgemacht altertümlich, mal modern, immer umständlich. Die Beschreibungen wiederholen sich. Und den "markerschütternden Schrei" haben wir schon so oft gelesen, dass genausogut "ein Schrei" erklingen könnte. Münchhausen und Zombies ergeben eine gute Mischung, aber der Text ist nicht fertig.

Die zweite Geschichte klingt besser. Den ungelenken Schülerton merkt man immer noch, aber vielleicht waren Sie eine Klasse weiter. Die Hausbesetzer vor dem Lebkuchenhaus überraschen. Sofort will man wissen, wie das ausgeht. Was dann passiert, könnte tragisch oder komisch oder tragikomisch klingen, je nach Schreibton. Sie scheinen sich nicht sicher gewesen zu sein, was Sie bewirken wollten, und schrieben fad.

Die dritte Geschichte ist länger als die anderen beiden zusammen. Sie fängt durchaus ungewöhnlich an: Asrael, Dämon aus der Hölle, stationiert unter dem Bett des kleinen Hans-Peter, springt als Logopäde ein, damit den Jungen am ersten Schultag niemand auslacht. Das Monster und der Schutzengel des Sechsjährigen wechseln sich in Schichten ab. Dann wird Hans-Peter entführt und die Geschichte könnte spannend werden. Leider aber wird sie langatmig. Was wir an Vorgeschichte wissen müssen, steht als Erklärung an schlechten Stellen eingeschoben und im Plusquamperfekt. Ich sage es vielen Autoren und sage es auch Ihnen, Frau Spitznagel: Bevor Sie einen Satz im Plusquamperfekt schreiben, überlegen Sie dreimal und dann lassen Sie ihn weg.

Einfallsreich sind Ihre Geschichten alle drei, Frau Spitznagel. Aber keine davon ist fertig. Setzen Sie sich noch einmal hin und löschen Sie jedes überflüssige Wort. Sonst wird Ihr Buch das hunderttausendste halbgare selbstveröffentlichte Werk, das weit hinten in Amazons Verkaufskatalog dahindämmert. Es wäre schade.

Hochachtungsvoll
Christina Widmann de Fran

Eine Sammlung ungewöhnlicher Geschichten von Marie-Christin Spitznagel erscheint im Selbstverlag voraussichtlich im Januar 2019.

Ich danke für ein Vorabexemplar.

Besucht die Autorin auf ihrer Seite www.marie-spitznagel.de.

Holly Black: The Darkest Part of the Forest

Dear Author,

The Darkest Part of the Forest seems to be in the same universe as your Folk of the Air series. There, characters mention the Alderking. Here, we get to see his court. And the human protagonist Hazel lives in Fairfold, a human town in the Alderking's forest. Magic works a little different here than in Elfhame: Jack has to tie a knot in Hazel's hair when he commands her. The Folk in The Cruel Prince don't need that, their voice is enough.

A faerie boy wakes up from his generations-long sleep. Hazel, her brother and her changeling friend Jack must find out if he's good or evil. Schemes and monsters keep up the suspense. The final fight would make a good climax if it weren't so confusing. One moment the monster is coming from afar, the next it seems to be right behind Hazel. I had to read the page twice.

There's a hole in the backstory: Why would Severin oppose his father when he wants to shut his sister into a casket and put her in magical hibernation until they can help her? Why would he prefer she walk the forest alone, living like that?

Other than that, The Darkest Part of the Forest was a good read. Not breathtaking, but not boring either.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

​The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

published in 2015 with Indigo

ISBN: 978 1 78062 172 2
​Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk or visit the author on www.blackholly.com.

Holly Black: The Lost Sisters

A Folk of the Air Novella

Dear Author,

A novella tells something novel, something unheard of, something new. The Lost Sisters retells a few chapters of The Cruel Prince from the other twin's point of view. The slow chapters, from a boring and whiny point of view. Without The Cruel Prince, the story makes little sense. With it, even less: We saw it all happen already. The few scenes that weren't in the main book show things that we had figured out already.

What we see of Taryn is nothing new either. We already knew she had cast Locke as her Prince Gallant, and that she let Jude pay the price. We see that Taryn doesn't consider herself a bad person. But then, who does?

The Lost Sisters isn't worth the paper to print it on.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

The Lost Sisters: A Folk of the Air Novella by Holly Black

pubished in 2018 with Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 978-0-316-31044-4
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk or visit the author on www.blackholly.com .

Holly Black: The Wicked King

The Folk of the Air Book 2

Dear Author,

Your Folk of the Air series is one of the few where the second book is better than the first. Jude has a year and a day and five months are already over. The countdouwn gives us tension right from the beginning. And while Jude can't seem to come up with a plan for after, several schemers and a trickster are out to push her from behind the throne.

The Wicked King is full of ups and downs and takes unexpected turns. I hope the next volume will be at least as good.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

The Wicked King: The Folk of the Air Book 2 by Holly Black

published in 2019 with Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 9780316310352
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk or visit the author on www.blackholly.com.

Holly Black: The Cruel Prince

The Folk of the Air Book 1

Dear Author,

It took some time to read my way into The Cruel Prince. At first, it seems like the book is all about Jude earning a place for herself in Faerieland and not letting Prince Cardan bully her. A small struggle, slow chapters. Then a coronation goes wrong and suddenly Jude is playing speed chess with the best and most dangerous schemers in the court. After that, the book is delicious: plots and counterplots and Folk who can't lie deceiving each other anyway.

I see why this book gets so much attention. I only wish the scheming started earlier.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

The Cruel Prince: The Folk of the Air Book 1 by Holly Black

published in 2018 with Little, Brown and Company.

ISBN: 9780316310277
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk or visit the author on www.blackholly.com.

Heather Morris: The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Dear Reader,

Lale Sokolov's story is a story of love in the worst of places. It's a story of friendships forged when nobody knew who would be alive tomorrow. It's a story of staying human under the black smoke of the crematoria's chimneys. We can't help but admire them all: Aaron who saved Lale's life when he had typhus; Viktor and Yuri who smuggle food into the camp; Yakub and Leon and the girls in the Canada barracks. All of them defied their captors in every small way they could, even there. And we can't help but laugh when Lale gives relationship advice to an SS-officer. For a moment they aren't German and Jew but two men talking about women, even there.

Only one man has nothing human left in him. We shudder with Lale when Joseph Mengele whispers in his ear. We know the Doktor never took him. We know Lale lived to tell his story. And still we fear.

Heather Morris wrote Lale Sokolov's tale into a short and honest book. An important book. This survivor's account of Auschwitz tells us how evil couldn't win, even there.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is the true story of Lale Sokolov.

Published in 2018 with Zaffre Publishing

ISBN: 978-1785763649
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk.