Tag: Historical
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The Ghost of Ivy Barn by Mark Stay
August, 1940. The ghost, the witch and the traitor… As the Battle of Britain rages overhead, a warlock leader from the Council of High Witches comes to Woodville with a ritual to repel the imminent Nazi invasion. The only catch is it involves full-frontal nudity on the White Cliffs of Dover. The Witches of Woodville…
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Babes in the Wood by Mark Stay
July, 1940. In a quiet village in rural Kent, a magical mystery leads to murder… Woodville has returned to ‘normal’ after the departure of the Crow Folk. The villagers put out fires from aircraft shot down in the Battle of Britain, and Faye Bright discovers that magic can be just as dangerous as any weapon.…
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The Song of Achilles
When a book you’ve been recommended a zillion times gets a special 10th anniversary edition, you know it’s well past time. I absolutely adored this story. Madeline Miller’s adaptation of Homer’s Iliad follows the romantic relationship of Patroclus, the exiled prince, and Achilles, the son of a king and a sea goddess, from before their…
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The Symmetry of Stars
Duelling in full armour one minute and embroidering flowers into a fine coat the next, this is a story of parallels and opposites, destiny and agency, nature and nurture. The Symmetry of Stars by Alex Myers follows two sets of twins, each pair the champions of opposing gods vying for control of the world. From…
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The Story of Silence
The Story of Silence by Alex Myers is a beautiful book, a fairy tale that’s full of heart, a joy to read. The Goodreads description‘s first paragraph sold me right away, rounded out with the perfect comparison titles: A knightly fairy tale of royalty and dragons, of midwives with secrets and dashing strangers in dark…
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The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage
This story bowled me over. Alix E Harrow builds a fascinating and strange world, breaking your heart in only a handful of pages. Set on a world straddling the Mississippi River, with the civilised East determined to subdue, stabilise, and settle the wild and ever-changing West. This is not the analogy of the Wild West…
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The Crow Folk
I adored The Crow Folk. Funny, spooky, witchy, and absolutely charming – I was captivated from start to finish. Set in a small Kent village populated with a charismatic cast of characters, Faye Bright stumbles across her late mother’s diary: ‘Here were rituals, magic, monsters, demons and, for some reason, a recipe for jam roly-poly.’…
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The Winternight Trilogy
Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy weaves stories of Russian folklore in an atmospheric tale of adventure, wildness, love, loss, magic, daring, difficult decisions, and moral ambiguity. The story begins on the fringes of the Russian wilderness. Folk endure the harsh winters, observe their superstitions and provide offerings to the household spirits, as they always have. Then…
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