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Title: Midwinterblood
Author: Marcus Sedgewick
Published: New York: Roaring Book Press, 2013 (2011)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 262
Total Page Count: 130,947
Text Number: 383
Read Because: personal enjoyment, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Seven interconnected vignettes, traveling backwards in time as they explore the dark history of Blessed Island and the two figures—Eric and Merle—who reappear there. Midwinterblood feels like mainstream experimental literature: a welcome and creative deviation from convention, but neither as bold nor successful as it could be were it to take its premise further. Sedgewick's voice has a stylistic brevity, nearly bare of imagery but cold and beautiful in tone; combined with the variety and mystery of the vignette narrative, this is a compelling and extraordinarily swift read. But the book's recurrent elements are heavy-handed, and the underlying truths—of their symbolism, and the island—are disappointing: simplistic, manufactured, with no lasting resonance. So too are Eric and Merle, whose identities and relationship gain almost no depth through seven repetitions. Compare to Catherynne M. Valente's Yume no Hon: imagery-rich cyclically explored mysteries with intense complexity and a well-defined character. Compare to Tongari's "25 Lives": stylistically brief and deeply evocative micro-vignettes which create a pointed but open-ended narrative. Midwinterblood isn't bad—it's well-inspired and highly constructed, readable and rich with potential. But it lacks the artistry and the willingness to push further the strangeness of its content and the progress made in its reiterations which would make it realize that potential. I don't particularly recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Marcus Sedgewick
Published: New York: Roaring Book Press, 2013 (2011)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 262
Total Page Count: 130,947
Text Number: 383
Read Because: personal enjoyment, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Seven interconnected vignettes, traveling backwards in time as they explore the dark history of Blessed Island and the two figures—Eric and Merle—who reappear there. Midwinterblood feels like mainstream experimental literature: a welcome and creative deviation from convention, but neither as bold nor successful as it could be were it to take its premise further. Sedgewick's voice has a stylistic brevity, nearly bare of imagery but cold and beautiful in tone; combined with the variety and mystery of the vignette narrative, this is a compelling and extraordinarily swift read. But the book's recurrent elements are heavy-handed, and the underlying truths—of their symbolism, and the island—are disappointing: simplistic, manufactured, with no lasting resonance. So too are Eric and Merle, whose identities and relationship gain almost no depth through seven repetitions. Compare to Catherynne M. Valente's Yume no Hon: imagery-rich cyclically explored mysteries with intense complexity and a well-defined character. Compare to Tongari's "25 Lives": stylistically brief and deeply evocative micro-vignettes which create a pointed but open-ended narrative. Midwinterblood isn't bad—it's well-inspired and highly constructed, readable and rich with potential. But it lacks the artistry and the willingness to push further the strangeness of its content and the progress made in its reiterations which would make it realize that potential. I don't particularly recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
