Beowulf’s loyal comrade takes the spotlight in this charming tale.
This fantasy follows Beowulf’s last living relative into uncharted troll country.
During the sixth century A.D., a two-headed troll rules the Hardanger Kingdom in Norway’s sunless, unmapped north. One head is named Vidar and the other Ansgar, and they both love the taste of human flesh. But Wiglaf the Geat, the last living relative of the Geat King Beowulf, has more pressing concerns. He left his village two months ago, disgusted by his Thane comrades as they ran from the dragon of Earnanaes. Now he’s hunkered down against a granite boulder, trapped in an endless storm with nothing but his sword, Gudbrand, and a reindeer fur. Will he ever find new associates of whom he can be proud? Enter Elenora, the lady troll who rescues Wiglaf and brings him to her cave. Though Wiglaf is delirious, Elenora wears a magic hat to disguise her hideousness, which includes a tail and “hollow backside.” She soon treats him to stew and cures his frostbitten hands and feet. Wiglaf is grateful and agrees to grant her a wish that is within his power. “I want to be married and have a child,” she says, making the warrior (and bachelor) wonder what he’s gotten himself into. In this winsome novel, Girvin (Lucky, 2018, etc.) polishes iconic fantasy elements to a remarkable sheen. The brief presence of Beowulf, who tells Wiglaf, “May your heart remain true and your sword unbreakable,” opens the narrative with mythic thrust. Discussing different types of trolls, Girvin is playful, saying about “farm animal trolls” that they “could whisper in animal ears and make hens not lay eggs as well as tiny trolls that could hide in a child’s mouth and chisel out cavities.” The story’s center is pure sweetness, as Elenora begins her journey with no concept of love—which Wiglaf corrects. Fanciful plot threads, like Dapple, the giant forest cat who slowly picks off the 99 ravens keeping Elenora prisoner, make this a treat for adults and adventurous younger readers alike.
Beowulf’s loyal comrade takes the spotlight in this charming tale.Pub Date: April 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-64214-784-1
Page Count: 154
Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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