Book Review - Leigh Bardugo's The Language of Thorns
The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Imprint
Publication Date: September 26th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
There are tales that should only be told in the darkest months or at the darkest hours. Tales of magic most wondrous and dangerous. Tales that you think you know the outcome but take you to unexpected vistas, places beyond which normal sanitized fairy tales end. There's a beastly prince who holds a town in his grasp. Yet all he really longs for is a story. One that ends true. And there's the young Ayama, overlooked by her own family, who could save them all or realize her own overlooked power. There are animals who believe that no matter what that they are the most clever and that they will never be caught. But what if they fail to see the danger in disguise? Then there's Nadya. Girls have been disappearing in the woods near her home. Everyone says the woods is eating them. But Nadya doesn't believe in that superstitious rumor. She believes the danger is closer to home. She doesn't trust her new step-mother who just has to be a wicked one. A witch that drives Nadya from her home and her beloved father and into the very woods that "eat" young girls. Yet Nadya finds a kind witch. A witch that takes care of her and eventually she learns that nothing is as it seems. Father's in fact can be trouble, as young and beautiful Yeva learns. Her father decides to barter her hand for his own prosperity, never once thinking what his daughter might want. Though one should never expect an outcome they desire when they don't fully appreciate what led them to victory. The worm can turn. As it does for Droessen the toymaker. He wants to better himself and his standing in the world. He wishes not to be someone brought for entertainment at the holidays. He wants wealth. He wants what his patrons have. So he makes a vehicle for his purposes, a nutcracker. One who will do his bidding. Yet what happens when knowledge and autonomy set in? Life always has a way to strike you down when you try to reach beyond your abilities, when you try to set your hat at something that you don't deserve. But most importantly, when you use others to achieve those goals. Ulla learns this the hardest way possible, but one related to living darkness might just find a way to get her revenge.
The Language of Thorns is a compilation of dark fairy tales that everyone should own. And I mean EVERYONE. You don't need to have read Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse books in order to appreciate them. You don't need to have any experience with her writing AT ALL. This is just an amazing series of tales that I know my grandmother would have loved to read with me, for her the darker the tale the more she enjoyed it. Of course if you ARE a fan of the Grishaverse this book should already be on your bookshelf for the deeper understanding you acquire of the complexity and history of the world Leigh has created. As with any good set of fairy tales several of these are well known tales told in a different way. We have Beauty and the Beast, The Nutcracker, and The Little Mermaid. She makes them all deliciously darker. And this is saying something because Leigh uses the original story of The Little Mermaid as her inspiration, NOT the Disney version... though you can still feel the Disney influence in a wonderfully twisted way. I loved all these tales so much but I have to say the retelling of The Nutcracker, "The Soldier Prince" won my heart. I have never been a fan of The Nutcracker, I have issues with the rat king, but here Leigh combines it with another story I am not too fond of, The Velveteen Rabbit, and creates a Christmas tale that is a meditation on what makes us who we are and what can happen if we take control of our own destinies and stories. None of these stories end up where you expect and I think that is what makes them so powerful. That and the illustrations. This book could be bought just for Sara Kipin's illustrations alone. She starts each tale with just one small drawing that every time you flip the page gets added to until the entire tale has this magnificent border that has morphed and changed over the course of the tale. As a final treat the last two pages of each tale are a beautiful illustration surrounded by the border we have seen develop. It's truly astonishing and reminds me of the awe I had for flip books when I was little. This whole book reminded me of my childhood and I love that this is a selection of fairy tales for those of all ages. Share it with those you love.
For me Christmas has always been about books. Even before I was the biggest book nerd out there, Christmas and books went together like a hand in a glove. There was a local children's bookstore in Madison called Pooh Corner that I'd invariably get gifts from. They'd come wrapped in that way only a store could do with a little tag with Pooh and Piglet. Usually they were wrapped in brown paper, but somehow that didn't matter, that red yarn ribbon was just the right accent. My shelves still contain all these books from Christmases past; except for Maurice Sendak's version of The Nutcracker. Seriously, those illustrations are the stuff of nightmares. But there was always a frisson of excitement waiting for these books to come from friends and family. Unlike presents from my parents or grandparents, the rules about waiting to open them were more lax so I could often finagle an unwrapping within a few hours of their arrival, though once a package from my aunt somehow circumnavigated the globe before arriving long past Christmas. Luckily books don't perish. As for presents from my parents, my brother and I were often allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve. One year I picked a present that I had been intrigued with because of it's book-like shape. It was On the Banks of Plum Creek, which happens to be one of my favorite books in the Little House series. In fact I received all the books in hardcover that year, though my mom insisted that they be on display in our fancy bookshelves, because she was also a fan. Some years my parents were more cunning in their wrapping so you couldn't detect books from that distinct book-like shape. My brother and I received the entire Children's Illustrated Classics in a box that could have easily fit the both of us! But the true Christmas gift was when I didn't have to assemble anything for my brother, he of the ever elaborate GI Joe and Lego playsets, and I could curl up with one of my new books.
