Sometimes Silent

I finally finished this book the other day. I say finally because I kept having to eek out some free time to read it. If had had my druthers I would have finished the book in two days — it became that gripping.

Notice that I said “became”. The novel is a fantasy piece mixed with a historical fiction and a dash of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. For good measure, sprinkle in “Pride and Prejudice” in small amounts for more British flavor and “Frankenstein” for mood moments. At the beginning of the tale we are introduced to a rather boring gentleman who is keen on restoring Magic to Britain. However, he is a scholarly type and the reader must get used to this tale told with many footnotes, and with discourses about theoretical magic. “Practical Magic” is also performed fortunately and the novel begins to take off.

Though the title mentions two men, we first follow one before ever becoming introduced to the other. The relationship between the men is believable in my opinion (having known scholarly / academic types myself). That relationship in place, what makes me think of this book as a page turner in is the terrific depiction of fairies and the land of Faerie. It is spooky, creepy, scary, and untrustworthy and through certain turns in the book we find out just how extreme all of those adjectives can be.

Overall my reaction to the book is a mixture of the feelings I get when reading good Literature (I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in English) and of reading an adult fairy tale (hence my Grimm reference vs Disney-fied fairy stories). I thought the work to be quite original and the detail in the world reminded me of Tolkien who also made use of footnotes to recall the extensive world he had created.

Supposedly the book is 800 pages long. The copy I read is 782 pages. I would have liked to have read more. As far as I can tell the book has been having successful sales so I believe I will get that chance.