Review: The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan
The Gracekeepers
by Kirsty Logan
Callanish lives in isolation as a gracekeeper, one who lays the dead to rest. When someone dies at sea - and in her post-apocalyptic world that Callanish lives in, nearly all the world is covered in water - the gracekeeper performs the ceremonies of the dead and maintains the watery graves. She is teased by the memory of a long-ago circus, one that starred a dancing bear that went rogue and killed its trainers. Across the sea, the daughter of the bear-dancers continues to perform in the circus. Called North, she lives with a nautical troupe of circus performers and travels from one island to the next, dancing with her bear to the delight of island-dwelling landlockers. She is betrothed to the ringmaster’s son, although neither young person is in love. She is desperate to escape the marriage before the secret North guards so carefully is revealed. When tragedy brings Callanish and North face to face, a connection is formed between the two young women that will eventually lead them both to freedom.
The world is split into two classes: the landlockers, who live on the island archipelagos, and the damplings, who live on boats with no permanent home. Ostentatiously, the landlockers are better off than those at sea, but their power is largely symbolic. Both groups suffer from want and lack, recycling even the smallest scraps because there is very little manufacturing and even if new things were available, no one could afford them.
North and her fellow circus performers are unwelcome on land, tolerated only for the entertainment they bring with each performance. The ringmaster’s dream is to own a piece of land large enough for a small house for his son, a fact known to all in the circus. The ringmaster’s pregnant wife, however, believes he means the son in her belly and not his adult son Ainsel. When she realizes her mistake, all her anger and frustration turns on Ainsel’s betrothed, North, and the disharmony threatens to tear the small circus apart.
The drama and excitement of the traveling circus contrasts sharply with the quiet, ascetic life of Callanish. Callanish spends her days caring for the birds that play an important role in her ceremonies, and conducting her ceremonial gracekeeper duties. She’s basically a nun. Days can pass without seeing a soul. In exile because she failed her mother, Callanish writes endless letters that she cannot bear to send.
Each character in the book wrestles with some form of loneliness. But something about the two main characters held me back; although I could clearly sense the connection between the two of them, that link did not extend out to me, the reader. I always felt distant and held somewhat at length from them.
Logan has a lovely writing style, gentle and soothing like the rise and fall of waves. When great events happen, her words speed up, whipping the reader like a storm, but always returning to that calming rhythm. It gives the story a mythic quality even before people blessed - or cursed - with selkie-like qualities recall old Scottish folklore. It also suits the world of the circus, enhancing the illusion and make-believe and mystery.
But it is very, very slow. Too slow, at times, so that my attention would wander and I’d start thinking about what I should cook for dinner or whether I’d remembered to buy stamps at the grocery store. So it’s a lovely story, but not an engrossing one.
3.5 out of 5 stars
To read more about The Gracekeepers, buy it or add it to your wishlist click here.
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2014:
2013: I'm off to Alaska!
2012: Fashionista Piranha on hiatus until May 24th...
2011: Bending the Boyne by J. S. Dunn
2010: Band of Angels by Julie Gregson
2009: Extraordinary Engines edited by Nick Gevers
by Kirsty Logan
Callanish lives in isolation as a gracekeeper, one who lays the dead to rest. When someone dies at sea - and in her post-apocalyptic world that Callanish lives in, nearly all the world is covered in water - the gracekeeper performs the ceremonies of the dead and maintains the watery graves. She is teased by the memory of a long-ago circus, one that starred a dancing bear that went rogue and killed its trainers. Across the sea, the daughter of the bear-dancers continues to perform in the circus. Called North, she lives with a nautical troupe of circus performers and travels from one island to the next, dancing with her bear to the delight of island-dwelling landlockers. She is betrothed to the ringmaster’s son, although neither young person is in love. She is desperate to escape the marriage before the secret North guards so carefully is revealed. When tragedy brings Callanish and North face to face, a connection is formed between the two young women that will eventually lead them both to freedom.
The world is split into two classes: the landlockers, who live on the island archipelagos, and the damplings, who live on boats with no permanent home. Ostentatiously, the landlockers are better off than those at sea, but their power is largely symbolic. Both groups suffer from want and lack, recycling even the smallest scraps because there is very little manufacturing and even if new things were available, no one could afford them.
North and her fellow circus performers are unwelcome on land, tolerated only for the entertainment they bring with each performance. The ringmaster’s dream is to own a piece of land large enough for a small house for his son, a fact known to all in the circus. The ringmaster’s pregnant wife, however, believes he means the son in her belly and not his adult son Ainsel. When she realizes her mistake, all her anger and frustration turns on Ainsel’s betrothed, North, and the disharmony threatens to tear the small circus apart.
The drama and excitement of the traveling circus contrasts sharply with the quiet, ascetic life of Callanish. Callanish spends her days caring for the birds that play an important role in her ceremonies, and conducting her ceremonial gracekeeper duties. She’s basically a nun. Days can pass without seeing a soul. In exile because she failed her mother, Callanish writes endless letters that she cannot bear to send.
Each character in the book wrestles with some form of loneliness. But something about the two main characters held me back; although I could clearly sense the connection between the two of them, that link did not extend out to me, the reader. I always felt distant and held somewhat at length from them.
Logan has a lovely writing style, gentle and soothing like the rise and fall of waves. When great events happen, her words speed up, whipping the reader like a storm, but always returning to that calming rhythm. It gives the story a mythic quality even before people blessed - or cursed - with selkie-like qualities recall old Scottish folklore. It also suits the world of the circus, enhancing the illusion and make-believe and mystery.
But it is very, very slow. Too slow, at times, so that my attention would wander and I’d start thinking about what I should cook for dinner or whether I’d remembered to buy stamps at the grocery store. So it’s a lovely story, but not an engrossing one.
3.5 out of 5 stars
To read more about The Gracekeepers, buy it or add it to your wishlist click here.
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2014:
2013: I'm off to Alaska!
2012: Fashionista Piranha on hiatus until May 24th...
2011: Bending the Boyne by J. S. Dunn
2010: Band of Angels by Julie Gregson
2009: Extraordinary Engines edited by Nick Gevers