New Book Alert: The Bookbinder's Daughter by Jessica Thorne; Enchanting Special Collections Library Is Backdrop For Year's Best Fantasy

 

New Book Alert: The Bookbinder's Daughter by Jessica Thorne; Enchanting Special Collections Library Is Backdrop For Year's Best Fantasy

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Through this blog, we have seen book lovers and collections that have magic, not the traditional kind where a love of reading and a great imagination can send a Reader anywhere they want with the turn of a page. I mean real magic. From books that literally talk to Readers, books that appear to provide answers when someone is at an emotional crossroads, books that pull Readers inside their magical world, literary characters taking breaks from their storylines to hang out and chill with Readers, and libraries that hold every book that has or will be written and where characters congregate between reads and sometimes wait to become characters in a new work or taking over for other characters.

These Book Worlds could be a dream for me and my fellow Bookworms. 

That network of magical libraries and book keepers can add another member: The Ayredale Special Collection from Jessica Thorne's enchanting modern fantasy novel, The Bookbinder's Daughter.

 On the surface, it looks like a typical special library with a learned scholarly staff that know their collection and the knowledge it contains, researchers who come in to study the contents, comfortable chairs, a fireplace, and a very cozy, quiet, and welcoming atmosphere. It seems normal, but it's not.

 Sophie Lawrence knows this. She and her father left the Special Collection after her mother disappeared when she was a teenager. Now, Sophie is an adult whose father has died and she is in a loveless relationship with a verbally abusive boyfriend. She has constant dreams of walking around a tree that reaches the sky and a voice that calls to her. Her only comfort is her job as a bookbinder. She repairs and builds books with the care of a doctor to her patients.

Sophie is visited by her uncle, Dr. Edward Talbot who sends her an official job offer to become a conservator and specialist binder at the Ayredale Special Collection. Because of the trauma of her mother's disappearance and the blocked memories of her time in Ayredale, Sophie is extremely reluctant but as soon as she reenters the library and meets its odd staff, she feels a sense of being drawn in and welcomed. She also feels a surge of energy surrounding the library, something ancient, powerful, hypnotic, and potentially dangerous.

The characters and setting are what makes The Bookbinder's Daughter truly magical. There are so many great touches that enchant and draw the Reader into this spellbinding world of deep magic, knowledge, and wisdom.

Once Sophie enters the Special Collection, it becomes apparent that the collection and staff are one of a kind. The Ayredale staff are an eccentric unique bunch. Many of them practice some form of magic or what they call, The Art.

There's Uncle Edward who comes and goes on a whim always insisting that the "family must always return to the library." Will Rhys, Sophie's childhood best friend has grown into a handsome young man that sees himself as a protector of the library and Sophie. Professor Hypatia Alexander, the Keeper, never misses a thing but is looking for a replacement. Arthur Dee, Will's half brother has an obsession with the darker aspects of the collection. Villus, the library cat has his own sense of self importance. Delphine, one of three young library assistants (the other two are named Hannah and Meera), sets her amorous sights on the available and important men in the library. 

Then there's my favorite character, Tia, a flamboyant and flashy archivist who has a tragic past and powerful abilities behind her flowing red hair, glamorous appearance, and fashionable wardrobe. (Sort of like if Maggie Smith's earlier character Miss Jean Brodie had the knowledge of her later character Professor Minerva McGonagall.) The staff fills Sophie with a sense of welcome with their mostly kind nature but unease as the collection's real value becomes apparent.

And what a value that collection is. There are some very old magic books with a lot of power. One of them has leaves, no not leaves like pages, actual golden leaves written with words. This book is written in a strange language that none of the staff can decipher, except Sophie. Sophie, who has dyslexia and often has a hard time understanding written language, completely understands this book and many others. It appears that Sophie has her own untapped Art that needs to be put into practice. She has been  called to this job by outside forces and she does her job well.

The collection has a history that goes back to John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I's astrologer, advisor, and sorcerer who allegedly knew and wrote about various magical ancient languages. 

If the books aren't enough, there's the very large tree that stands in the center of the rotunda. A tree that contains much knowledge that can be transferred just by looking at it. It's a tree that is familiar to followers of various myths and religions. (Of course since books come from trees, it makes sense that the books and their original source would be together.) The books and tree are now in the care of the Ayredales who protect them from being misused even as they are pulsing with power and draw the unsuspecting, unwary, curious, avaricious, and greedy.

Of course, greed and opportunism set in and the collection is misused and opened wide. Dangerous things happen and many characters are revealed to be something else, something more frightening and deadly. Sophie finds out some truths about her family and the people that she works with and slowly has begun to regard as a second family.

The Bookbinder's Daughter is one of those type of books that draw a Reader in so much that they are immersed in the world and lost in the setting and characters. That magic  makes The Bookbinder's Daughter one of the best books and certainly the best fantasy of 2021.

New Book Alert: What Immortal Hand by Johnny Worthen; Hypnotic and At Times Disturbing Supernatural Horror Featuring Kali, Hindu Goddess of Death

 

New Book Alert: What Immortal Hand by Johnny Worthen; Hypnotic and At Times Disturbing Supernatural Horror Featuring Kali, Hindu Goddess of Death

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Johnny Worthen's novel, What Immortal Hand is one of those types of books that make you think it's going to be about one thing. The Reader goes into the book expecting and mostly getting a dark, disturbing, and at times hypnotic thriller. Then it takes a 180° turn and becomes more subtle, cerebral, and somehow more meaningful. 

Michael Oswald is an investigator for an insurance company who mostly resolves fraudulent insurance claims. He is recruited to look for Isaac Lowe, a semi truck driver who is missing, truck and all. The Reader learns in the prologue that Isaac attended a strange religious meeting in the desert, picked up a hitchhiker, and ran into some very violent characters before he met his untimely end. It is a very graphic beginning that grabs the Reader's attention from the word go.

Michael investigates Isaac's case but he has some mysteries of his own. He can't remember most of his childhood except for one foster family and that both parents died. His current life isn't any better. He is divorced and his ex and kids are settled into a new life with a new husband and father. However, Michael's ex wife keeps him somewhat updated on their troubled daughter. As an investigator, Michael lives nowhere in particular and just bounces around from place to place, assignment to assignment. He seems to be running towards or more than likely running away from something. 

This investigation ends up becoming very personal to Michael. He is followed by people who seem to know more about him than he does, causing him to really question the parts of his past that are blocked out.

One of the more horrifying aspects in Michael's journey are the visions or hallucinations that plague him. Sometimes, he sees tigers out of the corner of his eyes. Other times, he sees a sinister looking topless dark skinned woman with multiple arms. 

What Immortal Hand is an almost hypnotic mesmerizing journey where not only Michael but the Reader is constantly put in a state of unease and discomfort. The desert landscape really helps intensify the mounting tension. Michael gets a taste of it when he hears disembodied footsteps and sees crocodiles and melting faces.

Then there is that strange dark woman who keeps appearing and disappearing, frightening Michael to the point of paralysis.

 There is a lot of barren landscape where your eyes can play tricks on you and you can see the creepiest things. At night, it's a lot worse. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that many semi truck drivers see some bizarre unexplained things during their late night runs down the flat dry barren roads.  Of course the fact that there is a lot of abandoned hot land that could be very useful for criminal activity can't be ignored. Michael and his new partner, Craig realize this as they stumble upon a mass grave. One might be Isaac, but there also seems to be an awful lot of unidentified people murdered in that same place.

Around the halfway point, What Immortal Hand, takes a distinct turn right around the time when Michael runs into people from his past or mysterious people who seem to know him though he doesn't know them. For spoilers sake, I will try not to reveal too much, but the plot twists largely involve Kali.

Kali, for those that don't know, is the Hindu goddess of death and time. According to the Linga Purana, Kali is an alternative form of Parvati, a light benign goddess who has to become the dark active Kali to fight against the demon Daruka. She is usually depicted as a woman with black skin, multiple usually four arms, and a large tongue sticking out of her mouth

 Hindu mythology portrays Kali as a fierce, bloodthirsty, sometimes out- of-control fighter who is able to act on the other god's darker impulses but needs them, especially her consort Shiva to calm her down. She was seen as both strong and wild, protective and violent, creator and destroyer. Her function was to be the fierce warrior that carries the anger, rage, deceit, fury and darker nature that the other Hindu gods no longer carry because of their benign, peaceful, detached personalities. 

While her actual portrayal in legends is nuanced and gives more facets to her character, popular culture concentrates more on her demonic form. The Thuggee cult of mid 19th century India cited Kali as their matron goddess. In film and literature, her legacy is seen as shock value as her worshippers are seen as murderers who cold bloodedly kill without remorse. 

Worthen's portrayal of the Hindu death goddess captures the nuances of her mythological roots rather than the pop culture transmogrification. There are some dark aspects involving her character (the mass grave and hallucinations are still incredibly disturbing), but her worshippers are three dimensional. They have a code on who to attack and who not to. They are protectors who defend each other and those whom they are close to, becoming almost vigilantes. 

They aren't always good though. They are still pretty bloodthirsty and live a chaotic existence. Michael is drawn into their world because of repressed memories and his own fears and insecurities about his placement in the world. He is detached from everyone around him and feels a strange connection to this modern day Kali cult. He fears Kali but he is also drawn to her too. 

What Immortal Hand is a dark hypnotic book that is meant to scare and then seduce the Reader into a Kali driven world.

Classics Corner: Imajica by Clive Barker; A Parallel Universe Fantasy That Draws You In and Won't Let Go

Classics Corner: Imajica by Clive Barker; A Parallel Universe Fantasy That Draws You In and Won't Let Go


By Julie Sara Porter,


Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: First I want to thank my sister-in-law Tzyra Andreeva for giving me this wonderful book. It's definitely a great gift.

You don't read a book like Clive Barker’s Imajica. You inhabit it, you immerse yourself into it. The parallel world setting, the magical eccentric characters, the intricate plot and deep themes of religion, gender roles and realizing one’s own identity draw the Reader in and doesn't let them go.

This is the type of book that starts the Reader thinking that it's one thing but early hints show that it becomes a completely different work. Charlie Estabrook, an obsessive Englishman wants to hire an assassin to murder Judith, his soon-to-be-ex-wife and the Reader sits back ready for a psychological thriller. But certain things happen that prove otherwise about the narrative.


There’s the bizarre coincidence that both Judith and her former lover, John Furie Zacharias AKA Gentle can only remember the last ten years of their lives. There's the go-between with Estabrook and the assassin who is murdered by a strange man who not only appears out of thin air but murders the go-between by putting unearthly insects in his mouth that crawl through his skin. Then,there's the passage where the hired assassin,Pie’oh’pah transforms from male to female depending on who is observing it. Well that's horror master Clive Barker, the creator of the Hellraiser and Candyman franchises for you.

Instead of being a conventional thriller or a conventional well just about anything, Imajica reveals itself to be an evocative novel set within five parallel universes. The Universes called the Dominions (Earth is the Fifth Dominion) were connected as one called the Imajica but now have lost those connections. Many sorcerers and magic users have attempted to join the Five Dominions in a ritual called The Reconciliation to no success. Among them, the back story tells us, was a sorcerer who attempted the Reconciliation 2,018 years ago who not only failed but ended up on the wrong end of a cross. (Guess who?) The most recent attempt was made 200 years ago by a Maestro Sartori who failed miserably and made some very magical and destructive decisions that affected the rest of the characters and himself.

What happens next is a road trip through the unique worlds of the other four Dominions. In trying to defend Judith from the eccentric assassin, Gentle begins to bond with it. Soon he and Pie’oh'pah form a friendship and travel to the other Dominions. Pie’oh'pah has its own motives which get revealed later. For Gentle, an art forger and ladies’ man, the trip is to give him direction and possibly some answers for questions that have plagued him for the past ten years.


Meanwhile Judith goes on a magical journey of her own. Astral projection allows her to travel inside the body of a mysterious woman who has been imprisoned in a comatose state for over 100 years inside the home of a member of the Tabula Rasa. They are a secret organization who are driven to destroy any magic users and stop the Reconciliation and aren't particular about the methods to achieve these goals.

The Four Dominions are brilliantly captured in Barker's writing. They are individually characterized with unique details that describe the landscapes. One Dominion is surrounded by a frozen lake with killer tides...literally. Another has a green sky which turns purple at night. Another has a comet for a sun and another has two suns and an immense desert. Another looks like a living city and turns out to be one.

There are also unusual characters in these environments as well. There are human characters with gills, feathers, and fur (some with all three). Pie'oh'pah’s transformations from male to female are illusions to seduce its lovers into thinking that they are seeing their strongest desire. A little girl Huzzah is described as a very ugly girl but is one of the sweetest most adorable characters in the book. There are also frightening characters like the Nullianacs, creatures with hands for heads who devour their enemies. Once the First Dominion is revealed to be a living city, it becomes a thing of nightmares.

Besides describing unique settings, Barker provides brilliant rich characters in the novel, many of whom are more than they seem. The Second Dominion's capital city, Yzordderrex is ruled by the Autarch, a malevolent war mongering tyrant and Quaisoir, his mentally ill wife. In other books, they would be the direct villains of the piece. But Imajica isn't so clearly defined. As Gentle, Judith, The
Autarch and Quaisoir discover they are more connected than they thought, the lines between heroes and villains become blurry making the four very developed.

Judith and Gentle are very developed characters in their struggles throughout the novel to discover their identities. Gentle begins the novel as a dilettante artist who uses his talents to copy other works and hop from one bed to another. His journey through the Dominions becomes one of self-discovery. He and Pie'oh'pah fall in love when Gentle realizes what a loving and loyal creature his companion is. He also embraces some dormant magical abilities which he uses in the protection of his friends and loved ones.


Gentle becomes confused whether his role is to continue the Reconciliation or to stop it. He learns who he once was in a heartbreaking and frightening scene in which he is driven to insanity by the memories of not only his current life but the previous ones before it.
Once he remembers his former identity's cruelties and deceptions, he is determined to make things right in this life. When he confronts Hapexamendios, the God that was the true author of this destruction, Gentle is prepared to face Him to claim his identity for himself.


Judith also goes on her own journey.When she learns that she was created for the purpose of being a romantic object for someone, she seeks to break that pattern to become her own person. Like Gentle, she refuses to remain a plaything for others’ designs.
Judith also discovers some abilities that allow her to free the Goddesses who had been removed by Hapexamendios and The Autarch's theocracy. She recognizes the strength of many of the other female characters and in herself.
It is only when Judith and Gentle are able to accept their former identities and be willing to break their old patterns to become their own people are they able to truly bring completion to the Dominions in a very unique and clever way.

Like his magical characters and setting, Barker weaves a spell on the Reader that captivates them and holds onto them long after the book is closed. That is why this is the best book that I have read this year so far.