In 2073 on the remote and secretive island of Blessed, where
rumour has it that no one ages and no children are born, a visiting journalist,
Eric Seven, and a young local woman known as Merle are ritually slain. Their
deaths echo a moment ten centuries before, when, in the dark of the moon, a
king was slain, tragically torn from his queen. Their souls search to be
reunited, and as mother and son, artist and child, forbidden lovers, victims of
a vampire they come close to finding what they've lost. In a novel comprising seven parts, each influenced by a moon -
the flower moon, the harvest moon, the hunter's moon, the blood moon - this is
the story of Eric and Merle whose souls have been searching for each other
since their untimely parting. (Goodreads)
Reviewed by Jessica Day
George: author and Bookshop Talk host
This was the 2014 Printz
Award Winner, and I had never heard of it. Several other books had been bandied
about as possible candidates, and when I heard this one announced my reaction
was, basically, “What?” But I was in a mood to do some online shopping, so I
went ahead and ordered all the award winners, but actually preordered this one
in paperback, because I quite frankly hated the cover, and the
soon-to-be-released paperback had a great cover. So I went on with my life and
then a few weeks later my book came with its fancy new cover with a shiny gold
medal sticker on it, and I thought, Well, isn’t that nice?
Then I read it.
And my reaction was, once
again, “What?” Only it was because I was thinking, What are people thinking,
not reading this book? Why is everyone not raving about this book? MIDWINTERBLOOD is
amazing! It’s actually seven books, or stories, in one. Each story is set in a
different time and is a different style. There’s future sci fi, WWII thriller,
gothic horror, even a vampire story, but they all tie together as the same
souls are born and reborn, and try to find each other. Who were they,
originally? Why were they separated? The stories go back in time until the last
story, which is also the first, which may have been my favorite, though I loved
them all. The book is beautifully written, I mean, just beautiful. Absolutely a
work of art. And so gripping that I after I finished it I realized that I had
been sitting in an awkward position on the couch for so long one of my knees
had locked up, and I had one shoe on and one off… I just couldn’t stop! If I
ever made a movie, it would be based on this book. I want to see it done with a
small cast, less than a dozen actors, and they’d all rotate around to the
different parts in each story. Read it, you’ll see what I mean!
Market: YA, but really anyone
Language: mild
Sensuality: mild
Violence: mild
Adult themes: Human
sacrifice. Ghosts. Vampires. Hallucinogens. None of this is graphic.
1 comment:
I just got this book from the library, and I'm so excited to read it!
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