Bookish Thoughts

This book is like a warm hug. It's about vampires, yes. But it's also about healing from trauma. And baking cinnamon rolls. It's a very, very slow book, and the narrator tends to babble. The plot doesn't really exist. It's just a cozy way to spend some time with a bunch of people who love each other a lot and don't want anything more than their quiet little life. I've read this book several times now. I'll probably read it several more. Every now and then, it's exactly what I need.

Reading the first page of this book was live diving into a pile of pillows. This is a cozy little story about a baker who enjoys a simple life with her family in the wake of a supernatural war that decimated the human population. She just wants to make cinnamon rolls and read trashy novels. And then she gets kidnapped by vampires and finds herself in way over her head. I loved it when I read it two years ago, and re-reading it was a bit like coming home. The narrator and main character, Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, babbles. She goes off on tangents and loses herself down rabbit holes. The story gets a bit circuitous, as she occasionally backs up to explain this or that detail. And I could see people getting frustrated with her. But I honestly love it, and I think McKinley pulls off the chatterbox character superbly. It adds a level of cozy intimacy to the book, like you're hanging out with a mug of tea while your best friend tells you about the crazy weekend she just had. P...

The Outlaws of Sherwood , Robin McKinley's take on the legend of Robin Hood, was a fun bit of escapist reading that I stretched out over Thanksgiving. Unlike her other books, there's no magic or fantastical element here. Which makes sense. Robin Hood isn't a fairy tale so much as a folk hero, and as such he's much more grounded in reality. McKinley attempts something akin to historical fiction here (while acknowledging that some things that are key to the legend aren't exactly historically accurate). I think she mostly succeeds, and I think where she didn't meet my expectations it's my expectations that were wrong. She really does spin an interesting tale, taking into account real concerns and hurdles. She increases the number of female characters, and gives them all interesting stories. (And love interests, because even though this isn't a fairy tale it kind of is). Mostly I liked this book right up until the end, which just didn't work for me. ...

Sometimes you find out that one of your favorite authors has written about one of your favorite topics and you end up with a new favorite book. It's one of the best experiences you can have as a reader - when a book perfectly meets your sky-high expectations. I started reading Robin McKinley years ago for her fantastic retellings of classic fairy-tales. She's great at taking the traditional damsel in distress and giving her enough strength and motivation to solve her own problems. And those strengths are less about fighting and more about family and friendship and nurturing. They're traits that are traditionally seen as feminine being raised to heroic status because it's through them that the princess saves the day. So when I found out she'd turned her focus to vampires for a book, I knew I had to get my hands on it. If you didn't grow up with Buffy , it's perhaps strange to describe a vampire book, particularly one where the vampires are definitely scar...

The Hero and the Crown is a prequel to The Blue Sword , and I think it's the superior book. It tells the story of Aerin, the hero Harry spends much of The Blue Sword trying to live up to, and it reveals that she's just as human as anyone else. Mostly. This story takes place a few generations before the other one, and there are some pretty significant cultural differences between the two. One of the fun parts of this book was seeing how many of those changes were initiated by Aerin. For example, she begins riding a horse without reins so as to better handle a sword while doing so, and that eventually filters out to the next generation of warriors. It really speaks to the sort of influential figure she becomes. There were other fun parallels between the two books, including a conversation that is repeated verbatim several decades later. But the real reason I liked this book better is the pacing. That's tied somewhat to Aerin being a more active character. She takes the ...

Robin McKinley has quickly become one of those authors whose books I will always pick up. Even when I know next to nothing about them, I know I'm in for a thoughtful fantasy adventure that will be worth my time. The Blue Sword  is a well-loved story about a young woman who chafes at society's restrictions on young women. But after she's kidnapped she gets a chance to live the life she's always wanted. The story is a lot of fun, and the world is really rich. If I have one complaint it's that Harry (short for Angharad) is proud to a fault. And that fault is that she never asks any questions. She's goes with the flow so well that I started to get frustrated. This girl is kidnapped, told she has magical powers and a destiny, trained for battle, and sent into a competition to determine her skills, and she just accepts all of it. There are a few scenes where she misses her family, sort of. But she never gets angry or even curious really. I think this also contri...

Robin McKinley is fantastic at re-imagining fairy tales in a way that puts women and their relationships with each other front and center. This retelling of Sleeping Beauty is no exception. The story focuses on Rosie, her upbringing by two fairies, and her deep friendship with next door neighbor, Peony. On the fringes are the Queen's mourning for her mother and the plans of the vengeful Pernicia. This is very much a comfort read. It does some fun things with mechanics of the traditional story. The gifts from the fairy godparents, things like curling hair, pale skin, and a beautiful singing voice, play out wonderfully. The curse and the country's reaction to spindles is fun. And I loved, absolutely loved, that the kiss that brings the princess out of her cursed sleep is delivered not by the prince (who she does love, truly) but by her best friend, with whom she shares everything. The only downfall of the book is the confusion of the narrative, which jumps aroun...

A couple of weeks ago, The Toast published a piece called Fairy Tales are Women's Tales . It's about the origins of fairy tales, their original content, and how they were sanitized and infantilized and given to children instead. I mention this because Robin McKinley has made a career of taking these fairy tales and giving them back to women. Making them dark and deep and rich and putting the women (not children, grown women) back in the center of the tales. Rose Daughter is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast . It's actually McKinley's second retelling of this particular tale. The first Beauty was published 20 years previously. I haven't read that one, so I can't speak to it. I can say that McKinley's second attempt at this classic is pretty incredible. Of course anyone will know the bones of the story. Beauty's father stumbles across the Beast's palace one night while traveling and gives offense. The Beast allows him to leave, prov...

Robin McKinley's Deerskin has been haunting me for a while. I first heard about it back in high school. I read and fell in love with a short story. I forget the name and author of that story and have thus been unable to find it again. But somehow the fact that it was inspired by a book called Deerskin stuck in my head. Over the years I've wanted to read it, but I've had a hard time finding it. Sometimes I got distracted by other books and simply forgot that this was the one I went to the bookstore to find. More often I looked and looked but couldn't find it. I considered ordering it online once or twice, but a part of me felt like that was cheating. I can't really explain that except to say that I'd lived with this book in the back of my head for so long that I felt like I needed to stumble on it naturally. And I finally did. Last weekend, after spending too long at the mall looking for a pair of jeans and failing to find a dress for my rehe...