"You will not tell me how to shit!"
I've just finished As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann. I have never been good at writing book reviews; I really sucked at them in school, but I feel the need to impose you with my toughts on this book.
I love this book, though it wasn't love at first sight (I had to read the first 10 pages three times or so before I got going). It is not often I come across a book that I really like; I think the last one must've been American Gods by Neil Gaiman and that hardly provoked such an emotional response as this book did. Of course, I'm overemotional, anyway. And just to note that I usually love such things as stuff published in Weird Tales, H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. This book would've been quite new territory for me and I was thinking that, until I realised The Voice brought in the Weird Tales factor.
I really loved Ferris as soon as he appeared in the book. He is a complex character that seems to fool almost anyone with his friendliness and I don't think he even realises how evil and selfish he is in the end. At first he reminded me some ways of Alec from Swordspoint (Ellen Kushner. Hardly a masterpiece, though I adored Alec.), but I later realised that Alec is even in his suicidal weirdness much selfless person.
Jacob... there'd be so much to say about him. I feel for him and I can really identify with him. I felt the wrath when he did. I felt the joy when he did. Seems simply impossible when you look at his list of achievements before and during the book. Yet, I can't help to feel that in his place I may have chosen exactly the same path as he did. After all, he's just a human.
For me the ending really rivals that of The Farseer vol. 2 (Robin Hobb. One of the most excellent end to a book I've read so far). I wish it had never ended. After reading this, I'm even more confident that The Tawny Man ended on a wrong note.
And what became of poor Nathan?
One of my favourite little details must be Sir Freaky Nails. Brilliant. And of course, The Voice. :D
Well written, meticulously researched and has that X-factor. I will be haunted by this book for a long time.
“Fragrant were the embraces
That I shared with you
Where the wild mint grew.”
Bed of Mint ~ Clark Ashton Smith
I read that Maria McCann is writing a new book, this time set before and during World War II. Usually, I loathe books about war. This I cannot wait.
Randomly interesting that both The Farseer and As Meat Loves Salt are both written in first person, a style I usually dislike.