Yarrow

Ottawa and the Valley #2

by Charles de Lint

Cat Midhir lives in a land of dreams, crossing nightly over the borders of sleep into a magic realm. A land where gnomes hide among standing stones and shelties dwell beneath the waves, where the harper Kothlen tells tales of the ancient days and the antlered Mynfel walks by moonlight…When Cat wakes she weaves stories around the Otherworld. Her books are labelled as fantasy, but Mynfel's domain deems more real to her than the humdrum streets of the city.Until a thief comes stalking—and steals Cat's dreams away…ReviewsFrom Fantasy Review, 1986: Charles de Lint is an excellent writer, and Yarrow his fourth novel is terrific. Yarrow is a tale of friendship and trust, hope and honor, faith and love, with a dark eroticism for spice. It settles for no cliched scenes and no easy answers, and conveys a reality of place (modern Ottawa) not commonly found in any fiction. Novels as good as Yarrow don't come along that often. As one of de Lint's characters puts it, "while the tale itself…is of utmost importance…the trueness of the telling is what makes up a storyteller's craft." De Lint's telling is indeed true and Yarrow is highly recommended.Mythlore, 1986: It is always gratifying to watch a writer grow into the style that best serves his/her creative gift. This has certainly been happening with Charles de Lint. …his imagination has expressed itself with a new vitality. An Autumn Tale is by far his most successful work to date, and lines together the many strengths his writing has acquired. The plotting is perfect, holding reader's attention unflaggingly until the last page. …more than confirms de Lint's skill as a In Yarrow, Charles de Lint takes a light-hearted, yet candid look at the need for balance between reality and fantasy in our existence. Through Caitlin's journey of self-discovery, de Lint reveals that remaining distant from reality all of the time could mean missing out on a whole lot of wonderful things. Inspiration can come from many sources. But at the same time, he also reminds us of how beautiful it is to dream.Urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres because it assumes that modern-day-reality and fantasy can in fact co-exist. De Lint's refreshing writing style reflects this genre, mixing everyday language with Otherworldly terms that can reach out and touch readers from any background or lifestyle. His characters could be any one of us. We can relate with them because in their lives they struggle with the same things we do. What I love the most is that de Lint treats the fanciful with reverent belief and melds it right into his characters' everyday lives. He leads the reader to stop thinking of such things as fairy tales and start believing them as the possible.Yarrow is profound truth clothed in a delightful tale.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Science Fiction

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Charles de Lint is the much beloved author of more than seventy adult, young adult, and children's books. Renowned as one of the trailblazers of the modern fantasy genre, he is the recipient of the World Fantasy, Aurora, Sunburst, and White Pine awards, among others. Modern Library's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century poll, conducted by Random House and voted on by readers, put eight of de Lint's books among the top 100.
De Lint is a poet, folklorist, artist, songwriter and performer. He has written critical essays, music reviews, opinion columns and entries to encyclopedias, and he's been the main book reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction since 1987. De Lint served as Writer-in-residence for two public libraries in Ottawa and has taught creative writing workshops for adults and children in Canada and the United States. He's been a judge for several prominent awards, including the Nebula, World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon and Bram Stoker.

Born in the Netherlands in 1951, de Lint immigrated to Canada with his family as an infant. The family moved often during de Lint's childhood because of his father's job with an international surveying company, but by the time Charles was twelve—having lived in Western Canada, Turkey and Lebanon—they had settled in Lucerne, Quebec, not far from where he now resides in Ottawa, Ontario.

In 1980, de Lint married the love of his life, MaryAnn Harris, who works closely with him as his first editor, business manager and creative partner. They share their love and home with a cheery little dog named Johnny Cash.

Charles de Lint is best described as a romantic: a believer in compassion, hope and human potential. His skilled portrayal of character and settings has earned him a loyal readership and glowing praise from peers, reviewers and readers.

Charles de Lint writes like a magician. He draws out the strange inside our own world, weaving stories that feel more real than we are when we read them. He is, simply put, the best.
—Holly Black (bestselling author)
Charles de Lint is the modern master of urban fantasy. Folktale, myth, fairy tale, dreams, urban legend—all of it adds up to pure magic in de Lint's vivid, original world. No one does it better.
—Alice Hoffman (bestselling author)

To read de Lint is to fall under the spell of a master storyteller, to be reminded of the greatness of life, of the beauty and majesty lurking in shadows and empty doorways.
—Quill & Quire

His Newford books, which make up most of de Lint's body of work between 1993 and 2009, confirmed his reputation for bringing a vivid setting and repertory cast of characters to life on the page. Though not a consecutive series, the twenty-five standalone books set in (or connected to) Newford give readers a feeling of visiting a favourite city and seeing old friends.
More recently, his young adult Wildlings trilogy—Under My Skin, Over My Head, and Out of This World—came out from Penguin Canada and Triskell Press in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Under My Skin won 2013 Aurora Award. A novel for middle-grade readers, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, published by Little Brown in 2013, won the Sunburst Award, earned starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Quill & Quire, and was chosen by the New York Times Editors as one of the top six children's books for 2013. His most recent adult novel, The Mystery of Grace (2009), is a fascinating ghost story about love, passion and faith. It was a finalist for both the Sunburst and Evergreen awards.

De Lint is presently writing a new adult novel. His storytelling skills also shine in his original songs. He and MaryAnn (also a musician) recently released companion CDs of their original songs, samples of which can be heard on de Lin

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts in an interesting way as the author introduces us to a myriad of different characters, all apparently unrelated and living separate lives. At first I wondered what was happening and struggled to remember who was who, but gradually things began to make sense and the story tightened up and became quite gripping.

I really enjoyed the character of Lucas, a vampire of sorts, whose sustenance of choice was not blood but dreams, if he chose to leave his subject alive, or the soul if he did not. He also has many magical talents which make him a scary enemy indeed. Cat Midhir on the other hand appears to have no chance against him, her only magic being to dream unusual dreams.

The story almost becomes a thriller as the murders start to add up and the police join in the hunt. However the fantasy is never far away and help is supplied by magical beings and events. Oh and don't forget the cats. They are very special.

This is my third book by this author and the one I have enjoyed most so far. I will keep looking out for his books.

[Emelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yarrow was an exceptional book. I probably would have given it 5 stars had I not read "Some place to be Flying" first. That being said I will move on with the review.

Cat Midhir is a writer. A writer who walks between worlds. Cat gets her stories from the Otherworld; Her conversations with Tiddy Mun, Toby Weye, and the storyteller Kothlen are the inspirations for Cat's books and have made Cat one of the best selling authors in Ottawa, Canada. That is until she stops dreaming and can no longer write. As Cat tries to deal with her writers block, a mysterious man with stark blue eyes appears and soon after his arrival corpse's begin to pile up. Soon the blue eyed Lysistratus' motives become clear, he wants Cat's dreams. For it is only through Cat's true dreaming that he can live, growing stronger and more powerful, and soon reach immortality.

With the help of a quiet bookstore owner, Cat's biggest fan, and a mechanic, Cat soon comes face to face with Lysistratus and together they must find a way to keep him from not only killing innocents but a way to save Cat's very soul. How is Cat going to find a way to dream and save herself? Will she be able to save herself and the people she loves in the Otherworld? And who is the creature of startling, quiet beauty named Mynfel and what does Mynfel want from Cat? Delve into the dream world of Charles de Lint's Yarrow and discover magic that will save a world from a darkness that strives to destroy it.

What I liked about the book was the magical aspect. I am always a sucker for magic, and de Lint provides magic in abundance.

What I did not like was, in the beginning of the book there was a lot of jumping around. I realize de Lint had to lay a foundation for his characters, however I had to go back and reread parts to get a grasp of what was actually going on. After I got into the swing of things the book was amazing and sucked me right into Cat's world with likable characters. The part that made me cheer though, was Cat's cats. And that's all I am going to say about that. ;)

All in all I enjoyed the story tremendously and it has made me want to read more of Charles de Lint's books. They are like Lays potato chips...you can't read just one.

[Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dutch-born Canadian --his parents emigrated when he was quite small-- speculative-fiction author Charles de Lint is one of my favorite writers; I've read several of his books (and have more on my to-read and "maybe to read" shelves) and have liked all those I've read. This novel was my introduction to his work; but ironically, it's the only one of them (that I've read) that I haven't reviewed, until now.

This read belongs to the same epoch of my reading life as another book I recently reviewed, Raymond Feist's Faerie Tale, and like it was discovered in a public library (the same one, in fact). So as in the latter case, I'm reviewing it after a lapse of more than 30 years and without the book in front of me; but in both cases, I have a pretty good, vivid memory of much of the story and its presentation (and the benefits of notes I made much closer to the read, early in this century, for a "reader's advisor" project that was abandoned after I joined Goodreads). In the 70s and 80s, de Lint was a pioneer in the field of urban fantasy, and this is an example of that strand of his work (though it's set in Ottawa, rather than his usual urban fantasy setting, Newford, Canada). I've shelved this as fantasy, in deference to his credentials in that genre, and because it does have a connection to the Otherworld; but I've also classified it as supernatural fiction, since it takes place entirely or almost entirely in this world. Goodreads provides at least two slightly different descriptions for the book (for different editions); but IMO, neither of them really provides a very good idea of what it's really about, and one of them is actually misleading in one respect.

Our protagonist here is young Cat Midhir, who (like de Lint himself) is a popular author of fantasy fiction. She bases her writing on her very vivid, lifelike dreams of the Otherworld. What she doesn't realize, though, is that her dreams are so real-seeming because they actually ARE real. She's one of very few folks in the modern world who's capable of "strong dreaming," genuinely psychically accessing the Otherworld through the medium of dream. That's a plus for her writing career; but it's also dangerous, because it makes her a target for the millennia-old evil of a being called Lysistratus. He's a vampire of sorts, who doesn't suck and feed on blood, but rather on his victim's psychic energy (generally with lethal results, for them), and he draws this energy out of them mainly when they're dreaming, and via the dreams. "Strong dreams" like Cat's, for him, are a gourmet feast. Unlike some later urban-fantasy heroines, Cat's not a weapons-packing warrioress type who's comfortable with physical combat; but in the course of this book, one way or another, she's going to have to do serious battle with this monster, to protect herself and many others. Can she prevail? (Well, that would be a spoiler; you'll just have to read the book! :-) )

All of de Lint's significant characterizations here are excellently drawn (some will be people you like and can care about, and some you'll detest, but they're "real" enough for you to feel in those ways) and he conjures his modern urban milieu very realistically. (Both of those are major strong points for the book, and for his urban fantasy work generally.) We get a clear impression of the moral and physical grunginess of the city's mean streets, and of the confused anomie of some of the unrooted twenty-somethings who inhabit it, without feeling that the author's vision is grungy or confused. The storyline rouses a gamut of emotional reactions, including horror and fear in places --Lysistratus is definitely a villain you'll want to see taken down, as soon as possible. All in all, this actually wasn't my favorite of the author's works that I went on to read, but it's one I solidly liked. It proved to be a decent introduction to his writing for me --and if you start here, as I did, it will mean you have some even better books to look forward to! (Some authors are better at writing long than short fiction, and some the reverse; but I've personally found de Lint equally adept with both formats.)

[Jen3n · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I ever read by Charles deLint. I was hooked right off. I liked (and continue to like) his all of his Newford books; I love the gentle blending of wild myth and urban lore. Mid-town primitives and fairies living in the electrical pulses, that sort of thing. It's Urban Fantasy from back when that genre was, literally, fantasy in an urban setting, and not what it has been turned into.

This book spoke to me directly. It's about a socially awkward writer who is a little boho and has a rich fantasy life. This book is funny and dark. People die. People fall in love. But that's the sort of thing that is SUPPOSED to happen in fairy tales, so it's okay.

I do have several problems with Mr. deLint's writing and style, but none of them really pop-up in this book. It was written fairly early-on, relatively. So I'll get into the crap that irritates me about the Newford books in a different review. I'll just close this one by saying: good book. I'd recommend this to any of my friends who like fantasy novels.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another book I haven't read in probably twenty years, Yarrow is the story of Cat Midhir, a fantasy novelist who, unbeknownst to everyone else, is dependent on her dreams for her writing. Every night she has found herself in another world, where she sits at the feet of the tall fae bard Kothlen as he spins tales, which she on waking weaves into her books. Every night of her life since she was very young she has had what for lack of better language she calls dreams - every night until three months ago, when she stopped dreaming at all, and because of that stopped writing. We the reader know what she cannot: there's an ancient creature called Lysistratus who feeds off dreams, off soul, and who finds her a rich source of sustenance.

Quick question: why on earth call a soul/dream vampire "Lysistratus"?? There was a real Lysistratus in the 4th century who was a highly skilled sculptor (a creator), and there was the fictional Lysistrata, the Athenian heroine of Aristophanes's comedy about the women on both sides of a war deciding to withhold sex until peace could be achieved. Not, either of them, anything remotely appropriate for this character, which is unusual, especially if my assumption is right, that he took the name for himself.

This was probably one of the first de Lint books I read, which helped lead to my reading more, which is by and large a good thing ... but if this was my first time reading it I'm not at all sure I'd pursue the author. It's not bad, at all; it's well-written, characters are well done, there's a good story, the setting (especially the Otherworld) is very good... I just didn't like it. I will, of course, being me, explain.

First off, the main character. Cat Midhir is, we are told early in the book, sick unto death of explaining to everyone in the universe and his sister how her name is pronounced. Cat, honey? I have to spell both my names to everyone in the universe, because both names have multiple variations. You should have taken a self-explanatory pseudonym if it's going to get to you this much, and you didn't, and it's an odd name so it will keep happening, so suck it up.

And that's the thin end of the wedge, cracking open her character for the reader: there's not much there, there. She is a talented writer, but socially inept and alone (what ever happened to her parents? It's not a good thing that I can't remember if we're told). Now that her dreams have abandoned her, she can't write a single decent sentence, and I'm afraid I can't muster up a single spark of sympathy for her. I have delusions of authorship. I've had a couple of wild dreams that might someday, with a lot of work, become something readable. I have not ever had the ridiculous advantage of being able to sit at the feet of a bard, soak in his stories, and then write them down. We are assured that she took the stories deeper than Kothlen did, expanding, fleshing out the places he skimmed over and using her own gift of expression to turn them into best-selling novels... but we are also told several times that every word she tries to write without the umbilical cord of the Otherworld is "lifeless". I'll buy that she's not merely transcribing but actually writing - but how am I supposed to feel anything but mild contempt for a woman who has basically sponged off others for her livelihood? A woman who has never had to sit in front of a blank sheet of paper and search for what comes next in the story? Given a rich source like Kothlen, I'd be a best-seller too. If anything, her "writer's block" gives me a self-righteous and slightly perverse delight. Again, suck it up, honey, and sink or swim on your own damn merits. Wet dishrag, her.

The other characters, as I said, are well done: Peter, the bookstore owner who has tentatively befriended her over the years and who becomes a true friend now; Ben, the cab-driver who has had a minor obsession with her since he read her first book (though I kept thinking he was an old man for some reason); Mick, the mohawked punk-rocker with a heart, apparently, of gold; Rick, whose name is well chosen as the only word I can think of to describe him ends in "ick"... The Otherworld characters are not as strong, but sketched in well enough to serve, if not as clearly as I would like. Some of the many red shirts in the story were given more time and delineation than the major characters of the Otherworld, and I resented being asked to get to know and like them (which I didn't, always) in the pages before they were hideously murdered. That was actually a problem with the beginning of the book, as well: a large number of characters were introduced, one after the other, and it was fairly clear which ones weren't going to be around long. After that it was just a matter of Lysistratus picking them off at will.

My main issue with characterization shouldn't be a big one, but is: their language. As in profanity. It's constant, and every non-fae male character, antagonist or pro-, cusses like a sailor. And it's not just nice pungent anglo-saxon words, but it's those anglo-saxon words with "jesus" (no caps) in front, which ... Come on. I'm not a prude when it comes to strong language - anyone who thinks so has not driven with me on the highway - but this was just too much. On every page, every circumstance from minor annoyance to lives being threatened prompts the same response. It gets old.

Also, I was reminded frequently that de Lint has a horror background under another name. There were strong horror elements throughout - Lysistratus is evil, and does evil for evil's sake, and it's no fun to read. And that's something of a problem. As with profanity, some is fine, even good in context. More is not better. If I want to read horror, I will read horror. I don't want to read horror. I don't appreciate a constant barrage of blood-soaked scenes packaged as a fantasy - particularly with my edition's cover - except for the skull in the foreground, it leads a prospective reader to believe the concentration is on the fae, not the evil. I'm uneasy with the idea that L stole people's souls, too, but that's my own issue. Or, to be more timely, hang-up. Which leads me to - -

A last issue, sometimes fairly easily overlooked but still a distraction, was that the book did not age well: it is very, very dated. Very. This was startling at times (there was a comment about the awareness of Reagan in office, south of the border and apparently intent on starting a war, which was for me an unexpected and unusual Canadian political commentary), and almost funny at times (how many times would a cell phone have made all the difference? And - a turntable! Aw!), but frequently it was just ... odd. The name-checking was annoying - there was a great detail of corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude ... who was on the turntable, what books Peter was ordering, what books everyone was reading (everyone) (seriously) - it felt grafted on to prove de Lint was "hip". Oddest, though, and unintentionally hilarious, was Lysistratus humming the Human League song "Don't You Want Me". The radio station I leave on at work plays this now and then, and I get the joke. It's just not funny. He could have been an amazing Big Bad. He wasn't. He was the well-dressed "Dude" (*sigh*) with the piercing blue eyes who you really want to avoid, and particularly to avoid having sex with. Who has terrible taste in music. That detracts from his fearsomeness (along with being called "the Dude"), and I think it would have even in the 80's.

***minor spoilers***
The ending felt a little rushed. I still don't think Cat did enough, and what she did was undermined and cleaned up to pave the way for a happily-ever-after, with some major questions left unanswered (Is the whole Otherworld, or is it not, part of her? And how in hell is she the deer woman whose name escapes me? And why? And when??). I resented the death of one major character, rather than regretting it, and unfortunately the result of "the Dude"'s eye contact - paralysis - was sometimes funnier than it was scary. And in the end ... two things. I can't help but be resentful that someone who is never shown as deserving has a devoted lover, a loyal friend, access to faery, and a continuing career I'd kill for. The other thing is: I've been listening to a movie review/writing podcast called "The Popcorn Dialogues", and in one was the comment that if at the end of a romantic comedy you're thinking "Geez, I really thought she'd end up with the other guy", it's not a successful romance story. That's the case here: I don't quite get why we needed both Ben and Peter.

Overall, three stars; probably won't read it again unless in twenty more years I forget not only the book but this review; disappointed; not in the mood for more de Lint soon. But I do admit I want to read Cat's books.

[Melanti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another de Lint book that I'd read pre-Goodreads and mistakenly entered as "to-read" instead of "read." Cat and her dream world is so close to Newford's Sophie and her dream city of Mabon that I'd actually thought what I'd remembered of this book was part of Sophie's story and thus thought I hadn't read this particular one.

The imagery surrounding Mynfel and the horns reminds me very strongly of the imagery in McKillip's Stepping From the Shadows. Since that was published just a few years before this book and since I know de Lint is at least familiar with her work, it makes me wonder if that book might have played a small part in inspiring this one?

There were a few too many characters for my taste. I think he could have pared it down just a bit without loosing much of the story. For instance, the detectives' portion didn't seem to add all that much that couldn't have been added in a different way.

I also did find myself getting a bit annoyed with de Lint's constant name dropping (this is an early work, and he names a LOT more people/books/songs than he does in his later works - I guess he learned a bit of restraint over the years) and with his idolization of non-Westernized cultures. Both are relatively common features of de Lint's writing though, and I think that my irritation with them is more a sign that I've read too much de Lint lately and need a good long break. (6 in the past year and 2 in the past week - way too much!)

But it is a fun book, and after a recent read where I was empathizing with a rather mentally disturbed villain, I wanted to read a book with black-and-white morality and a nice, happy ending - and that's something you can always count on de Lint to deliver.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hopelessly dated, not just in content but in prose and tone. The edition I read has a misleading blurb on the back cover which makes you think the main character will be transported into a fantasy world, but instead it's mostly takes place in urban Ottawa, CA. An overly meticulously detailed Ottawa that could only possibly be appreciated by someone who lived there in 1982. It also had a lot more sexual assault and rape than I was expecting. Not my best library book sale purchase.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the ratio of plot to street names is any indicator of authorial priority, this book is primarily a guide to place names in Ottawa. I think buried under way, way, way too much information, there actually was a promising plot. Something about a girl who writes her dreams into bestsellers getting trapped in the dreamworld by a psychic vampire who feeds on dreams? Anyway, it barely came up.

In the first 50 pages, almost 200 proper nouns get flung at the reader. (Not exaggerating. I counted.) These are the names of songs, titles of books (both real-world and fictional), music groups, celebrities (real and fictional), and characters. A new character gets tossed out every page, some of them never to return, some of them protagonists, every one with a new and different first and last name -- I was halfway through and still couldn't tell if this was a new character or someone from page 4 back again.

In a moment of intense irony, one character apologizes to another, "I'm not sure why I'm telling you all these names, since they won't mean anything to you." I don't know why either, Mr. de Lint. If I wanted to know how to get around Ottawa, I'd buy the 2015 Visitors Guide to Ottawa.

Still, he could've redeemed his book with the original plot and interesting villain -- if not for the completely unlikeable main character and the feeling I got reading it that I was reading somebody's fanwank. De Lint really seemed to pictures himself as whatshername the main character, to the point that I can't stop referring to the author as "she." Pass.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Yarrow long ago so it was almost like reading it new; as ever, Charles de Lint weaves a rich, complex fantasy with people who seem real, in circumstances that are not quite possible, but so easily believable.

It is 1981, or thereabouts, somewhere in Canada. So much has changed since 1981 that it is almost at the point of being historical fiction, our main character writes fantasy novels but her inspiration comes from her dreams and she can no longer dream. She writes them on a typewriter and as I read I realised that recent generations will have no point of reference for using a typewriter to write, no emotive response to all the pieces of paper that are torn out of the typewriter and lie strewn about as she tries to beat her writers block.

Her dreams are being drained out of her by a very old creature that lives, vampirically, off the dreams of people. One nigh, sitting at a window she spies him, thinks he is a prowler and is jolted out of her very isolated life to involve others in her plight. Incidentally, when she spies the prowler she is scared and thinks of ringing the police, but the phone is downstairs and she is afraid to go down there in case he breaks in. Hands up anyone who remembers when landlines were the only phones available, in one location in the house...?

A lovely, satisfying story that I will be happy to revisit. It was totally worth the sleep I missed by staying up all night to read it.

[Lance Greenlee · Rating 2 out of 5]

De Lint came quite recommended by those promoting urban fantasy as an alternative to the Tolkienesque, but in truth, this came as quite a disappointment. This story and its characters lack any serious development. In the first eight pages of text, de Lint introduces Caitlin Midhir, Albert Cousins, Peter Baird, Ben Summerfield, Mick Jennings, Becki Bones, Debbie Mitchell, Andy Barnes, Farley O’Dennehy, Stella Sidney, and Rick Kirby. That's eleven characters in eight pages: it simply can’t be done with any depth. The reader ends up having to write down a list of names with an attribute tacked onto it just to keep them straight. Level of detail problems continue to plague the book, with mentions of rock groups, streets, and authors reading more like name-dropping or list-making than substance. It ends up feeling empty, like the bare bones of a story. I think those recommending this are more in love with the idea of moving beyond the limitations (and imitations) of Tolkien than they are in telling a good tale. In many ways, this is not quite up to the literary standards of Terry Goodkind, who, with all his trite stereotypes, also fails to be a fantasy master, but he’s at least a storyteller with excellent pacing.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished A Game of Thrones, which was such a weighty and quite depressing (but mesmerizing) book that I now need one that will lighten my soul and relieve my mind, so I'm gonna re-read this now.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't even have to check to know that this was one of De Lint's earlier works. And you know what? That's ok. Because even though it seemed like the edges were rougher, the overall arc of the story blunter, the otherworld less all-encompassing than it usually is, it felt more accessible. It didn't have that untouchable/lyrical quality that a lot of his newer, more polished stuff does. It had characters who weren't artists, an MC who wasn't completely convinced of the fairy world, and a villain who's motivations were more immediate and real than world domination. And I liked it a lot.

My only real sticking points with this book was 1) The initial rushing around trying to introduce all the characters and 2) the solution to the villain. In the beginning, we jump around to around 8-9 different characters, and De Lint doesn't really give us a reason to care about why we are jumping around so frenetically. Eventually, by about page 40 or so, everyone has clumped up, which makes the narrative a lot smoother and easier to follow, but the first 1/5 of the book requires some character remembrance.

My other issue is the same one I have with all of De Lint's books: a way to defeat the villain is never foreshadowed or even hinted at, and the method in which the MC always does seems made up on the spot. Obviously this isn't a huge problem for me, since I pick up every De Lint book I see, but it still prevents me from giving his books a perfect 5-stars. As far as I recall, the one book that did fix this problem, Widdershins, I think I did give that 5 stars. But that's neither here nor there.

Cat Midhir, our MC, is a fantastic lead, because her personal problems struck a huge chord with me. Loneliness, writer's block, etc. Her problems were very relateable, and tied in neatly with here supernatural problems. De Lint followed her emotional story very well, and made sure that her story didn't overstay its welcome.

In the future, I think this is a good introduction for people trying to get into De Lint's stuff. It doesn't delve into the acid trip that is his Tamson-House focused books, doesn't use any of the recurring cast from many of the other stories set in Newford, and gives you a good introduction to his version of the Otherworld without going full-blown dreamscape like some of his other books do.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Cat is an author and gets her inspiration through dreams. Unfortunately, she has not been dreaming for a few months and is now blocked. What she doesn’t know is that there is… something out there feeding on her dreams! And he’s feeding on others, as well, but Cat’s dreams are the ones he really wants.

This was good. I liked the real world sections of the book more than the dream sections, but that’s not a surprise to me. Cat didn’t really have friends in the real world, so I enjoyed the sections where she was making friends (though that was more secondary to the story). There were a lot of characters introduced at the very start of the book, so I was afraid I would get them confused, but surprisingly, it was rare to not figure out who we were following in the story fairly quickly – de Lint must have given enough clues to be able to follow easily.

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this 3.5 stars so I rounded up. This is the first book I've read by De Lint that strayed a bit into thriller territory, and of course, since it's fantasy, the stalking-killer-bad-guy was a kind of dream vampire. Interesting. As a writer myself, I couldn't help but enjoy and appreciate the predicament of our protagonist, Cat, a writer with serious writer's block. Except in her case, the block is because this vampire has been feeding off her dreams, the source of her stories. I also really appreciated how the author tied together the stories of several seemingly disparate characters who ultimately came together in the end to bring about the vampire's downfall (well, kind of--as in any good story, not all the heroes make it!). And as usual, I love De Lint's unique blend of magic and reality, though I thought the message about Cat's writing got a bit muddled by the end of the book. There was a tension between her reliance on getting stories from her dream world vs. her own imagination, and I don't want to give anything away but I felt that the reveal could have more strongly shown Cat that she's not just a secretary recording what goes on in that other word but a true storyteller in her own right. In any case, a nice easy read that I enjoyed.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read a Charles de Lint book that came even within shouting distance of disappointing, and "Yarrow" is as far from that spot as you can get! Again, we are transported to a place where the Otherworlds lie close to our own, where magic happens, and where people who think that they are ordinary find out just how extraordinary they really are. A classic tale of good versus evil, with a bit of a twist, de Lint brings us into a world where we want desperately to build a home and stay, possibly forever.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another masterpiece!

[Engineous · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite a good novel. If you're looking for modern fantasy, you may as well skip this - Yarrow is more like semi-mystery/semi-thriller with elements of fantasy. There's very little the reader gets to learn about the Otherworld and, while that doesn't detract from the nice flow and engaging storyline, it's enough to disqualify the book from the urban fantasy genre.

I'm very picky these days, but Yarrow managed to pull me in and keep me absorbed almost the entire way through. There are a few problems that tripped me up here and there, and all of them but one were forgivable:

- de Lint's tendency to repeatedly add new characters without any explanation or reason for them to be in the novel gets annoying after a while. I was slightly perturbed when he hadn't gotten a foot into the plot by page 67 because of the continuous (unconnected) character additions, but then he did and it wasn't annoying anymore. But it's a habit with him, and his editor needs to crack down on that.

For example, he adds two police characters very near the end that appear all of twice; they're completely superfluous except maybe to satisfy de Lint's fantasies about Our Boys In Blue. They could have been cropped completely without any impact on the story.

He does the same with characters that are immediately killed off, which would be excellent as an occasional escalation device, but he uses it so often and draws out their existence so much it loses potency and meaning.

- He's... well, he's sort of melodramatic. I understand that's normal for fantasy, but I found myself looking at - for example - Peter's hyper-rationalization of why the Otherworld couldn't be real as if someone completely unfamiliar with the thought processes of people had written it. Cat and Ben were the same way. I can understand the "melodrama" as partially due to the fact that you don't try for serious subtlety - especially for a one-shot novel, because your readers may not get it (or you may be confusing "esoteric" with "subtle") - but if so, I think his attempt to bring the emotions of the characters into plainspeak stereotypified them and took away a lot of the enjoyment of reading about people.

There are certain other logical leaps - like Cat's immediate conclusion when she finds out she's Mynfel, which is to decide that it's all fake. Because of course, if you find out that you're one of the inhabitants of the Wood, it means that you must therefore have created the entire thing in your mind.

Yeah.

- And the unforgivable mistake is the plothole. Though plothole isn't really sufficient... you never learn anything about the world, not about Toby, not about Lysistratus, not about Tiddy Mun or Kothlen. There's an absence of information about the world that I found really deeply unsatisfying; the Yarrow world's outlines are drawn, but never colored in.

Again, an example. Lysistratus fled the human world for a while, presumably, because it was stated that he'd only returned after the strong dreamers had left... but we're never told where he went, or what he was doing, or how he survived. He had to feed every single day, which I found really weird - predators don't do that. A cougar does not need to kill every day as long as they get big kills; it's why they gorge themselves. Why did he need to feed every day when that seems completely unreasonable? I can think of two reasons: 1) he was becoming addicted to the strength of Cat's dreams or 2) he was just... getting old.

Unfortunately, there are no explanations offered. We don't know how Lysistratus survived, if he fled to the wild and fed off of animals' dreams and emotions - which is unlikely, as de Lint does not strike me as someone particularly egalitarian; he'd probably fall in line with the standard tripe that the emotions and dreams of humans are better and stronger because humans are special, because shut up that's why.

That last bit is more of a remark on most other fantasy/modern fantasy authors I've seen, though. I gotta say, outside of these things, Yarrow was a breath of fresh air; I have not encountered a novel with such a lack of racism, sexism or speciesism for quite some time.

So thank you, Charles de Lint.

... just... please learn how to handle a knife so there won't be any more wincing. Pretty please.

[Christopher Bentley Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up Yarrow at a used book store after really enjoying some of Charles de Lint’s short fiction. If I end up reading another of his novels, it will be in the hopes that this is not typical of his long-form work.

The story revolves around fantasy writer Cat Midhir, who travels to a magical realm, Otherworld, in her dreams. Her novels are all adaptations of traditional tales told to her in this realm by the elf bard Kothlen. But lately, she has been unable to dream at all, and has not written in weeks. Unbeknownst to her, the dreams are being consumed by an ancient creature named Lysistranus, who is a kind of psychic vampire. He feeds on others as well, but is becoming addicted to Cat, and may eventually consume all there is.

The premise is sound, but poorly executed. Far too much narrative energy is divided amongst a large cast of underdeveloped characters. The setting is Ottawa (de Lint’s hometown) in the early 80s, and in the book’s second chapter, we meet Peter, a bookstore owner who is one of Cat’s few friends, and Ben, a cab driver who is Peter’s best customer and one of Cat’s biggest fans. De Lint introduces them along with a half dozen other characters who will interact with Cat or Lysistranus at some point using a limited third person voice, and is unable to make their thoughts and concerns very interesting.

Cat, in an emotional crisis, seeks out Peter’s shoulder to cry on. Peter tries to play matchmaker and set her up with Ben, who takes it as his chivalric duty to protect her from what she believes to be a run-of-the-mill stalker.

One of the key issues is that the realms of Cat’s night visits is poorly established. A few of Cat’s memories of her visits are all we learn of the Otherworld she knew. By the time she is able to go back, it is already devastated by Lysistranus’s feedings. Most of the visit we are able to see involve her wandering around a wasteland with yet another character, a traveling jack-of-all-trades named Toby who she had not encountered before.

In meantime, the Ottawa portion of the story features shifts to the perspectives of nonessential characters. And we get to go inside the mind of Lysistranus, who reminded of the lone-wolf serial killer characters that populated the horror novels I read as an adolescent. He is thousands of years old and kills people by consuming their entire psyches- de Lint does not use these facts to truly distinguish him from so many non-supernatural sociopaths in thrillers.

Eventually, Cat’s protectors piece together what is actually going on, but much ink is spilled over the trouble they have believing that This Is Really Happening.

The high stakes climax shows that de Lint knew had a plan in mind by introducing as many characters as he did, as they all play some part, but his failure to flesh them out in the preceding pages makes it hard to care who lives and dies.

The question of where stories come from and the nature of authorship is the most pressing that Yarrow addresses. Cat does not see herself as a novelist so much as a transcriber of Kothlen’s tales, though it becomes clear that her embellishments and psychological insight are essential to the success of her books. The abrupt end of her night visits invokes the familiar interpersonal drama of friendships ending, and fuses it with the frightening prospect of an entire cultural memory vanishing.

Perhaps Otherwold is so vaguely established by design, so that it can serve as a universal symbol, the place where an individual imagination can commune with and appropriate narrative traditions. But the universal is often best achieved through specificity, and the fact that we don’t encounter even one of Kothlen’s stories in its entirety makes it more difficult to understand what Cat has lost on an emotional level.

Another hindrance to the book reaching its full thematic potential is that its villain is such a simpleton. What does he get out of the consumption of dream? What, if anything, does he have to do with the forces that threaten cultural memory and the creation of art in the real world? I can do without these kinds of insights in an entertaining book, of course, but Yarrow does not succeed on that count either.

[Amy C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yarrow was my first foray in to the world of Charles de Lint, and it certainly won't be my last. What an amazing mind he has. When I first began reading, numerous characters were introduced, all going about daily things. A page for this one, a page for that one. I wondered who they all were and what their relevance was to the main plot. As I read, I was drawn into each of these people and found myslef amazed how they intertwined together. Some had small roles, and others larger, but what I loved was even though you didn't really NEED to know the little tid bits of information about this or that character, the fact that the author did give it in the simplest way made those characters stand out and become three dimensional.

This isn't normally the type of book I enjoy reading. I'm not a big fan of creepy, but I have to say that I did not want to put this book down until I finished the last page. The fantasy element in it was rather subtle, yet profound. I almost immediately found myself connecting with the main protagonist, Cat. She's withdrawn, shy and a writer. When she sleeps she dreams of an Otherworld, with strange creatures. A place that is just as real as the wolrd she lives in in her waking life. But something terrible happens. She stops dreaming of her Otherworld. Something is hunting her. Something evil. Eventually Cat begins to doubt her sanity and if this Otherworld isn't really just her imagination.

It's this evil that is hunting Cat that brings all the characters together in one way or another. I loved the execution of this tale. The vileness of the villain made this one creepy story and gave me the heebie geebies. But what really made this book for me was the relationship that formed slowly between Cat and Ben and the sense of a happily ever after for them.

I have a huge back list of Charles de Lint to get through, but I am looking forward to reading many, many more of his books.

[Shaitarn · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 and a bit stars rounded up.

Cat Midhir is a writer and a dreamer, but not like most of us. When she dreams, she visits a magical otherworld, where gnomes live inside hollow hills crowned with a protective ring of standing stones, of far roads travelled by tinkers and green-eyed, silver haired elvish bards, and of a vast forest, protected by Mynfel, the antlered girl.

This magical land provides the inspiration for the stories Cat writes and seems as real to her as the day to day world of the streets of Ottawa. But then a parasitic thief steals Cat's dreams, and her stories, and intends to take her life, and the otherworld itself.

I love de Lint's books; while I may not have enjoyed it quite as much as some of his other works, I still rate it as far above the usual urban fantasy fare. He's a consummate writer, and his skill at weaving deftly told stories with engaging, fully-rounded characters is evident here - and I have to add I'm so jealous of Cat's ability to dream herself into another world.

If you're into urban fantasy with fey rather than vampires or werewolves then you really owe it to yourself to try one of de Lint's books. Memory and Dream or Trader are both personal favourites that I recommend.

[Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yarrow is one of the better reads from de Lint (in my humble opinion). I can' get over his knowledge of the old Pagan ways and how they are woven in to a modern day setting. The characters are well developed and this particular story has a nice dark edge to it that keeps you a bit more riveted. Combine that with a pace that is a bit better than some of his other novels makes this a great introduction to the fantasy works and a way of sidestepping the a-typical Dungeon & Dragaon fantasy (of say J.R.R. Tolkein).


Plot ***Spoilers***
Cat is an author whose plots and characters come from her vivid dreams. Cat has visited this dreamscape, the Otherworld, since she was young. There she met Kothlen, a bard who gave her a secret name, Yarrow. Recently, however, Cat has stopped dreaming and finds she can no longer write. As she struggles to break her writer's block, strange things begin to happen. The shadowy Lysistratus stalks Cat, hoping to steal the soul of a true dreamer. And Cat discovers that the Otherworld is not a product of her dreams, but a real place to which she is deeply connected.

Along with her friends from the "real" world and a gnome named Tiddy Mun from the Otherworld, Cat has to face Lysistratus in order to save them all. In true fantasy style, the fight requires Cat to face the truths within.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my first de Lint books. Going to read again.

1/4/16

Just finished. I want to settle my thoughts before composing my further review. I must say it evoked more now then previously.
Chares de Lint is true storyteller. He mastered the craft of urban myth and legend. With YARROW, he uses a present day North American city where the protagonist, female fantasy author resides. The antagonist is an ageless addict who feeds his addiction with human dreams, spirit and ultimately their soul. So, it is a good vs. evil tale.
However, it is far from being that simple. There's a possible romance brewing, lots of friendships and a splash of back-story and sub-plot. Mr. de lint uses all this with euphoric language, grammar,
figuratve language and diction. His narrative is inviting. He allows the reader to enter a world to accept and have faith that there are other realms (maybe dreamable), to be on a path/jouney and to reveal yourself to friends. Highly recommended!

3/30/16

Somehow , my review of my 2nd reading and marking it 'read' was not registered.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty conflicted on this one. The concept is good and the main character, Cat Midhir, and her friends are great and I like them. The writing is pretty solid overall, although I do think certain elements could have been fleshed out in place of others.

My big objection is the villain and how much of his vile actions are shown, mostly for the purposes of letting us see how evil and powerful he is. Let’s get this out of the way: the villain rapes and murders a lot of secondary characters. Not Cat, fortunately, though he comes close. But that’s a crime I don’t want to read about, especially in a fantasy story. This book is neither nonfiction nor a story that really deals with the consequences of rape, and so the inclusion of rape (several instances) feels exploitative and just plain bad.

I’ve read some of Charles de Lint’s short stories, and they were masterful and not exploitative even when they dealt with disturbing subject matter. But this one, I can not recommend. There was much I liked, but the darkness overshadows them too much.

[jack]

pretty good read. i was not really into the amount of characters and how they were introduced, but things came together pretty well. i also think this was an earlier book, so that gripe may have been handled in later titles. i will probably find out. i do like the overall theme of mythology (of one sort or another) alive and well. it looks like this is a pattern through his other books. good.

[Amber M. McCarter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was entertaining enough, but lacking any real depth - even though that is precisely what the story purported to be about. It tells you that deeper things are being revealed and realized, without any actual development of these claims in plot or character. So it was a little disappointing, because it had the bones to be much better, and just... wasn't.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to force myself through the first hundred pages. Way too many characters, way too much time spent describing things that don’t really have a bearing on the story and too little plot. The pace did pick up in the second half of the book but it never really came together.

[Mary C]

I always enjoy his books and did this one. But this one was a little more scary than most.

[Agerius · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yarrow is a book which resolutely does NOT do what it says on the tin. Its presentation screams pulp 80s fantasy in the established tradition; its execution is something entirely different and thoroughly weird. Cat Midhir is a fantasy author in Ottawa, Canada whose stories come from her own vivid dreams of a world beyond our own. But her writing stalls when her dreams cease, and their cessation is the work of Lysistratus, a vampiric entity which feeds on the dreams of mortals, addicted to the druglike rush he experiences from them, often killing them in the process. Can Cat and her friends defeat Lysistratus before it’s too late? Well, yeah, but can you at least pretend it’s in question?

“Urban fantasy” wasn’t exactly a firmly established concept in 1986, and de Lint’s execution of it represents all the wild and wooly beginnings of a subgenre in flux. It’s difficult to properly articulate all the things that make Yarrow such a weird ride. The peculiar specificity of its setting is one: you can barely get through a paragraph without de Lint referencing a street or business name in Ottawa, Canada’s Boringest City (quite an accomplishment in a country with so much competition for that trophy.) The insane surplus of secondary characters is second; de Lint drops something like a dozen named characters in the first 10 pages of the book, only about half of which are truly of consequence to the plot, and another half of those which could still be excised without doing much damage. Its resolute horniness is yet another; my man de Lint LOVES to fuck and he makes sure you know it, which doesn’t necessarily bother me but seems like a very strange inclusion in a novel like this. In short, you’re in pretty weird territory with this one, like the fantasy novel version of listening to your one friend who constantly gets hung up on details while trying to tell you a story. “So last Thursday I was hanging out with Sarah- wait. Was it Thursday? It might have been Wednesday. I think it was Thursday though because I think I took the garbage out before we met up at the park. Well, we got lunch and THEN we went to the park…”

All this eccentricity is part of what I look for in these sorts of ramshackle pulp novels, but the juice isn’t really worth the squeeze- Yarrow is ultimately pretty boring despite its strange affectations. Neither Cat nor her companions nor even Lysistratus are compelling characters, and much of the novel proceeds as a kind of low-energy horror story with Lysistratus bumping off irrelevant redshirts while Cat plays the “you gotta BELIEVE me” card with her friends. The intrusion of her fantasy world into ours is what you would imagine would be the crux of the novel, but it’s strangely underutilized (and wouldn’t be a tremendous asset even if more heavily employed due to how weirdly uncreative that fantasy world is); a similar critique could be leveled at the book’s efforts to present a kind of extended metaphor for the pains of the creative process at its beginning which is quickly abandoned and replaced with, really, not much of interest or consequence. If I was to hazard a guess, it seems like Yarrow was a book with a few substantial ideas- the dream feeding, the metaphor about creativity, and a really early kind of reverse Isekai setup- which couldn’t find a satisfactory common ground, and de Lint ended up cobbling them together, dragging the book to its conclusion, and calling it a day. Pretty disappointing, all things considered. Its intensely strange style and weird grab bag of elements makes it of some limited interest to the dedicated pulp aficionado, but it’s ultimately just a footnote, and not a very exciting one at that.

https://hideousrecollection.substack.com

[Andree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is very much an average. In the end this a blend of the good and the things I liked a lot less.

The good:
- The setting is interesting to see, and not a common one. It's interesting to read something set in 1982 Ottawa and see what has (and has not) changed in 40 years.
- The character work. I've read a lot of de Lint, starting when I was a teenager, and one thing I would say he does really well is character work. You can see the seeds of that here, in what is a fairly early novel.
- The writing itself. I like de Lint's writing. There's a charm to it. I can see hints of it developing here, though I don't think it's entirely successful (see below for why).
- I feel like in the end this a novel about friendship and empowerment, which was good in the end.

What I liked less:
- The pacing. Something felt off right from the start. I don't know that I think this is well paced. It escalates quickly right from the jump, and I'm not sure that it wouldn't have been helped to have a bit more context. Also, it escalates so quickly in terms of stakes, that I kind of felt like the narrative had nowhere to go.
-Linked to the pacing - there are a lot of characters introduced really quickly. I think that could have been better paced. THey're all individually well done, but there are too many to keep track of too quickly. Also, there's a really charming friendship story that seemed almost out of place when juxtaposed with the villain's POV sections.
- The villain was too all powerful to be all that interesting. He's a dream thief and a parasite (you learn this really early on), so trigger warning which I don't really do, but this seems to warrant it for mind control, a lot of violation (mental and physical), rape and murder. It's never explicitly described, and not all the victims are women so it never feels like sexism on the part of the author, but there is a fair bit of it, and it starts really, really early in the novel (see also issues with pacing). And there is literally nothing any of the characters can do. The book makes clear that this is obviously evil, and it's part of a broader theme, but I also couldn't help feeling that some characters were essentially cannon-fodder. Either way, I was very aware that this was written in the 80s. Maybe it was just darker than I was in the mood for.

In the end, I'm not sure how I feel about this book. It almost feel like it's two halves - some elements I really enjoyed, and some I did not.

[Ketutar Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well...
This is a story of an author who gets her inspiration from another world which she visits in her dreams, and a vampire. Just as the description says.

I hate her. I don't understand her reaction and reasoning at all, it makes me want to slap her, and I don't understand how Ben and Peter can find her in any way charming, attractive, delightful. If this was written by a worse author, I'd call her marysue and give this book one star... but - Charles de Lint... *sigh* I like his books.

There are too many characters named in this book. Only a handful of them are important. I wish Charles had used only first name or last name or a job title of most of the secondary characters. We don't need to know Albert's last name. We don't need to know the name of the person who found his body. We don't need to know Lisa's last name, or the names of her parents. All those names just make it harder to follow. There's a LOT of POV jumps in this book. Some of the POVs are characters's who appear only once and are basically uninteresting.

I like how Charles dropped the names of authors and books :-) I got a couple of books to my TBR list :-D

I like the idea of this book. I like the villainy of the villain. Brrr.... I like it how Charles managed to raise the odds over and over again, make the bad things happening worse all the time, and keeping the interest and tension... he lost me a little when Cat had her breakdown and was a total a-hole, and the ending was... bleh. But - it was ok. I didn't hate it. I might have given it three stars, but I feel like I have to be fair, and she was a marysue.