Deborah in America!

As good as its cover

The pile of books on the table is glaring at me because I’ve read them but haven’t chatted about them, which is, I think, one of the points of the Once Upon a Time challenge. So, before I finish reading Hodd by Adam Thorpe, I’ll complete my “homework”.

Thanks to Tales of the Marvelous I now have a list a mile long of fairy-tale re-tellings I’m hankering to read  – some of which are in the mail except the mail can’t be bothered to do its job, although that’s another story.  The aim is to alternate one of the other genres with a Fairy Tales, and since I’ve covered already Myths and Fantasy, Entwined (this link has a cool animation created by the author Heather Dixon) is the first Fairy Tale.

On the cover a tousle-haired brunette (yay) in a sumptuous lace and tulle ballgown emerges from tangled silverfoil undergrowth into a lemony-green gray-gold garden overlooked by a delicately romantic castle.

My concerns that the book might not live up to the promise of  this image were unfounded.  Based on the Twelve Dancing Princesses, it retains much of the original story with nicely-judged layers and twists, much like the “Ladies Dance: Entwine” in the opening chapter.  Essential magic elements are understated but fitting. Wry humour delivers pacing and tone .  The (quite modern) characters are revealed through action and speech, rather than being baldly stated, so it isn’t difficult  to keep track of the floral twelve, and of their suitors, around whom some lovely sub-plots are wound.  The central theme of love and loss follows various paths leading to a satisfyingly Happy Ending.

Something I particularly enjoyed about Entwined were the tendrils (sorry, it’s too tempting!) of other tales: there is a magic tea set with attitude; the unkempt garden echoes Sleeping Beauty’s forest; mirrors feature significantly and the seductive Keeper reminded me of the fairy queen in Tam Lin.

A great story, well-written and definitely my favourite cover so far!

By the way
I’ve hung in there with Once Upon a Time (thanks to the comments received) and I am definitely starting to enjoy it, especially the latest episode: The heart is a lonely hunter.  I’ve rationalised that everyone appears hyper-attractive because these are, after all, fairy tales and not about ordinary, plain people.  In fact two out of the three other reasons I look forward to it are to do with appearance: I adore Mary Margaret’s styling and costumes and I have had a tiny girl-crush on Lana Parrilla since seeing her in Swingtown.  The third reason is because Jared Gilmore (Henry) is such an excellent actor.