someday I will write a review on time instead of seriously late
"I've confessed to everything and I'd like to be hanged.
Now, if you please."
This is not, perhaps, the opening you expect from a young adult fantasy novel. But if Franny Billingsley has demonstrated anything in her work, it's that her heroines are refreshingly real, complex, and unexpected.
Chime is Billingsley's latest work. It's also her most ambitious to date, twice as long as Well-Wished or The Folk Keeper and with a stated, rather than vague, historical setting. But it's still very much a Billingsley book, very involved with words and set in a world where sometimes deeply unsettling magic is just a matter of fact.
Our heroine and narrator is Briony Larkin, one of the twin daughters of the Reverend Larkin, living in a small village in a swampy area of Northern England. Briony is the sane daughter, it should be said, and she spends a lot of time looking after the not-altogether-there twin, Rose. The girls' mother died very early on, and their stepmother, who was basically a genuine mother figure, died recently. Now, Briony lives wracked by guilt and bitterness, the Reverend Larkin is distant, and Rose continues to be out there. But, as Briony knows, the story doesn't start until a handsome stranger walks in. Enter one Eldric Clayborne, self-confessed bad boy and intelligent but less than diligent student, son of the man who is draining the swamp. Eldric introduces some new elements to life in town, even as things start to unravel all around (there are a good many supernatural elements that are, for one reason or another, not happy).
Briony tells us early on that while she may twist around and hide things from others, she is always completely honest with herself and is reporting things in a way that reflects that, which of course actually means that her own view of herself (and some things around her) is distorted and she is a deliciously unreliable narrator. Guys, I kind of seriously love Briony. She's smart, fairly educated, curious. She has both that element of a love for the wild and that deep connection to words which are typical of Billingsley heroines. She is, for various reasons which get a slow reveal, laden with guilt and convinced that she should be hated, especially by herself. She has a strong streak of dry humor, most of which gets directed at herself. Briony also manages to be extremely distinct from Billingsley's other first-person narrator, Corinna of The Folk Keeper, even while Billingsley's distinct gift for language, especially imagery, is on display.
The rest of the cast, unfortunately, is not as strong. Rose is alright but she needs more page time for proper development, Reverent Larkin is interesting but frequently dismissed from the narration for very understandable reasons, and Eldric just rubs me the wrong way. Eldric shares a few traits with The Folk Keeper's Finian, but the traits specific to Eldric are ones I find rather annoying, and while Eldric is theoretically more complex he come off as flatter than Finian. I am sure there are people who find Eldric charming, but I am not one of them, though I do appreciate aspects of his relationship with Briony. And while the worldbuilding and Briony's characterization benefit from the length of the book, the plot has a lot of very predictable elements that grow more annoying the longer you are expected not to figure them out, and some of the twists (if it's right to call them that) left me dissatisfied. The occasional time jumps in the narration, which happen more frequently later in the book, can be disconcerting. I also have some issues with the class implications of the accents most of the villagers and supernatural creatures are portrayed as having and the way attempted sexual assault is handled.
These things being said, it really is a beautifully written exploration of guilt, and I thought the emotional abuse aspect was actually handled pretty well. I wouldn't say Chime is Billingsley's best book, I think The Folk Keeper holds together better, but I would definitely say that Briony is Billingsley's best lead. I will pretty much always recommend Billingsley on the beauty of her writing and the strength of her heroines, and Chime is no exception.
And as a petty side-note because I can, I hate the cover for this book. I hate the whole trend of ~darkly mysterious sultry photoshopped girl~ on the covers of a lot of YA, especially if it has supernatural elements, and that kind of cover especially does not suit a Billingsley book. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LOVELY LEONID GORE COVERS SHE USED TO GET?
Now, if you please."
This is not, perhaps, the opening you expect from a young adult fantasy novel. But if Franny Billingsley has demonstrated anything in her work, it's that her heroines are refreshingly real, complex, and unexpected.
Chime is Billingsley's latest work. It's also her most ambitious to date, twice as long as Well-Wished or The Folk Keeper and with a stated, rather than vague, historical setting. But it's still very much a Billingsley book, very involved with words and set in a world where sometimes deeply unsettling magic is just a matter of fact.
Our heroine and narrator is Briony Larkin, one of the twin daughters of the Reverend Larkin, living in a small village in a swampy area of Northern England. Briony is the sane daughter, it should be said, and she spends a lot of time looking after the not-altogether-there twin, Rose. The girls' mother died very early on, and their stepmother, who was basically a genuine mother figure, died recently. Now, Briony lives wracked by guilt and bitterness, the Reverend Larkin is distant, and Rose continues to be out there. But, as Briony knows, the story doesn't start until a handsome stranger walks in. Enter one Eldric Clayborne, self-confessed bad boy and intelligent but less than diligent student, son of the man who is draining the swamp. Eldric introduces some new elements to life in town, even as things start to unravel all around (there are a good many supernatural elements that are, for one reason or another, not happy).
Briony tells us early on that while she may twist around and hide things from others, she is always completely honest with herself and is reporting things in a way that reflects that, which of course actually means that her own view of herself (and some things around her) is distorted and she is a deliciously unreliable narrator. Guys, I kind of seriously love Briony. She's smart, fairly educated, curious. She has both that element of a love for the wild and that deep connection to words which are typical of Billingsley heroines. She is, for various reasons which get a slow reveal, laden with guilt and convinced that she should be hated, especially by herself. She has a strong streak of dry humor, most of which gets directed at herself. Briony also manages to be extremely distinct from Billingsley's other first-person narrator, Corinna of The Folk Keeper, even while Billingsley's distinct gift for language, especially imagery, is on display.
The rest of the cast, unfortunately, is not as strong. Rose is alright but she needs more page time for proper development, Reverent Larkin is interesting but frequently dismissed from the narration for very understandable reasons, and Eldric just rubs me the wrong way. Eldric shares a few traits with The Folk Keeper's Finian, but the traits specific to Eldric are ones I find rather annoying, and while Eldric is theoretically more complex he come off as flatter than Finian. I am sure there are people who find Eldric charming, but I am not one of them, though I do appreciate aspects of his relationship with Briony. And while the worldbuilding and Briony's characterization benefit from the length of the book, the plot has a lot of very predictable elements that grow more annoying the longer you are expected not to figure them out, and some of the twists (if it's right to call them that) left me dissatisfied. The occasional time jumps in the narration, which happen more frequently later in the book, can be disconcerting. I also have some issues with the class implications of the accents most of the villagers and supernatural creatures are portrayed as having and the way attempted sexual assault is handled.
These things being said, it really is a beautifully written exploration of guilt, and I thought the emotional abuse aspect was actually handled pretty well. I wouldn't say Chime is Billingsley's best book, I think The Folk Keeper holds together better, but I would definitely say that Briony is Billingsley's best lead. I will pretty much always recommend Billingsley on the beauty of her writing and the strength of her heroines, and Chime is no exception.
And as a petty side-note because I can, I hate the cover for this book. I hate the whole trend of ~darkly mysterious sultry photoshopped girl~ on the covers of a lot of YA, especially if it has supernatural elements, and that kind of cover especially does not suit a Billingsley book. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LOVELY LEONID GORE COVERS SHE USED TO GET?