Book Rec, Review: Drowned Maiden's Hair
So, I remedy Twilight with awesomesauce to share! It is called The Drowned Maiden's Hair. It is children's lit (possibly not old enough to be considered YA?), of a genre that should exist, consisting of "Books With Orphans In Which Neat Shit Happens, Yo!" A Little Princess and Anne of Green Gables belong in this genre. You see it is awesome, for I will it to be so. Also I rhyme.
See, I wanted to call it fantasy, but while it is certainly fantastic it is only mildly supernatural (neither Sam nor Dean nor sex demons make any appearances. Honestly, the only thing I know about that show entirely consists of sex demons. The things you learn from fic!) The thing is it felt magical. And A Little... and AoGG feel magical too. HP is a Book With Orphans In Which Neat Shit Happens, Yo, and it is about magic, but that's beside the point. Maybe it's the setting; The Drowned Maiden's Hair is set at the turn of the 19th c. into the 20th.
I can't tell you much more about the plot than my_daroga told me (thank you thank you thank you!) in case you ever do read it: It's about this girl who lives at an orphanage. And then something happens, and there's a mystery. "Or something!" she added, because really I don't like mysteries and I might have sort of looked extremely skeptical.
Maud is her name and being a perfect, angel child is her game. Sort of a cross between Sara Crew and Mary Lennox, because Sara tries to be nice and always succeeds, and Mary never tries to and isn't nice. Maud tries to be nice and isn't. Frances Hodgson Burnette, btw: 1) My love of her got this book rec'ed to my_daroga so I suppose other people find it reminiscent, 2) Little Lord Fauntleroy is mentioned many times, but I was not familiar, just like Dakota Fanning. But Maud is not Little Lord Fauntleroy, and that is why Hyacinth and I think she's magnificent. And hearing that she is magnificent makes Maud stop chewing her bacon and try hard to look magnificent. Also Maud would defend her parasol bodily, with her life, which informs us all just the kind of girl she is. Lace is important, people. She also wonders if she could be ill in order to get everyone's attention, but is afraid she would not do it beautifully enough and so remains quite hearty throughout.
Meanwhile, Hyacinth is Dumbledore in Nagini clothing--that is, in the body of an oldish woman (Bathilda! Bag/rimshot). She's just like Dumbledore would have been had Ariana not died and he hadn't had to fight and defeat his lover and then come over all Muggle-loving and having weird relationships with socks (you, me, and Erised know he was thinkin' puppets, baby, puppets) and being all world-saving. In fact Hyacinth is nothing like Dumbledore, other than being both twinkly and sinister. Witness, her smile is also merry, and we all know that's Gellert's gig (hey. Where's that fic where Gellert gets all mpreg and Dumbly's a babydaddy, and the kid has both twinkly eyes and a merry smile?) But considering all that goes into making Dumbledore sinister--had things happened differently, perhaps some day he might've gone the way of seeming very kind and gentle, while at the same time leaving children to die . . . oh, wait.
Back to the magic, what's coolest about the plot, both supernatural and not, is that it is very relevant to the time period. The book does not give history lessons, but it does make topical references (even if it does use a few too many to other books--I enjoyed these references, but as a kid I would've found them frustrating, especially since my mom kept saying when I was nine, "Put that down; you won't understand Dickens until you're older!" Maybe she thought there was actual dick in Dickins...she made it sound all pervy, which of course made it that much more exciting and verboten). Coal mines! Child labor! Carousels! Oh my, and all. But anyway, there was a kind of excitement at that time in history, from what I can tell from reading too much Against the Day. And The Drowned Maiden's Hair manages to key into that excitement for the supernatural element, sort of like Gaston Leroux, but without the "Phantom" or the "Opera" or possibly the "of".
See, I wanted to call it fantasy, but while it is certainly fantastic it is only mildly supernatural (neither Sam nor Dean nor sex demons make any appearances. Honestly, the only thing I know about that show entirely consists of sex demons. The things you learn from fic!) The thing is it felt magical. And A Little... and AoGG feel magical too. HP is a Book With Orphans In Which Neat Shit Happens, Yo, and it is about magic, but that's beside the point. Maybe it's the setting; The Drowned Maiden's Hair is set at the turn of the 19th c. into the 20th.
I can't tell you much more about the plot than my_daroga told me (thank you thank you thank you!) in case you ever do read it: It's about this girl who lives at an orphanage. And then something happens, and there's a mystery. "Or something!" she added, because really I don't like mysteries and I might have sort of looked extremely skeptical.
Maud is her name and being a perfect, angel child is her game. Sort of a cross between Sara Crew and Mary Lennox, because Sara tries to be nice and always succeeds, and Mary never tries to and isn't nice. Maud tries to be nice and isn't. Frances Hodgson Burnette, btw: 1) My love of her got this book rec'ed to my_daroga so I suppose other people find it reminiscent, 2) Little Lord Fauntleroy is mentioned many times, but I was not familiar, just like Dakota Fanning. But Maud is not Little Lord Fauntleroy, and that is why Hyacinth and I think she's magnificent. And hearing that she is magnificent makes Maud stop chewing her bacon and try hard to look magnificent. Also Maud would defend her parasol bodily, with her life, which informs us all just the kind of girl she is. Lace is important, people. She also wonders if she could be ill in order to get everyone's attention, but is afraid she would not do it beautifully enough and so remains quite hearty throughout.
Meanwhile, Hyacinth is Dumbledore in Nagini clothing--that is, in the body of an oldish woman (Bathilda! Bag/rimshot). She's just like Dumbledore would have been had Ariana not died and he hadn't had to fight and defeat his lover and then come over all Muggle-loving and having weird relationships with socks (you, me, and Erised know he was thinkin' puppets, baby, puppets) and being all world-saving. In fact Hyacinth is nothing like Dumbledore, other than being both twinkly and sinister. Witness, her smile is also merry, and we all know that's Gellert's gig (hey. Where's that fic where Gellert gets all mpreg and Dumbly's a babydaddy, and the kid has both twinkly eyes and a merry smile?) But considering all that goes into making Dumbledore sinister--had things happened differently, perhaps some day he might've gone the way of seeming very kind and gentle, while at the same time leaving children to die . . . oh, wait.
Back to the magic, what's coolest about the plot, both supernatural and not, is that it is very relevant to the time period. The book does not give history lessons, but it does make topical references (even if it does use a few too many to other books--I enjoyed these references, but as a kid I would've found them frustrating, especially since my mom kept saying when I was nine, "Put that down; you won't understand Dickens until you're older!" Maybe she thought there was actual dick in Dickins...she made it sound all pervy, which of course made it that much more exciting and verboten). Coal mines! Child labor! Carousels! Oh my, and all. But anyway, there was a kind of excitement at that time in history, from what I can tell from reading too much Against the Day. And The Drowned Maiden's Hair manages to key into that excitement for the supernatural element, sort of like Gaston Leroux, but without the "Phantom" or the "Opera" or possibly the "of".