Rereading: THE UNICORN SONATA by Peter S. Beagle

Beagle’s best known and well-loved book is “The Last Unicorn” of 1968, and from the acknowledgements it seems like this 1996 novel was commissioned by Turner Publishing’s Janet Berliner because she wanted another unicorn book from him. It’s a fine read.

Josephine “Joey” Rivera is thirteen, and living in Los Angeles with her family, but spends a lot of time at the music instrument shop of elderly John Papas, helping out where she can. One day a handsome boy, Indigo, shows up with an unusual horn he wants to sell. On it he plays some haunting, enchanting music that thrills both Joey and Mr. Papas, but Indigo will only take gold for the horn, and Mr. Papas doesn’t have enough. Of all her family, Joey thinks her grandmother, Abuelita, would understand her feelings about the music and the boy best, but she has a hard time talking about it. Then one night she hears the same music coming from somewhere nearby. She slips out of the house, follows the sound, and somehow crosses a border to a magical land, Shei’rah, where beautiful countryside and forests are alive with unicorns, satyrs, water nymphs, and many other amazing beings, some friendly, some dangerous. Her first friend is the satyr Ko, but she soon is also befriended by some of the unicorns. The music seems to somehow come from them, and as Joey learns about this strange land, she discovers that the unicorns are afflicted with an illness that is making them go blind. She wants to help, but what can she do? Indigo, who she meets again in Shei-rah, might have some answers if he would ever talk to her about it. In several visits back and forth across the border, Joey comes up with a new plan to bring her grandmother Abuelita to the place, and when she does, even stranger things begin to happen.

I enjoyed this, despite remembering nothing about it. The painted illustrations by Robert Rodriguez are fine, but the real magic is in the writing and characters. Recommended.

The post Rereading: THE UNICORN SONATA by Peter S. Beagle appeared first on Todd's Blog.