Book Review

[kenjari]

In the Night Garden
by Catherynne M. Valente

This is the first volume in The Orphan's Tales series, and it is amazing. I could hardly put it down.In the Night Garden is a take-off on or homage to the Arabian Nights. But it is not just a series of short stories contained in a framing device of a mysterious young girl who tells a Prince a series of fairy tales over several nights in the palace gardens. The fairy tale Valente spins are nested like a matreshka doll and intricately linked, each one leading to the next. There are two cycles in the book, but even those are linked to each other through means both subtle and more explicit. The prose is wonderful - it has the simplicity of fairy tales mixed with something much deeper. Like the Prince, I just keep wanting more.

Comments

[ladybird97.livejournal.com]

yes!! Oh, I loved this book SO MUCH. Loved how all the stories interlaced and came together; loved the imagery and poetry.

Warning: I liked the second Orphan's Tales book much less than the first, but that may just have been because it was really depressing. So, also, a warning that it's really depressing :/

But, yay for a gorgeous first book in the series!