What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. Weird sci-fi/fantasy book about a family feud and mutant animals which I've been trying to find for years! [s]
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This is definitely Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess, which is based on the Volsunga Saga. I recently identified it here for someone else who was looking for it.
Thank you so much Isabel!! I looked it up and it is definitely Blood Tide so thanks for that! You've solved the mystery!
Wow, that is a seriously odd and convoluted story. MUST READ!!!
So here's what I remember:
Two rival families have had a long lasting feud for generations, but one family negotiates to marry their daughter to their rival's son to end the feud and they agree. No one is allowed weapons at the wedding, which is being held by the grooms family who have secretly snuck weapons in on the waiting staff etc. They slaughter everyone except the bride (who they hamstring by slashing the backs of her knees), and the brides three brothers, who they capture. They carry the bride away and lock her in a high tower. She can't walk and is in a wheelchair and rarely has any contact from the the rival family at first. Her brothers are taken away and she doesn't see them.
The bride (can't remember any names) is befriended by a little kitten (who I think is white) which gets into the tower one day and is her only friend. She tells it about her brothers and the kitten runs away. The cat comes back after a while and transforms into a little girl. She tells the bride that she found the brothers, who are chained up outside the city walls (a place no one goes) outside the lair of a mutant beast, a man-pig thing. Man-pig is slowly eating the brothers one by one as a form of torture. The bride asks her to help save the brothers. (YOu also get the story from the point of the kitten who sees the poverty in the town and the brutality of the town guards on her journeys to and from the brothers). Kitten-girl saves the one remaining brother by freeing him and helping to lure man-pig away (I think into the territory of another mutant animal, a female one, possible a woman-pig but I'm not sure).
Meanwhile, the bride slowly befriends the guards and her husband (even though he killed her family) as he is feeling bad about the whole thing and I think didn't want to do it in the first place. I'm sure at one point she attempts an escape but due to her slashed knees doesn't get very far (although that might have been at the start...)
That's all I can remember really. I assume the brother saves her somehow but I really can't remember. Does anyone know this book? Can anyone remember the title or at least the author?? Please help!!!