[Reviews] The Orphan's Tales duology, Catherynne M. Valente
I finished reading these a few days ago, and have let them simmer in my brain for a while.
I'm really, really going to try not to be so spoilery as my reviews usually are, because these books deserve to be discovered.
Have you ever read a book and wondered about the supporting characters, about the events that shaped their lives and brought them to the point of being part of the heroes tale? Have you ever wished the author would write more on this character or that?
The Orphan's Tales will not leave you with these questions.
The first book, In the Night Garden, introduces us to the girl in the garden, whose eyes are ringed with the ink of a series of intricately linked tales. Supposedly, when she has read all the tales aloud to someone with ears to hear, the spirit that left the tales with her will return to judge her. Her audience: a boy, unafraid to approach the "demon" girl, or listen as she speaks.
This is the outward tale, the one that encircles all the rest. The majority of both books involve the girl telling her stories to the boy, though there are interesting intermissions between some stories, so the reader comes to know and love the girl and boy as well as they know the characters in her tales.
The tales weave in and out of each other seamlessly, picking up characters here, leaving them, and returning to them later when their individual story intersects again with the larger narrative. Most of the time, there's no obvious connection between tales, at least until they're finished, but every single one, and every character, has importance to the larger story in ways the reader cannot imagine. This is an intriguing and very compelling way to tell a tale, and one that takes an extraordinary level of organizational skill from the author, and Valente absolutely delivers. Some of the stories were familiar to me, with endings turned inside-out, and some were not familiar, though they probably are for others.
For readers accustomed to a start-to-finish linear progression from beginning to end structure to plot, to read In the Night Garden can be disconcerting at first. Stories within stories, tales that have other tales in them in layers and layers before the original tale can be completed. Once the reader knows this is the format, however, and if they're the type to be flexible and open to new experiences, then it won't be difficult to adjust to this story structure. Patience is key, knowing that yes, all the tales will be completed in their own time.
Valente's language sometimes made me read passages over again to make certain I understood them; to me, it seems "thick" with meaning and description, which isn't a bad thing at all, but such a density of meaning in every single word isn't typical of literature. Valente's word choices are unusual, but fit within the slightly tilted world of fairy, folk, and other tales she's given us in The Orphan's Tales. Language is one of Valente's strong suits, because her prose is quite different from anything else I've read, and inevitably fits the theme and feel of her work, no matter the setting. The style fits The Orphan's Tales, yet also fits Palimpsest, which has a very different setting. A new reader to Valente shouldn't allow what I've called her density of meaning to turn them away. Given a chance, Catherynne Valente's work can change worlds and lives.
Find The Orphan's Tales at Amazon: In the Night Garden and In The Cities of Coin and Spice
Find Palimpsest at Amazon: Palimpsest
Read Valente's online project, inspired by a book-within-a-book in Palimpsest, and donate: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Visit Catherynne M. Valente on the internet: Catherynne M. Valente
Catherynne M. Valente on LJ: yuki_onna
Note: My enjoyment of The Orphan's Tales has led me to reread Palimpsest and re-evaluate the things that left me feeling unsatisfied on the first read-through. I will most likely update my Palimpsest review when I'm finished.
I'm really, really going to try not to be so spoilery as my reviews usually are, because these books deserve to be discovered.
Have you ever read a book and wondered about the supporting characters, about the events that shaped their lives and brought them to the point of being part of the heroes tale? Have you ever wished the author would write more on this character or that?
The Orphan's Tales will not leave you with these questions.
The first book, In the Night Garden, introduces us to the girl in the garden, whose eyes are ringed with the ink of a series of intricately linked tales. Supposedly, when she has read all the tales aloud to someone with ears to hear, the spirit that left the tales with her will return to judge her. Her audience: a boy, unafraid to approach the "demon" girl, or listen as she speaks.
This is the outward tale, the one that encircles all the rest. The majority of both books involve the girl telling her stories to the boy, though there are interesting intermissions between some stories, so the reader comes to know and love the girl and boy as well as they know the characters in her tales.
The tales weave in and out of each other seamlessly, picking up characters here, leaving them, and returning to them later when their individual story intersects again with the larger narrative. Most of the time, there's no obvious connection between tales, at least until they're finished, but every single one, and every character, has importance to the larger story in ways the reader cannot imagine. This is an intriguing and very compelling way to tell a tale, and one that takes an extraordinary level of organizational skill from the author, and Valente absolutely delivers. Some of the stories were familiar to me, with endings turned inside-out, and some were not familiar, though they probably are for others.
For readers accustomed to a start-to-finish linear progression from beginning to end structure to plot, to read In the Night Garden can be disconcerting at first. Stories within stories, tales that have other tales in them in layers and layers before the original tale can be completed. Once the reader knows this is the format, however, and if they're the type to be flexible and open to new experiences, then it won't be difficult to adjust to this story structure. Patience is key, knowing that yes, all the tales will be completed in their own time.
Valente's language sometimes made me read passages over again to make certain I understood them; to me, it seems "thick" with meaning and description, which isn't a bad thing at all, but such a density of meaning in every single word isn't typical of literature. Valente's word choices are unusual, but fit within the slightly tilted world of fairy, folk, and other tales she's given us in The Orphan's Tales. Language is one of Valente's strong suits, because her prose is quite different from anything else I've read, and inevitably fits the theme and feel of her work, no matter the setting. The style fits The Orphan's Tales, yet also fits Palimpsest, which has a very different setting. A new reader to Valente shouldn't allow what I've called her density of meaning to turn them away. Given a chance, Catherynne Valente's work can change worlds and lives.
Find The Orphan's Tales at Amazon: In the Night Garden and In The Cities of Coin and Spice
Find Palimpsest at Amazon: Palimpsest
Read Valente's online project, inspired by a book-within-a-book in Palimpsest, and donate: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Visit Catherynne M. Valente on the internet: Catherynne M. Valente
Catherynne M. Valente on LJ: yuki_onna
Note: My enjoyment of The Orphan's Tales has led me to reread Palimpsest and re-evaluate the things that left me feeling unsatisfied on the first read-through. I will most likely update my Palimpsest review when I'm finished.