Reviews

Widdershins by Charles de Lint

catleesi's review against another edition

5.0

I wish my life were like this. At least the dream world part.

megmcardle's review against another edition

4.0

Widdershins is a work of urban fantasy by Charles DeLint. Like many of DeLint's best books, it is set in the fictional big city of Newford, where the boundaries between our world and the "underworld" (call it Faerie, Neverland, whatever) is especially thin. Many of his stories and novels have featured the main characters here, Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie Riddell. Jilly is an artist who was in a crippling accident and can no longer walk easily or paint, but who has always had a special affinity for all things otherworldly. Geordie is a fiddler who only recently has admitted that the faerie world exists. They have been friends forever, but everyone knew they were supposed to be more. In the action of this book, Jilly is forced to face up to the awful things that happened in her childhood, healing her mind in order to heal her body. In the meantime, there is a showdown occurring between the native spirits of America and the faery court that came over with European immigrants. It will mostly resonate with those who have followed these characters over DeLint's novels and stories, but I really did like it. The pacing was a little slow, but the characters are well developed and the author has a great sense of language and imagery. All of his books are full of music, which is another reason he one of my comfort authors. Read him with a great Celtic music album from Altan or Solas. My favorite DeLint is still his stand-alone book The Little Country, if someone wants a good place to start. For a taste of Newford, try his collection Memory and Dream.

scorpstar77's review against another edition

4.0

This was my first de Lint novel, and I enjoyed it! An urban fantasy that combines a sort of Native American mythology with a sort of Irish fairy mythology with our everyday normal human world. I didn't know any of the characters going into the story, and I didn't realize it was one of series, but it didn't make any difference. I got to know the characters pretty easily, and I was immersed in the story within pages. It was a fun story, with some decidedly dark elements, and I look forward to reading more of these novels sometime in the future!

elliedwrites's review against another edition

5.0

I loved this book so much! The characters were rich and multi-dimensional, the world building was wonderfully detailed, and the story was engaging. And I love his writing style!

sarahjjs's review

2.0

2.5 - If this was seriously edited down it would have been quite the story. Readers really don't require fairly surface level feelings explained to them four times per page from multiple points of view. The book should be 250 pages - all the dribbling and repetition needs to be taken out and assumption that readers can actually think autonomously needs to be given. I felt like the author thought I was too stupid or too insensitive to remember that the character was sad and needed to be reminded at every possible moment.