strange and random happenstance

The great age of exploration when men went about the Earth planting flags in the most hostile of climates holds no interest for me. It doesn't just smack of colonialism, but of a severe superiority complex. Britain literally was trying to claim the South Pole to regain their manhood. And that isn't me projecting, they actually say that in The Last Place on Earth which is dark and bleak and boils down to two assholes doing something for no reason. Norway, led by Roald Amundsen, took the Pole because they were better prepared, but Britain, led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, arriving at the Pole a mere thirty-four days late were the real "winners" because of their heroic deaths on the return trip. By heroic I mean they froze to death in their tent because Scott had no business running an Antarctic expedition. Or at least that's my take after watching this grueling miniseries. Which is why I'm now going to talk about the music. Yes, no Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, and other famous celebs making some of their earliest film roles for me! For me it's all about Trevor Jones! His name is in the credits! It's really big! It's in the crossed flags that make a cross marking a grave. SO DRAMATIC! So mismatched. At the time Trevor Jones was contracted to do The Last Place on Earth he was smack dab in the middle of his "mystical" phase, having worked on Excalibur and The Dark Crystal with Labyrinth on the horizon. And that is exactly what this music sounds like. Which, given the subject matter, is a major disconnect. Because it sounds like he's written a third unreleased score for Legend to replace Tangerine Dream who replaced Jerry Goldsmith and not music for men toiling in the harshest of climes. I feel like there was an exec somewhere who spun a narrative about the South Pole and it's eternal winter being like a snow globe and Trevor Jones just ran with that concept. The glittering ice hovering in the air, the magical, unearthly environment, the eternal darkness, OK, I'm starting to talk about Legend again. But seriously, has someone edited this score to Legend because I think it would be slamming. Because the truth of the matter is I love this music. I want a soundtrack that I can listen to on a loop. My brother said it reminded him of the best in industrial library music from the seventies and he too thought it was slamming. But was, like me, perplexed by how this in any way connected with an expedition to the South Pole. At least it made the copious deaths and treks and eating of animals almost bearable. It's not an understatement to say it's the incongruous music that got me through this show. That and I really wanted to see Scott die. I particularly loved the Norwegians leaving him a fuck you tent at the pole. That was class. Because, fuck Scott! Long live Trevor Jones!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bill Nighy, Britain, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Excalibur, Exploration, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Hugh Grant, Labyrinth, Legend, Norway, Roald Amundsen, South Pole, The Dark Crystal, The Last Place on Earth, Trevor Jones

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Published by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: January 10th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Cambridge professor, Emily Wilde, PhD, MPhil, BSc, Dde, untenured, is hoping to change this status with her research trip to Hrafnsvik, Ljosland, the most isolated of Scandinavian countries, an island situated off the Norwegian coastline brushing the arctic circle. Emily is the foremost dryadologist in her field, but being a prickly woman inept at small talk has limited her advancement within the remorseless academic hierarchy. She knows better than most, she's been ensconced there since she was fifteen. When Emily's Grandfather, an amateur folklorist, died when she was a child his library became her best friend. Most children love faeries for their magic, but not Emily. To her the Folk were another world with their own rules and customs, and to a child who felt ill-suited to the human realm the lure was irresistible. And it's in the stories you unlock the secrets of the Folk. There are held the deepest truths. Because the Folk cannot be understood, living in accordance to whims and fancies that are little more than a series of contradictions with jealously guarded traditions that are erratically followed. They can be cataloged but true understanding is impossible. And that is exactly what Emily plans to do to achieve tenure. She is writing an encyclopedia. Her encyclopedia with be a pinnacle of faerie scholarship, though it is still incomplete and in manuscript form. A heavy thing presently totally some five hundred pages not including the appendices. It will be extensive, alphabetized, cross-referenced, and paired with illustrations as well as a phonetic guide. She is in Ljosland to learn about their Hidden Ones. They will be the feather in her cap and form the final entry to her life's work. She arrives with her dog Shadow and soon turns the village against her. Luckily, or not, depending on your point of view, her colleague Wendell Bambleby has decided to follow her in her hunt with his servants, commonly referred to as students, in tow. He has a reason for being there. He's been under a cloud of suspicion since it turned out his Schwarzwald study was faked. The incident has tarnished his reputation and therefore his ability to get funding and someone as unassailable as Emily could launder his reputation. They could coauthor a paper and do a joint presentation at the upcoming International Conference of Dryadology and Experimental Folklore in Paris. This would limit her time in Hrafnsvik and cede some of the credit to Bambleby. But it is acceptable. The only problem is Bambleby embeds himself into the lives of these villagers. They are suffering at the hands of the Folk. Five people have been taken in the last four years and a rather horrific changeling is in residence. And Emily feels the need to help. Though it might be far more dangerous to herself than she ever could have imagined and reveals Bambleby's secret to the world.

For quite some time now, in other words, the two years since this book has been in print, people have been telling me how much I needed to read it. And, I have to begrudgingly admit, that they were right. I don't like to admit I'm ever wrong if you were wondering, which I think is something Emily and I might agree on. Emily might be a bit too prickly for me at times and her empathy can wax and wane depending on her scholarly goals, but the book is a delicious blend of Amelia Peabody and The Mummy, obviously the 1999 classic staring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, with a huge helping of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Yet at the same time wonderfully unique while capturing a bygone era were academic research and journaling were in high regard. Sigh, for the academic life of a bygone era. Though it's the concept of home and homeland that weaves through this book that connected to me and made my heart ache. Homeland both ancestral and personal. On my mother's side I am fully Norwegian. You get all my family together and not only is it obvious we're related, but we're all blonde hair and blue eyes and about as tall as you can make us. The Scandinavian ideal. So I really connected with the people of Hrafnsvik. Yes, Ljosland doesn't exist and is an amalgam of Norway and Iceland, but it felt like my ancestral home. Here though I have to drop a note in for those people who say that this book insults Norwegians by being more Icelandic than Norwegian by saying that firstly, this is fictional, and secondly, the cross-pollination of myths, legends, and even names plays into Emily's theory that the Folk are far more in contact with each other than most academics think and just because this island is off the coast of Norway it is not Norwegian. Though you can't help thinking of Scandinavian cultures and Norway in particular with their fairy tales, folk tales, and fables. Oh, and the trolls. There are A LOT of trolls according to Norwegians. But when it comes time for a book to be written about fairies they're almost always set in England. It was wonderfully refreshing to see the less represented cultural creations takes center stage. And one of those creations has a big secret I'm about to spill, so if you don't want to know what Bambleby's secret is, turn away now. So Bambleby is Folk. In fact he's a dispossessed king. While he puts on a show of a lackadaisical cad he's really just someone horribly homesick. And I know exactly how he feels, mourning for a home you may never return to. I felt his pain because it is mine. While home is where your family is and he and Emily find a home in Hrafnsvik, it's also the homes that they can't return to, that I can't return to or have never been to that made this book resonate with me.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cambridge, Dryadology, Emily Wilde, Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries, Folk, Found Family, Heather Fawcett, Hidden Ones, His Dark Materials, Home, Iceland, Norway, Scandinavian, Summer School, The Mummy, Wendell Bambleby

House of Roots and Ruin by Erin A. Craig
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A modern masterpiece, this is a classic Gothic thriller-fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Erin A. Craig, about doomed love, menacing ambition, and the ghosts that haunt us forever.

In a manor by the sea, one sister is still cursed.

Despite dreams of adventures far beyond the Salann shores, seventeen-year-old Verity Thaumas has remained at her family's estate, Highmoor, with her older sister Camille, while their sisters have scattered across Arcannia. When their sister Mercy sends word that the Duchess of Bloem - wife of a celebrated botanist - is interested in having Verity paint a portrait of her son, Alexander, Verity jumps at the chance, but Camille won't allow it. Forced to reveal the secret she's kept for years, Camille tells Verity the truth one day: Verity is still seeing ghosts, she just doesn't know it.

Stunned, Verity flees Highmoor that night and - with nowhere else to turn - makes her way to Bloem. At first, she is captivated by the lush, luxurious landscape and is quickly drawn to charming, witty, and impossibly handsome Alexander Laurent. And soon, to her surprise, a romance...blossoms.

But it's not long before Verity is plagued with nightmares, and the darker side of Bloem begins to show through its sickly-sweet façade...."

Oh, the question then becomes, who are ghosts and who aren't!

Yvonne Got to York by M.C. Beaton
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 178 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A dead employer's legacy of five thousand pounds has allowed spinster Hannah Pym to resign from housekeeping and enjoy traveling the English countryside by coach. But adventure soon finds Miss Pym in the form of runaway brides, spirited heiresses, and international refugees, who continue to test her expert matchmaking skills.

The shy Miss Yvonne Grenier, a beautiful fugitive of the French Revolution, is quite terrified when a dangerous enemy boards her coach to York. Luckily, Miss Hannah Pym is also on board. Ever the matchmaker, Miss Pym sees the answer to Yvonne's plight in the hands and heart of another passenger - the Marquis of Ware.

Handsome and tailored to perfection, the Marquis has birth and fortune enough to defend Yvonne. Although the girl is of the French bourgeoisie and below his rank, Miss Pym is certain that Yvonne's Gallic graces and quick wit have more than piqued his interest. After all, a maiden in distress is irresistible - even to a confirmed bachelor."

While I'm over the moon at these books being reissued why is a Marquis riding in a common coach?

Her Little Flowers by Shannon Morgan
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Readers of Eve Chase, Kate Morton, and Anita Frank will devour this bewitchingly atmospheric, melancholy modern ghost story set in the lush hills of England's Lake District. There, a solitary women's quiet life spent in her crumbling ancestral manor house with the company of a child's ghost is dramatically interrupted when her estranged sister returns to share a horrific story of cruelty and desperation from decades earlier...

Francine Thwaite has lived all her fifty-five years in her family's ancestral home, a rambling Elizabethan manor in England's Lake District. No other living soul resides there, but Francine isn't alone. There are ghosts in Thwaite Manor, harmless and familiar. Most beloved is Bree, the mischievous ghost girl who has been Francine's companion since childhood.

When Francine's estranged sister, Madeleine, returns to the manor after years away, she brings with her a story that threatens everything Francine has always believed. It is a tale of cruelty and desperation, of terror and unbearable heartache. And as Francine learns more about the darkness in her family's past - and the role she may have played in it - she realizes that confronting the truth may mean losing what she holds most dear.

As moving and poignant as it is chilling, Her Little Flowers is a story of grief and enduring love - and of the haunting regrets only forgiveness can dispel."

Are the ghosts people murdered by the family!?! I can't be the only one thinking that!

Ghosted by Amanda Quain
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Never Have I Ever meets The X-Files in Amanda Quain's Ghosted, a gender-bent contemporary retelling of the Jane Austen classic, Northanger Abbey.

Hattie Tilney isn't a believer. Yes, she's a senior at America's most (allegedly) haunted high school, Northanger Abbey. But ever since her paranormal-loving dad passed away, she's hung up her Ghostbusters suit, put away the EMF detectors, and moved on. She has enough to worry about in the land of the living - like taking care of her younger brother, Liam, while their older sister spirals out and their mother, Northanger's formidable headmistress, buries herself in work. If Hattie just tries hard enough and keeps that overachiever mask on tight through graduation, maybe her mom will finally notice her.

But the mask starts slipping when Hattie's assigned to be an ambassador to Kit Morland, who's just transferred to Northanger on - what else - a ghost-hunting scholarship. The two are paired up for an investigative project on the school's paranormal activity, and Hattie quickly strikes a deal: Kit will present whatever ghostly evidence he can find to prove that the campus is haunted, and Hattie will prove it's not. But as they explore the abandoned tunnels and foggy graveyards of Northanger, Hattie starts to realize that Kit might be the kind of person who makes her want to believe in something - and someone - for the first time.

With her signature wit and slow-burn romance, Amanda Quain turns another Austen classic on its head in this sparkling retelling that proves sometimes the ghosts are just a metaphor after all."

Wait, do ghost-hunting scholarships exist? Because if they do I really need to know!

The Woman in the Castello by Kelsey James
Published by: John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Set in 1960s Italy, this stylish, atmospheric debut spins a bewitching web of ruthless ambition, family secrets, and the consequences of forbidden love, as an ambitious American actress snags the starring role in a mysterious horror movie shooting on location in a crumbling medieval castle outside Rome...

Readers who enjoy the moody Gothic allure of Kate Morton and Silvia Moreno-Garcia or the immersive settings of Lucinda Riley and Fiona Davis will be enthralled by Kelsey James' spellbinding web of intriguing mystery, family secrets, forbidden love, and midcentury Italian flair.

Rome, 1965: Aspiring actress Silvia Whitford arrives at Rome's famed Cinecittà Studios from Los Angeles, ready for her big break and a taste of la dolce vita. Instead, she learns that the movie in which she was cast has been canceled. Desperate for money, Silvia has only one choice: seek out the Italian aunt she has never met.

Gabriella Conti lives in a crumbling castello on the edge of a volcanic lake. Silvia's mother refuses to explain the rift that drove the sisters apart, but Silvia is fascinated by Gabriella, a once-famous actress who still radiates charisma. And the eerie castle inspires Silvia's second chance when it becomes the location for a new horror movie, aptly named The Revenge of the Lake Witch - and she lands a starring role.

Silvia immerses herself in the part of an ingenue tormented by the ghost of her beautiful, seductive ancestor. But when Gabriella abruptly vanishes, the movie's make-believe terrors seep into reality. No one else on set seems to share Silvia's suspicions. Yet as she delves into Gabriella's disappearance, she triggers a chain of events that illuminate dark secrets in the past - and a growing menace in the present..."

Nothing says Gothic horror to me like a mid-century movie set in Italy!

The Lady from Burma by Allison Montclair
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In Allison Montclair's The Lady from Burma, murder once again stalks the proprietors of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau in the surprisingly dangerous landscape of post-World War II London...

In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture - The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous - and never discussed - past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Mostly their clients are people trying to start (or restart) their lives in this much-changed world, but their new client is something different. A happily married woman has come to them to find a new wife for her husband. Dying of cancer, she wants the two to make sure her entomologist, academic husband finds someone new once she passes.

Shortly thereafter, she's found dead in Epping Forest, in what appears to be a suicide. But that doesn't make sense to either Sparks or Bainbridge. At the same time, Bainbridge is attempting to regain legal control of her life, opposed by the conservator who has been managing her assets - perhaps not always in her best interest. When that conservator is found dead, Bainbridge herself is one of the prime suspects. Attempting to make sense of two deaths at once, to protect themselves and their clients, the redoubtable owners of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are once again on the case."

Never trust a wife trying to find a second wife for after she's gone. That's solid advice I'll always believe in.

The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec
Published by: Ace Books
Publication Date: July 25th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The lives of two women - one desperate only to save her missing sister, the other a witch destined to become queen of Norway - intertwine in this spellbinding, powerful novel of Viking Age history and myth from the acclaimed author of The Witch's Heart.

Oddny and Gunnhild meet as children in tenth century Norway, and they could not be more different: Oddny hopes for a quiet life, while Gunnhild burns for power and longs to escape her cruel mother. But after a visiting wisewoman makes an ominous prophecy that involves Oddny, her sister Signy, and Gunnhild, the three girls take a blood oath to help one another always.

When Oddny's farm is destroyed and Signy is kidnapped by Viking raiders, Oddny is set adrift from the life she imagined - but she's determined to save her sister no matter the cost, even as she finds herself irresistibly drawn to one of the raiders who participated in the attack. And in the far north, Gunnhild, who fled her home years ago to learn the ways of a witch, is surprised to find her destiny seems to be linked with that of the formidable King Eirik, heir apparent to the ruler of all Norway.

But the bonds - both enchanted and emotional - that hold the two women together are strong, and when they find their way back to each other, these bonds will be tested in ways they never could have foreseen in this deeply moving novel of magic, history, and sworn sisterhood."

Norwegian Witch Queen! Now that's something my ancestors probably aspired to.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Allison Montclair, Amanda Quain, Erin A. Craig, Genevieve Gornichec, Ghosts, Gothic, Italy, Jane Austen, Kelsey James, M.C. Beaton, Northanger Abbey, Norway, Shannon Morgan, The Right Sort Marriage Bureau, Witches

Odd and the Frost Gaints by Neil Gaiman
Published by: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 22nd, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 128 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

In ancient Norway (Midgard) there lives a boy, Odd. His name is not odd, but he himself is a little, with an infuriating smile he loves to wear. Odd has had some rough times of late. His father, a gifted woodcarver, died on a pillaging trip. His mother, who feels alone in town because she is from Scotland, remarries a man who has his own kids and doesn't like Odd. Odd himself has become crippled. All of this Odd could deal with if only spring would come. Only this year spring isn't coming for some reason. Odd decides to run away to the wood cutting cabin his father kept deep in the forest. Once there he finally feels safe and secure, but he stumbles upon some interesting characters, a fox, an eagle and a bear. This being the Norway of myth and legend, they of course aren't want they seem. They are in fact Gods, fully animal and unable to change back, because they were banished from Asgard by a Frost Giant who tricked them. Odd says he will help, his mother used to sing him songs, and the boy always is able to defeat the giant. Once in Asgard it takes all that Odd has in him, even that which he didn't know he possessed to attempt to defeat the giant. But if Odd does succeed what will he do? He can't go home can he?

So I had doubts about this book working at first, most of them related to the quote on the back of the book: "inventive, short, yet perfectly formed novel." Who reviews a book on it's brevity but then has to mention, oh, that's not bad, it's "perfectly formed." Like it's being judged on its structure, like an essay you write for school. Of course they turned out to be right, but I still think that's going to turn some people off the book. A book is however long a book needs to be to fully tell the story, no more or less. This is such a sweet little compact and funny novel I think everyone should read it. What I love about this book is that while it's about Norway and Scandinavian gods, Neil Gaiman makes them seem so human and real, people you'd want to be around and not some mythical beings who you can't relate to. Oh, and they're funny.

But of course, underneath all the humor and myth there are also profundities. Beauty, wisdom and want, and what happens when you get what your heart's desire. And of course, Gods. While I didn't like Gaiman's American Gods, I liked his thoughts on the nature and behavior of them. I have read some reviews that felt this book was almost written as research for American Gods. I heartily disagree, and not just because temporally that's absurd. This book, while dealing with some of the Gods who will figure into his earlier work, is more of a little meditation of the nature of Gods, versus an all out treatise with a battle at the end. And of course he's fascinated with similar topics, we like familiarity, but it's the genius of Gaiman to bring us something that while it feels old is still so new. A sweet little fairy tale of the boy outwitting the giant, again, but gaining wisdom in the process. These people Odd has befriended are Gods, and the nature of Gods are they are timeless, unchanging and eternal. In American Gods they are forced out, made to change, while in Odd and the Frost Giants, they are as they always were and ever will be. This has all happened before and it can happen again. But Odd sees that now. I wouldn't mind spending time with this new Odd, and as Gaiman says in his hilarious bio at the back of the book, he "thinks there are more stories about Odd he would like to tell." I for one hope it's true.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 5:33 PM 2 comments  

Labels: American Gods, Asgard, Book Review, Gods, Midgard, Neil Gaiman, Norway, Odd, Odd and the Frost Giants