A review by edb14
Beautiful by Juliet Marillier
3.0
I was very excited to find out about this novel as it is yet another adaptation of my favorite fairy tale, the Norse myth East of the Sun and West of the Moon . I always try to read every possible adaptation of this tale, and there aren't many of them out there.
But then, oh noo... The tale itself only appears in small hints at the beginning, and almost no focus is given to the brave heroine of many (and no) names that is usually front and center. The grand climax of confronting the evil Troll Queen takes place in the first third of the novel. Swiftly dropping my beloved characters in the literary dutstbin like a used washrag, Juliet Marillier cracks her knuckles and proceeds with the story that she wanted to tell. Oh, my heart...
Though reeling from the shock of having my precious story swept aside lightly, I was intrigued by the tale that Marillier weaves in her own way. The heartwarming conclusion of one story is also the cruel disappointment to our actual main character, the rejected troll bride (neatly reflecting my own feelings about the novel lol). The troll bride must accept that the future she imagined for herself was merely a childhood dream, and she must set out in search of a new purpose. In the process, she begins to discover a purpose for her people as well, and many ways that her unique talents could be used to change the world. She may not resemble the heroines from the human storybooks she loves, but she will create her own narrative as best as she knows how.
Thematically, it is brilliant and well-told. The plot itself I found to be a bit rushed and simplistic. Though purporting to record a great character arc and explore a vast world, the story actually covers two human settlements and one-and-a-half troll clans before our heroine and her army must march back to her castle to fend off a new treachery. The novel proceeds in stops and starts and is tonally inconsistent. One of the most bizarre elements is the magic. Having stripped away the nostalgic beauty of the original tale, Marillier seems to be going for a more realistic portrayal of a magical world, which I enjoy usually. She usually has the characters respond to problems in realistic ways and describes the characters' talents as being innate to troll or human folk rather than the product of magic explicitly. The magic she describes seems to be a part of the royal family and is difficult to control. This is all fine and I was starting to understand her magic system. However, she keeps certain elements from the fairy tale unchanged with no explanation, such as the insistence on the power of three. Some elements are whimsically left mysterious, which does not work if you are going for a gritty re-imagining of a classic tale. The toothpaste will not go back into the tube, Marillier; the fairy will not go back into the bottle. You held up the old tale as a sham ending that left certain characters callously left out; you can't just go back to relying on the old tropes that gave that fairy tale its feel. Instead, Marillier hops back and forth between modern realistic attitudes and reliance on fairy-tale logic in order to drag the novel to a dramatic conclusion reminiscent of the original tale that contains the powerful and inexplicable three deus-ex-machinas, but that also solves the problems of all the sad side-characters whose dreams are not fulfilled. In my opinion, Marillier is trying to have her cake and eat it too.
This was a thoroughly middle-of-the-road novel. It is short, punchy, and moderately interesting, but not well-written enough or meaty enough to stick in my mind or overcome its tonal problems. I will probably have forgotten it in a year.
But then, oh noo... The tale itself only appears in small hints at the beginning, and almost no focus is given to the brave heroine of many (and no) names that is usually front and center. The grand climax of confronting the evil Troll Queen takes place in the first third of the novel. Swiftly dropping my beloved characters in the literary dutstbin like a used washrag, Juliet Marillier cracks her knuckles and proceeds with the story that she wanted to tell. Oh, my heart...
Though reeling from the shock of having my precious story swept aside lightly, I was intrigued by the tale that Marillier weaves in her own way. The heartwarming conclusion of one story is also the cruel disappointment to our actual main character, the rejected troll bride (neatly reflecting my own feelings about the novel lol). The troll bride must accept that the future she imagined for herself was merely a childhood dream, and she must set out in search of a new purpose. In the process, she begins to discover a purpose for her people as well, and many ways that her unique talents could be used to change the world. She may not resemble the heroines from the human storybooks she loves, but she will create her own narrative as best as she knows how.
Thematically, it is brilliant and well-told. The plot itself I found to be a bit rushed and simplistic. Though purporting to record a great character arc and explore a vast world, the story actually covers two human settlements and one-and-a-half troll clans before our heroine and her army must march back to her castle to fend off a new treachery. The novel proceeds in stops and starts and is tonally inconsistent. One of the most bizarre elements is the magic. Having stripped away the nostalgic beauty of the original tale, Marillier seems to be going for a more realistic portrayal of a magical world, which I enjoy usually. She usually has the characters respond to problems in realistic ways and describes the characters' talents as being innate to troll or human folk rather than the product of magic explicitly. The magic she describes seems to be a part of the royal family and is difficult to control. This is all fine and I was starting to understand her magic system. However, she keeps certain elements from the fairy tale unchanged with no explanation, such as the insistence on the power of three. Some elements are whimsically left mysterious, which does not work if you are going for a gritty re-imagining of a classic tale. The toothpaste will not go back into the tube, Marillier; the fairy will not go back into the bottle. You held up the old tale as a sham ending that left certain characters callously left out; you can't just go back to relying on the old tropes that gave that fairy tale its feel. Instead, Marillier hops back and forth between modern realistic attitudes and reliance on fairy-tale logic in order to drag the novel to a dramatic conclusion reminiscent of the original tale that contains the powerful and inexplicable three deus-ex-machinas, but that also solves the problems of all the sad side-characters whose dreams are not fulfilled. In my opinion, Marillier is trying to have her cake and eat it too.
This was a thoroughly middle-of-the-road novel. It is short, punchy, and moderately interesting, but not well-written enough or meaty enough to stick in my mind or overcome its tonal problems. I will probably have forgotten it in a year.