Posted by: Fence in Books
Author: Charles De Lint
ISBN: 0330339591 DDC: 813.54
Once Upon a Time Challenge
LibraryThing : More reviews
Katherine Mulley had been dead for five years and two months, the morning Isabelle received the letter from her.
I’ve read a few of De Lint’s books in recent years (and how old does typing that make me feel) but I think this may be my favourite so far. It tells the story of Isabelle Copley, an artist who has, in many ways, retreated from the world to live in isolation on an island, and the beings her paintings breathe life into. The story takes place over twenty years, and a lot is told through flashbacks, as well as the odd journal entry. The majority of the story we see through Isabelle’s eyes (though not in first person), but there are few others who have bits and pieces to tell us as well. The use of flashbacks and these different narrators means that the reader is never sure what happened in the past. Important events seem so different depending on the character, but it never gets so frustrating that I wanted the author to have used a different story-telling device.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:
'verse,
8 Stars,
813.54,
art,
artists,
Charles De Lint,
Memory and Dream,
Newford,
Once Upon A Time Challenge,
sff
Related posts
Posted by: Fence in Books
Author: Charles de Lint
DDC: 813.54
See also: Library Thing ; Once Upon a Time ; A Librarian told me so
It starts with this faint sound that pulls me out of sleep: a sort of calliope music played on an ensemble of toy instruments. You know, as though there’s a raggedy orchestra playing quietly in some hidden corner of my bedroom, like the echo of a Tom Waits song heard through the walls from the apartment next door.
The blue girl of the title is Imogene, one of the narrators of this book. She and her family have just moved to a new neighbourhood in Newford, and Imogene is determined not to cause trouble. Not everyone wants her to fit in though. At her new school she is picked on by the “popular crowd” although never to the extent that her best friend Maxine is. And of course talking with ghost is never a very normal thing to do. Still, unless trouble comes looking for her Imogene won’t go looking for it. But there’s the rub, trouble, in the form of the school’s resident fairy population, does come looking for her and it isn’t everyday teenage hassle either. No, the fairies bring with them the probability of death.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:
7 Stars,
813.54,
Charles De Lint,
cross-over worlds,
faerie,
Newford,
Once Upon A Time Challenge,
outsiders,
sff,
The Blue Girl
Related posts
