Tag: fae folk

Review: Orfeia

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Orfeia
Joanne Harris

Finishing out the year with Joanne Harris yet again, and far from the only Joanne Harris novella I read after indulging in Honeycomb, Orfeia stuck with me in a biting way.
I find with Harris’s work I have a tendency to incorporate it into my understanding of a given mythology. Blue Salt Road is how I always saw selkie stories, isn’t it?
Orfeia was unique and beautiful. I absolutely recommend it, her prose style reminding me of George MacDonald or Edgar Rice Burroughs but deeply cemented in a network of fae stories with Harris has been weaving through her many novellas and Honeycomb.
Orfeia follows a mother who has lost her adult child and is willing to travel into the land of the dead, through various fae traps, to restore her.
It was absolutely lovely.

Review: Honeycomb by Joanne M Harris

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I’ve been sitting on writing this review because I’m not sure how I want to structure it. Structure is fundamental to Honeycomb by Joanne Harris and this is my second contender for my favorite book that I’ve read in 2023.

In fact, the reliance on bees within the story is, I’m sure, a direct reference to the importance of structure to the novel.

I want to be assured that I do it justice.

Honeycomb is presented as a series of short chapters introducing interlocking stories and continuations of earlier chapters and characters, chiefly following The Lacewing King. Characters are, importantly, not named but given honorifics as the book utilizes traditional fae myths. As a person with ….an unkindly level of entomophobia, you’d think that this book would be near impossible for me to read as the many factions and clans of fae are all based on different insect species. However, I persevered and I actually really enjoyed the way the insects and the affectations of each fae were discussed.

Anyone who may remember the horrific katydid incident last year where I blew up discord channels and texts demanding to know how I got rid of the beast that had flown into my window (it took me four hours to work up the nerve to trap him between the screen and sliding glass door) should be very proud of me!

Not only did I push through, but this book has stuck with me incredibly. I love the very arch yet traditional approach to fae stories. It was nostalgic, reminiscent of reading collected fairy tales and brother’s Grimm compilations, but with an interconnecting thread that built and drove you deeper into the world that Ms. Harris was creating. It had an atmosphere similar to Susanna Clarke’s fae. The characterization both holds you at a distance as a reader and is engrossing, drawing you in to learn more about the various flawed characters and is reminiscent of old school fantasy like George MacDonald.

I recommend it highly.



Review: The Ladies of Grace Adieu

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This book was a bit of a struggle for me, admittedly, because while I adore Susanna Clarke and the tone, atmosphere, and world that she’s created, it was frankly strange to get accustomed to her in a short story format after Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

I found myself half way through the book before I struck on my favorite story of the lot, “Mr Simonelli or the Fairy Widower”. 

Prior to that it felt like I was floundering a bit looking for the punchline at the end of each story. “Ah, Rumpelstiltskin”, for example.

But the stories about fae folk are where I think Susanna Clarke really makes her name and sets the flag. She’s rekindled for me, a person who loves deals with the devil, just how devilish and dealing fae can be.

The stories after this midway mark all bear the same tone and quickness I expected of Susanna Clarke from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, down to the copious footnotes in “Tom Brightwind”. I worry I wouldn’t have stuck with the book if not for “The Ladies of Grace Adieu” themselves, the first story of the collection, which had all the snark and turn I like of her style.

Now I’m a bit struck at a loss because I’ve run out of Susanna Clarke to read. There’s a surrealist aspect to some of these stories that had me thinking of what it would be like if Samuel Beckett was writing fantasy. I already miss it. The atmosphere is hard to capture as effectively as Clarke consistently does.

I almost immediately passed off my thrifted copy to a friend; I need these stories still circulating.