Review: The Library at Mount Char author Scott Hawkins

Title: The Library at Mount Char

Author: Scott Hawkins

Series: N/A

Audience: Adult

Rating: 4

TL;DR: What are twelve adopted godlings to do when their “Father” goes missing, leaving the power of his famous library up for grabs?

Longer review: On Labor Day, 1977, a Pershing missile was dropped on the Garrison Oaks subdivision in a futile attempt to kill a god. Twelve of the children who survived the devastation thanks to the powers of “Father,” became his apprentices.

Years later, we meet Carolyn and her damaged and deranged “siblings”, as they gather together to learn the fate of their Father, who has disappeared.

Who will succeed him? The savage and brutal David, who has studied the arts of war? Mad Margaret, who has been murdered and resurrected thousands of times? Or will it be the quiet and crafty Carolyn, underestimated by all her siblings? Which sibling will be the first to gain access to Father’s vast and powerful library? And can these men and women manage to rediscover the shreds of humanity that remain to them after the years of physical, psychological and emotional abuse they underwent in order to become gods?

Author’s Website: http://www.shawkins.net/

Read alikes

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. If you enjoy the cut-throat sibling rivalry of The Library at Mount Char, you might also enjoy the intrafamilial intrigue of Zelazny’s series.

The Lost Swords series by Fred Saberhagen.

Review by Teresa Dahlgren, Waterloo Public Library

Review: Long Black Curl by Alex Bledsoe

Title: Long Black Curl
Author: Alex Bledsoe
Information on series: Third book in series, after “The Hum and the Shiver” and “Wisp of a Thing.”
Audience: Adult
Rating: 4
TL;DR: Exile Bo-Kate Wisby returns to Needsville, intent on uniting the Tufa and bringing them out of hiding and into the modern world. The problem? She doesn’t care how many people she has to murder in order to do it.
Longer review: This is the third book by Bledsoe set in the Tufa community of Needsville, Tennessee. The Appalachian setting brings to mind bluegrass music, the majestic isolation of mountain valleys, and shades of the feuding Hatfields & McCoys, creating the perfect atmosphere for an exiled Fairie community to take root in North American soil.
As has been slowly revealed in the previous two books, the Tufa are an Americanized splinter group of the Tuatha de Danann, cast out long ago for the sins of their leader, Rockhouse Hicks.
In the previous book, the tyrannical Hicks lost much of his former power over the community. While many of the Tufa were happy when this happened, exile Bo-Kate Wisby had reason to be the ecstatic. Rockhouse’s fall from power broke the enchantment that kept the psychopathic Bo-Kate from being able to return.
Bo-Kate is full of fury, and determined to take her revenge on the community that cast her out, stole her voice and separated her from the love of her life. She is more than willing to kill anyone who stands up to her, and leaves a trail of bodies through the community as she tries to win enough support to destroy Needsville, once and for all.

Author’s Website: http://alexbledsoe.com/

Read alikes:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Almost anything by Charles de Lint
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

Reviewed by: Teresa Dahlgren, Waterloo Public Library

Review: Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente

 Title: Six-Gun Snow White

Author: Catherynne M. Valente

Information on series: Not part of a series

Audience: Adult, though with appeal for some older teens

Rating (scale of 1-5, with 5 being highest): 4.5

TL;DR: A violent, witty novella-length retelling of Snow White set in the Old West written with a very distinctive and lyrical narrative voice.

Longer review: My love of fairy tales brought me to the fantasy section as a child, and served as my gateway to dragons and wizards and all the rest. There is something magical about a well-written retelling that allows you to experience a familiar favorite, as if for the first time.

Catherynne M. Valente has drawn on myth and folklore in many of her award-winning novels and shorter fiction for both adults and younger readers (you might recognize her as the author of the middle-grade The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making). Valente has described her style as “mythpunk” (à la cyberpunk). Her Six-Gun Snow White is, no surprise, a retelling of Snow White set in the American Old West.

What made Valente’s retelling stand out for me was the narrative voice. It’s a distinctive, witty style with grammar and vocabulary that brought the Old West setting and characters to life. This could very easily have become a gimmick, but instead the style helped to underscore what Valente had to say about gender, race, and magic. In fact, this proved to be the sort of book where I found myself going back to reread passages and mark favorite quotes. I’ll limit myself to sharing two here:

“In my experience, folk find it nigh on impossible to call a thing what it is.” (page 10)

“You can tell a true story about your parents if you’re a damn sight good at sorting lies like laundry, but no one can tell a true story about themselves.” (page 69)

It’s a violent, bittersweet story that will appeal most to readers who look for language and style over plot and characters. A taste for dark humor would not go amiss either.

Read alikes:

Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Emma Rios, & Jordie Bellaire: This graphic novel is another fairy tale set in the Old West, though it is an original tale that rather than a one-for-one retelling. The story is complex, and the artwork is often stunning.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: Like Valente, Gaiman often draws on folklore and mythology for inspiration in his stories. The mythology in The Ocean at the End of the Lane is familiar in the way that nightmares are familiar. This is also a novella, and the writing is lyrical, though it’s a very different poetry.

Deerskin by Robin McKinley: McKinley wrote some of the first fairy tale retellings I ever read, so it’s possible I’m including this more from nostalgia than for its appeal factors. That said, Deerskin is a dark story of abuse, escape, and recovery lyrically told.