Merrie HaskellBesprekingen

This was different. This started off as the Twelve Dancing Princesses and quickly turned into a Persephone story with hints of Beauty and the Beast. There were a number of things I really liked about this - the first was the setting, which was a fictional country in Eastern Europe. It was very refreshing to read a fantasy book that wasn't set in France or the British Isles.

I also appreciated the darker aspects of the story. As a child, I was always a bit ambivalent towards the Dancing Princesses because it seemed so stupid - they danced and wore holes in their shoes, and that was supposed to be a horrible curse that the king wanted solved so much? In Haskell's version, the dancing was tied into a sleeping sickness for any who tried to observe the princesses at night, and seismic events if any of the princesses left.

I also just liked the main character. She was full of chutzpah, and intelligent and independent.

My only complaint was that the book ended too early and with so many threads still left hanging. This was, I gather, the first in a series. So I ended the book feeling both frustrated because the story wasn't over, and hopeful that there would be more.

Trying to get out this horrible reading slump I'm in... I grabbed this book because it's short, required minimal brain power, I liked the author's previous book, and hey - dragons!

It was a super fast read, and while it had unexpected complexity to the plot (which honestly I should have expected given that Haskell's first book was also like that), I wished it was longer/deeper/more. The story ended and I wanted to scream in frustration because really, there was so much more that the author left unresolved. Yes, the main plot was resolved but I had just gotten to like the characters, and I definitely wanted to see more of Curschin.

I loved the subtle weaving of the Bluebeard story into the plot

It's not a bad book, but it's not to my taste, either, as I don't have much of a head for politics, geography, and warfare, which were discussed fairly frequently for a children's book.

Nice but unremarkable.

Great fairy tale reimagining!

Sand wakes up inside a fireplace inside a castle surrounded by thorns, in which every single thing is violently torn in two. He's an enterprising young man, who yearns to be a blacksmith, so he sets about mending what he can, and that action causes the story to unfold.

I particularly enjoyed the medieval French setting and the magical, mythological, and historical details. There is a princess, eventually, but she's far more interested in astronomy than anything else. A magical tale, but more one of finding your passion and finding a way to achieve it without tearing your family asunder.

Advanced reader copy provided by edelweiss.

This book was great! Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorites so reading a fairy tale retelling that combined it with another was really fun. This book had intriguing characters and an interesting plot that kept you guessing what would happen next.

3.5 stars really. The first chapters are rough... For a while it is unclear what sort of audience this story is for and what type of universe Haskell is trying to create. But, at the end, I liked it.

Curious mix of Beauty and the Beast, Greek Legends, and Fairy Tales. The voice is original and I'm curious as to a sequel...

Read this one for work. It's a lovely fairy tale fanfic, perfect for young readers who still like their fairy tales sincere.

diverse children's fiction/fantasy (13 y.o. girl with limp/splayed foot living in superstitious medieval Germany with dragons, magical horses, and sorcery)
themes of friendship/loyalty and acceptance, and especially not judging by appearances. Thanks to Yolo County Library's children's fiction email list for recommending this book.

Great Juvenile book about an unlikely princess and her adventures in midevil Europe. A great vocabulary builder and adventure story.

I really enjoyed this! I had a few somewhat jarring "I see what you did there" moments, but maybe I'm just turning into a jaded children's librarian. My kid-self would have been obsessed with this book, and I could see it becoming a new go-to comfort read on the rare occasions that I'm tired of YA.

This is a fun read, with plenty of action and a feisty heroine. I particularly loved the horses, and I think it's a great choice if you're a horse fan too.

This is a retelling of the 12 princesses who are cursed to dance every night. I had all but abandoned this book, when I decided to stick it out. I figured there must be a reason for the high ratings and I just hadn't gotten there yet. Sorry to say that my first instinct was correct. Now I will say that there is definitely a story here, but in my opinion it's poorly developed.

I enjoyed the beginning when Reveka, an herbalist, gets scolded for putting cabbage juice in the princesses bathwater. Then the mystery of the princesses and their bloody feet is revealed. I'm with it and enjoying it up to this point, but then it starts to drag. All I'm thinking is when are we going to see more of the princesses? When will the dance festivities begin? The mystery grows when it's revealed that there are also some missing persons and sleeping servants who won't wake up. I know it's all connected, but I don't like waiting while the story stagnates. For a good chunk of the story Reveka is trying to figure out how to make herself invisible using herbs so she can follow the princesses and find out what they are up to every night.

Once I finally understood what was going on with the princesses every night, it picked up again, but it was still a little sloppy, then it became hokey. I didn't buy the ending. It was weird. I was on board in the beginning and at the big dance reveal, but other than that it was weak in my opinion.

I loved reading this as an ebook because I could select a name and read a Wikipedia entry about that person. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known that some of the character and places in the book were based on real people, or at least real legends (though I never figured out the faceless woman or the dark haired woman as they didn't have names).

I started reading without knowing what the book was about. Unless there's a blurb in the front of the book, you can't simply flip to the back of an ebook to read the synopsis, and I had forgotten why I wanted to read it in the first place. I read the first few pages and thought, "Oh, Sleeping Beauty." But then after he finds the body of a dead girl and doesn't kiss her, I was very intrigued at where the story was going to go. I was not disappointed.

It was very original, real despite the magic, and had a great message that was believable and inspiring without being preachy.

Waking up in the fireplace ashes of an unfamiliar and very broken castle, Sand discovers that nothing lives here, except the huge, dense thorny brambles that enclose the whole exterior, making it impossible to leave. He begins mending broken objects and soon discovers Perrotte, a girl his age and heir to the castle who has awakened from the dead. They become friends as they uncover secrets about the castle’s history and search for freedom. This enchanting fantasy is a wonderful story of friendship, magic, hope and love. Tweens and others will love it.

Sharyn H. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

13-year-old Tilda is not your fairytale princess. Born with a twisted foot, she knows that people in her kingdom don't respect her and she's bored with being a princess. Her boredom, however, comes to an abrupt end when her evil cousin steals the throne. She is suddenly thrust into a once-in-a-lifetime adventure -- complete with magical horses -- to rid the kingdom of dragons. Unfortunately, she knows nothing about dragons and even less about herself. Will she be able to find the courage that she needs to confront dragons and also rescue her kingdom? This wonderful fantasy will keep you engaged until the end.

Sharyn H. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

Sand, the son of a blacksmith wakes to find himself in the ruins of a castle that lies on the edge of his town. He meets Perrnotte who has been lying dead in the castle and is awakened by Sand. Together they "mend" the castle.

When Sand wakes up alone in a long-abandoned castle, he has no idea how he got there. The stories all said the place was ruined by an earthquake, and Sand did not expect to find everything inside-from dishes to candles to apples-torn in half or slashed to bits. This "sundering" was not the result of ant act of nature. Nothing lives here and nothing grows, except the vicious, thorny bramble that prevents Sand from leaving. The food left behind has not spoiled, it has just dried out so Sand has food to eat.

To survive, Sand does what he knows best, black smithing. He fires up the castle’s forge to mend what he needs to survive. But the things he fixes work somehow better than they ought to. Is there magic in the mending, granted by the saints who once guarded this place?

Unexpectedly, Sand finds the lost heir, Perrotte, a girl who shares the castle’s astonishing secrets and dark history. Putting together the pieces-of stone and iron, and of a broken life-is harder than Sand ever imagined, but it’s the only way to gain their freedom, even with the help of the guardian saints.

The cover is a bit unfortunate, as it implies something lighter and cuter than what is between the covers. ?áYes, the mc is thirteen. ?áAnd, yes, there's not much of the romance one expects in YA. ?áBut this is a better fit?áfor readers at least 11 years old, not for the 8 year-old girls likely to be attracted to the cover.

Anyway, the first half or so seemed plodding to me. ?áAnd there was some political intrigue (though fortunately I didn't have to understand it clearly). ?áI almost put it down, but I did want to learn where the author was taking all these ideas. ?áAnd then things started happening, and actions were having consequences, and secrets were being exposed, and it got *very* engaging. ?áUnfortunately, many of the exposed secrets weren't explained, so I hope the implied sequel has been published...

I really liked all the herb lore, like 'invisible' fern seeds. ?áI liked how the author included real history, like Romanian culture, and Hildegard of Bingen, and the hennin headdress, along with the magic and the made-up little kingdom of Sylvania (adjacent Transylvania, you see). ?áAnd I appreciate the author's note to help us sort out the invented from the documented....

Rating this is a little difficult for me. ?áI'm rounding up to four stars because the author has a terrific imagination and created a world I really want to spend more time in.

If Karen Cushman recommendds it. I can't say no.

Don't let the cover art fool you! This is a smart, thoughtful, and highly enjoyable fairy tale. Although the main character is thirteen, she's a medieval thirteen--old enough to be apprenticed, to have survived wars and famines and make her own plans for the future. Reveka wants nothing more than to be an herbalist, and has the perception, curiosity, and logical frame of mind to become a good one. With her as the main character, and a well-researched, fully-grounded medieval Europe as the context, the legends of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Beauty and the Beast, and Hades and Persephone all become a seemless, fascinating whole.

The Castle Behind the Thorns by Merrie Haskell is a middle grade fantasy where a boy named Sand wakes up trapped in a castle where literally everything (down to the bedsheets and individual pieces of straw in the stable) is broken (or ripped, or bent, or split in half). This castle is surrounded by a giant hedge of raspberry thorns that actively attack Sand when he tries to leave. Things get curiouser and curiouser as Sand starts to try to fix a few things and survive in this castle until he can find a way out. The Castle Behind the Thorns is a separate story from Haskell’s previous books, but in the same light and unique fantasy vein and with a few references to other stories thrown in :D.
Note: I received The Castle Behind the Thorns through Edelweiss for an honest review. Some things may have changed in the final version.



The Castle Behind the Thorns by Merrie Haskell
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on May 27th, 2014
Genres: Fantasy, MG
Length: 336 pages
How I got my copy: Edelweiss

When Sand wakes up alone in a long-abandoned castle, he has no idea how he got there. The stories all said the place was ruined by an earthquake, and Sand did not expect to find everything inside-from dishes to candles to apples-torn in half or slashed to bits. Nothing lives here and nothing grows, except the vicious, thorny bramble that prevents Sand from leaving. Why wasn't this in the stories?

To survive, Sand does what he knows best-he fires up the castle's forge to mend what he needs to live. But the things he fixes work somehow better than they ought to. Is there magic in the mending, granted by the saints who once guarded this place?

Unexpectedly, Sand finds the lost heir, Perrotte, a girl who shares the castle's astonishing secrets and dark history. Putting together the pieces-of stone and iron, and of a broken life-is harder than Sand ever imagined, but it's the only way to gain their freedom, even with the help of the guardian saints.

Strengths:
I absolutely loved the castle setting in The Castle Behind the Thorns. Sand knows of the legends about the castle, but the way that even the apples and bread loaves are split in half suggests that the townspeople don’t actually have any idea what happened to the castle. It becomes more and more clear that there is magic of some kind involved, which just leads Sand to discovering more interesting things about the world and the castle :D.
Speaking of magic, Sand has mending magic! I love coming across new ideas for magic systems, and Sand’s is a pretty cool trick. I won’t give any of the more interesting events away, but while Sand doesn’t love his magic, I did ;-).
Sand isn’t alone in the castle for long and it was awesome to see a friendship between a girl and boy that didn’t immediately jump to romance of any kind. Boys and girls can be just friends :D. This is something that I love about middle grade stories, ha. But seriously, they’re friendship goes through some ups and downs, and becomes all the stronger for it, which was awesome to read about.
I’ve only read one other Haskell book, The Handbook for Dragon Slayers, but it is totally refenced in The Castle Behind the Thorns! There may have been more references that I missed, but even just the one was fun to see, since it makes it clear that these are stories from the same world, just different regions. I love it when authors start using independent books to build a richer world for the more obsessed fans, hehe.

Weaknesses:
The ending of The Castle Behind the Thorns ended up feeling pretty anticlimactic. I won’t give anything away, but once I hit the end, I felt the need to shrug :(.
There is a fair amount of magic thrown about in The Castle Behind the Thorns and only some of it is explained all that well. I can forgive not getting all the gory details of course, but it was more that the logic behind the magic that was explained didn’t really seem to flow all that well into the events that then took place.
I was really excited during the first half of The Castle Behind the Thorns, but then the second half started to lag since we’ve figured out pretty much everything and it turns into general survival and eventually politics. Once I knew everything about the magic and setting, I got a bit bored unfortunately.

Summary:
The Castle Behind the Thorns is a fun middle grade fantasy with a cool setting and magic system. I’m really excited to see Haskell building a world with independent books that subtly build off each other. If you’re a fan of Haskell’s writing or looking for a light and fresh middle grade, The Castle Behind the Thorns will probably be perfect for you.

A miller’s daughter and amateur dragon hunter finds herself the captive of an enchanted bear for a year and a day, but once she finds herself pregnant and her bear/man disappears, she must go on a quest to find him. This had so many fairy tale conventions – Beauty & the Beast most strongly, but also talking animal companions, quests to prove one’s worth, seeking an enchanted kingdom with the help of the winds, etc. It wasn’t anything particularly new or revolutionary, but I really enjoyed it – it felt like a traditional fairy tale, but it also maintained a sense of humor about itself throughout without becoming a satire or a farce. From a coldly logical perspective, the story didn’t quite hang together narratively, but fairy tales never really do, and it flowed just fine as it was going.