Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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a mermaid’s tail made of donkey skin (a dual cbr13bingo and #cannonbookclub adventure!)

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

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well, not exactly. What we have here are two retellings of classic fairy tales: Charles Perrault’s deeply upsetting Donkeyskin (recently reviewed by our very own BlackRaven) and Hans Christian Andersen’s  also unsettling The Little Mermaid. Both of these entries are picks for our upcoming #cannonbookclub event- and I’ll be discussing Deerskin further during our Zoom- but in the meantime, let these two help you choose your pick(s)! Also- both of these tales of girls on the cusp of womanhood have been reclaimed and retold by women. Hooray!

Bingo Category: Home

Deerskin – Robin McKinley 3/5

Be warned: Deerskin and, to a slightly lesser extent, Donkeyskin, feature some truly vile behavior at and from the hands of men. Both feature a King, maddened at the death of his beautiful Queen, who chooses that his next wife will be his teenage daughter. YIKES. In Donkeyskin, she is helped by a fairy godmother. In Deerskin, our princess has the love and guardianship of an incredible hound, but she is unable to escape the madness of the King until it is much. too. late. This re-telling features a visceral rape scene, as well as many other instances of mortal and animal peril. Princess Lissla Lissar, reborn post-trauma as the titular Deerskin, is a princess who saves herself. Sure, there’s magic, kindly farm folks, gentle princes, a cavalcade of loyal dogs, and intervention by a potential goddess, but Deerskin is her own person. She may not know who that person is, as she has been dealt the hand of post-traumatic-amnesia, but she is a person through and through. A capable and driven person voiced with clarity and might. McKinley pays close attention to the relationship between humans and their pets, and also fills the story with the ins and outs of hound rearing, caring, and training. The story meanders a bit- it could stand to lose a good 100 pages- but if you choose to listen to it (which I suggest you do), Xe Sands does a lovely job with the audio version. Should you hope to cloak yourself in Deerskin before our discussion weekend, both the audio and the ebook are currently available on Scribd. Although I prefer the retellings by Angela Carter and Emma Donoghue, this novel can stand alone with pride.

I’ve chosen to cross out Home with this entry, as Deerskin escapes from, runs to, finds another, and reclaims what it means to be “home” several times throughout this tale. If you are looking to play Bingo, you could also use Deerskin for Fauna, Book Club, The Wilds, Mythic, or Travel.

Bingo Category: Book Club

Sea Witch – Sarah Henning 3.5/5

So- this isn’t quite a spoiler, as it is written directly on the cover, but I listened to the book without looking at the cover until I had finished, so I had my head underwater (ha!) in regards to this story being an…

stop reading here if you want to go in blind…

…I recommend stopping, as I don’t know as if I would have read this had I known the (obvious) truth…

…ok, it’s your tail to trade for legs, bud!

Origin! Story! For! Ursula!

Oops!

If I had seen the cover first, this would have been clear: there are tentacles a-plenty and the tagline reads “Before she took that mermaid’s voice, she gave up her own heart”.

I really enjoyed this one! A lot of the traditional creepiness of The Little Mermaid floats to the surface, and allusions to the classic Disney interpretation wash ashore as well. The tale is firmly set in Denmark, and the rich history of both seafaring and witchcraft is present on nearly every page.

Three children are bound together from early childhood: A Prince, a noble, and a nobody. They are the greatest and closest of friends, until Anna drowns during a childish game. Years later, a girl looking just like Anna arrives on land without any memory of this world, claiming to be a mermaid. She is here after saving Prince Nik from drowning- much like our old Ariel- and she has bound herself to Evie, the girl who was her best friend…and the girl whose mother was a witch. The girl whose aunt is still a witch. The girl who holds the prince’s heart, but her heart aches for is dashing cousin, Iker. So much of the traditional story plays out, and so in the dark was I, that I couldn’t even spot a villain until very late in the story. I found this retelling truly delightful, and I am quite glad that I went into it blind. The Little Mermaid is one of my favorite fairy tales AND Disney movies, and I am a sucker for mermaid-related…anything, really. I also found the flirtation between Evie and Iker to be truly steamy, especially for a YA novel!

I used this entry to fufil the  Bookclub box, but one could easily select The Wilds, Mythic, or Travel.

 

You don’t need to remember very much of The Great Gatsby to appreciate retellings

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

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So here’s the thing: I’m not like, super into The Great Gatsby. I read it in school, and like everyone else I’ve gone to a thousand Great Gatsby parties (hopefully we’re all done with them still, because otherwise the thematic appropriateness means we’ll be flappering well into the mid-20s).

But from what I remember, this book nails the overall ~*mood*~ of the book, which I feel is best summarized by one of my favorite words: insouciance. Everyone is always bright and fragile and brittle and shiny and desperate for a connection–you get the drift, you’re remembering it the same.

Vo makes two key changes, one of which I love and one of which I could have done without. First, Jordan Baker is reimagined as a queer Vietnamese adoptee who sleeps and drinks and charms her way through 20s NYC. Second, there’s an element of the demonic and occult that infuses the scene–people drink demon’s blood much like a rare, fine whiskey–and new!Baker has a type of magic (which seems to be genetic) that lets her create figures of paper and have them come to life, either literally (to replicate a person) or create like lively puppet things??

You can guess which change I didn’t care as much for.

So much is given new depths because Jordan is both an insider and an outsider. She’s a Baker, of course, but she’s also one of those “others” who are flooding NYC. She gets a front row seat to some of the nonsense that Daisy can do, as always, but there’s this secondary layer of how she couldn’t get away with the same herself. She’s a famous golfer while Daisy is a famous…socialite person.

Perhaps I couldn’t get the point of the demon bit, but it didn’t hamper my enjoyment that much. I’m not going to re-read the original, but I enjoyed getting a sense of the world of glamor and glitz after an eternity in quarantine.

One of many literature romance novels I will read this year

Love at First by Kate Clayborn

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So this is obviously a Romeo and Juliet re-telling, except as it were the real R&J couple are Will (Romeo’s) parents. That’s not a spoiler–I don’t mean it in the “they were foes and died tragically in a murder/suicide,” because it’s more the sentiment, like the outlines of their romance.

The very first review of this book perfectly captured something I also wished–that Will and Nora had actually met in the first part of the book, such that their/Will’s instant connection was based on more than a single instance where Will heard a teenaged Nora laugh from her balcony 10+ years ago. I mean. I can barely remember what people sound like, much less the exact cadence of their voice…and then puberty? Love at first sight doesn’t play as well in the modern era as it did in R&J’s time, because as it were we are allowed to spend time with unmarried people of our preferred sex.

The other thing that I found a bit cumbersome is probably what others like about Clayborn’s writing–the expository paragraphs between the action/conversation paragraphs, where we delve into the psyche of either character. For me, they verged on the florid and distracted from the flow of the story, and as a result I ended up doing a bit of skipping forward and then doubling back when I realized that a paragraph had switched to plot.

Lastly…WHO wakes up at 4am (?!?!?!) on a consistent basis? And don’t say doctors, because my next point is: …who sleeps at 10pm? Zero people who aren’t suffering from insomnia. Doctors who wake up at 4am will sleep at 4pm, don’t @ me.

But all that aside, Will and Nora are lovely characters who I enjoyed getting to know. Will’s superpower–that he is affable and charming and has great rapport with people–is funnily the same as one of the protagonists of the next book I read (Winter’s Orbit) and it’s great to see that it’s equally useful for both 2020 Chicago and Year Unknown Space Opera.

Delight in Violence for sure, but not entirely the book I was looking for

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

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There were things I liked about this book (the fashion! the sombre realities of colonialism!) but they were largely outweighed by clunky writing that’s simultaneously too verbose and too brief. Not to malign youth, but I upon reaching the author bio and seeing that Gong is currently a student at UPenn I definitely had a moment of “ah, yes, makes sense.”

These Violent Delights is not, as I initially thought, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet in 1920s Shanghai. It’s obviously not not that (all the characters make an appearance, the names sometimes changed and sometimes not) but there’s a lot more to it–there’s a contagious disease that causes people to rip their own throats out (?? is this even possible?? like, can you actually do this without passing out?) which is attacking both Scarlet Gang and White Flower gangsters, and there’s tell of a sea monster viral vector. Which is to say, this story is well out of the realm of historical fiction and into the realm of historical scifi/fantasy.

And that’s a pity, because even without the creepy murder disease there’s so much to unpack in the setting. This is already a pretty long book and it definitely drags at times, which is funny because I wanted to read so much more about the encroachment of French/British/American imperial overlords and the history of the Bolshevik refugees and Juliette’s bi-cultural identity. And then I’d want to have a great, family-enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-??? romance between Juliette and Roma. And then, maybe, I’d want to read about a pseudo-magic-but-called-“science” biological weapon disease and drips like Paul Wexler, both of whom are used as a stand in for ongoing Nationalist/Communist tensions? It’s a tortured metaphor for sure.

Which brings me to my next point, which is I don’t think the writing is quite strong enough to carry the story sans the deux ex monster. There’s lots of places where the old adage “show, don’t tell” could have been applied to ruthlessly cut out about half of the text. The text saved could have all gone towards exploring more of our characters’ backstories, which would help even the balance between the emotionally-driven sections and the action settings. The latter also fall victim to classic YA-being-young-adult syndrome, which I try my best not to get agitated by.

BUT, JUST BECAUSE I AM A LITTLE: First off, nothing would have changed plot-wise if Juliette and Roma’s first dalliance had been when they were 19-20, which would allow them to re-meet when they are 24-25. After all, 19- to 20-year olds are capable of idealistic thinking and the rush of young love. And mid-20s adults are super capable of thinking themselves utterly wise and jaded.

This is a duology, not a trilogy. At this point maybe I will pick up the next book but it’s unlikely. That being said, I am a completist at heart!

Beauty and the Beast, Now with 100% Less Stockholm

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase

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I’ll say that this is probably more of a 2.5 book that I am rounding up because I liked it but also kept wincing until near to the end (if not the end), which is not a reaction I want to have with these types of books.

I believe this was a Beauty and the Beast retelling I stumbled upon after reading When Beauty Tamed the Beast and deciding that this would be a vein I’d pursue in some more detail. If it weren’t for the fact that they out and out said it a couple of times (ah we are like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST), I think I might have picked up on it as well? Pretty sure. I once was many chapters into a Persuasion Star Wars retelling, where each chapter started with a Persuasion quote and I still was like HMmMMMmm this plot seems FaMiLiAr.

I’ll get the real reasons why I kept wincing out at the top. It’s nicely balanced: one racistish thing, and one misogynistic thing, neither of which ever let up! I’ll start with the racist thing–Lord Dain, our titular Lord of Scoundrels, is half English and half Italian. That makes him olive complexioned, as he is reminded and/or noted as being multiple times. He is also the Earl of Blackmoor. But he’s frequently described, either by himself or by other people, as blackamoor or with blackamoor skin. And that’s just…awkward. I know this was written a while back. Using “blackamoor” to describe someone with dark skin (especially? even though? that someone who isn’t Black) was not really kosher a while back either. I’d hoped that the usage of the word as a taunt in his school days was meant to highlight the terribleness of society boys, but eh. I wish it weren’t there. The misogynistic part is the constant, unrelenting focus on the whoring. WE GET IT. Everyone loves the whores/tarts/trollops/ladies of a certain type. Do people have to TALK about it that much? In such clearly angry, dismissive language?

I mean, I want to enjoy myself in a vaguely ye old British setting without having to think about the POC erasure and second class nature of women. If you chose to bring those topics to the fore you must do extra work to ensure that it’s not distracting (e.g. The Duke Who Didn’t and A Rogue of One’s Own). This book unfortunately brought up both in a way that just made me uncomfortable.

But if we set all that aside–and, in some level, I feel like all historical romances require you do that somewhat–are there HRs that feature women who aren’t blushing virgins?–then there were many parts of this that I enjoyed. Jessica is the wisecracking, rapier wit heroine of everyone’s dreams. Her exasperation with her brother gives me life. Her grandmother is the grandmother we all wish we had. The Stockholm-ness of Beauty and the Beast has been successfully negated. And I cannot deny that I read this all in one setting starting from late at night to later.

“There are many kinds of love. But there is nothing like a sister.”

The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner

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3.5 stars
Official book description:
In a remote village surrounded by vast forests on the border of Moldova and Ukraine, sisters Liba and Laya have been raised on the honeyed scent of their Mami’s babka and the low rumble of their Tati’s prayers. But when a troupe of mysterious men arrives, Laya falls under their spell – despite their mother’s warning to be wary of strangers. And this is not the only danger lurking in the woods.
 
As dark forces close in on their village, Liba and Laya discover a family secret passed down through generations. Faced with a magical heritage they never knew existed, the sisters realize the old fairy tales are true…and could save them all.
 
While the main story of this young adult fantasy novel with heavy fairytale elements is fictional, it’s based on true historical events and the towns and places referenced really did exist back in 1903. Rena Rossner’s extended family all came from the area and villages in question, and in the afterword, she explains that the ones that didn’t escape after the pogroms and persecutions started in 1903, the ones who were still there in 1942, didn’t survive the Nazi Holocaust. She wanted to write a book honouring her family and heritage, and also really wanted to do a retelling of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, because the story of the two sisters always appealed to her. As well as the influences from the Victorian poem about sisters tempted by seductive fruit sellers, Rossner also includes elements from Ukranian and Russian folklore with their bear-men and swan-maidens.
When Liba and Laya are left alone in their little cabin in the woods outside the village of Dubossary (which is now near the borders of Moldova and Ukraine) after their father and mother are called away, hearing that their father’s father, a legendary rabbi is on his death bed. While the young women are in their late teens, they have lived a sheltered life and are not used to independence. A Jewish couple from the village are supposed to be looking in on them occasionally, but they appear to have up and left town very suddenly, without leaving word.
Laya, the youngest of the two sisters, especially chafes at all of their parents’ restrictions, and is very easily tempted by the handsome fruitseller brothers, the Hovlins, who have just arrived in town. She seems like she cannot get enough of their luscious fruit or the company of one of the young men. She sneaks out every night to meet with him. Liba, on the other hand, feels herself getting the creeps every time she goes near the fruitsellers. Their obviously anti-Semitic views don’t endear them to her either. She tries to warn her sister away, but her words have little sway with her besotted younger sister.
Before their parents left them, they imparted long-held family secrets to the girls. Liba has the power to shift into a bear, like her father, and they come from a long line of Hasidic rabbis who gained the ability to shapeshift into bears in a time of great danger. Meanwhile, her mother, who converted into Judaism, is from an ancient family of swan-shifters. Her mother confesses that Laya has a different father from Liba, and that’s why she’s a swan-shifter. Apparently, at some point, their mother’s swan clan may come looking for Laya, and her parents task her with keeping her sister safe. Liba, unfortunately, notices her body trying to transform into a bear at any time she gets upset, and also struggles with her growing feelings for the butcher’s son, Dovid. While he is also Jewish, not an unbeliever like the wicked Hovlin boys, Liba isn’t optimistic that their father will find him a suitable husband for her, especially once the secrets about the bear-shifting are revealed. Who would want a woman who turns into a giant bear?
Full review on my blog.


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