People seem to think that the Victorian era was all about
wholesomeness and light, given the image of a very “proper” Queen and the
proclivity at the time to change the endings of Shakespeare’s tragedies.
As this brilliant novel shows, the Victorian
times were really about filth and degradation and darkness and death, and
particularly about DRAMA.
There is
actually a hilarious exchange, early on, when one character “plays out a scene”
with a housekeeper having a fit.
Remember
… this was the Industrial Age, replete with shadowy figures like Jack the
Ripper, Jekyll and Hyde and a Christmas story which begins with a horrific ghost.
With faint echoes of “Seraphina” by Rachel
Hartman and Cornelia Funke’s “Thief Lord” this rich and complex book includes a
witch named Cassandra, dying of old age, and perhaps magic (“Magic always comes
with a price” – sayeth the producers of OUAT); a puppet master named Grisini,
whose very name evokes “greasy”; an orphaned girl named Lizzie Rose; her
workhouse companion, Parsefall; and a sad little rich girl, Clara.
Taking the title from the Shelley poem,
“Adonais,” the novel weaves storylines in ways you almost never see coming and
has writing that is mature and layered.
There
are enough description to paint a detailed picture but the narrative is in no
way dragged down.
Rather, it sucks you
in.
Take this example:
“…the frozen lake reflected the colors in the
sky:
gray and lilac, pale rose and
flaxen yellow.
The trees on the shore
cast deep shadows onto the ice, rimming the lake in black.”
A literary delight, the author employs many
devices that other writers are unable to pull off – such as a constantly
changing point of view – but is deft and careful with her tale, spinning it out
in a way that makes you feel as if you are there.
I did spend much of the book somewhat
confounded.
“What is this about, and
where is it going?” I wondered, but with a delicious sense of
anticipation.
It is one of those rare
books where I simply had to know what happened next, but was unwilling to see
it end (it is, thankfully, NOT a part of a series).
With little actual blood, there is morality here.
In discussing the loss of one of the
villains, Ms. Schlitz writes that the character “was a monster, but she would
not deny him the hospitality of a grave.”
Fascinating to read that on the same day as the headlines blare that no
cemetery in the U.S. will give the body of suspected terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev a place to
rest.
It made me think, but then, this
is a book that does that.
With a complex
vocabulary and a childlike but chilling cover, I’m not sure who might pick it
up.
That’s a shame.
This 2013 Newbery Honor was hands down one of
the best books I’ve read this year.
Make
the time and escape into a truly wonderful story.
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