by Guy Gavriel Kay
All books are fodder for my brain - but this was a lovely example of ‘picking up the right book at the right time’.
This is a hard book to define. It has a 15 year old protagonist, and it includes a fairly substantial coming-of-age plot (which could put it squarely in the Young Adult genre). It has a strong sense of place (and of history). It has what is either a mythological underpinning, a fantastical one, or both (depending on how you view some aspects.) It has a lot of qualities I’d describe as urban fantasy (in terms of approach to magical and fantastic acts within the story), except that the setting is not really urban.
If I had to go for just one, I’d probably pick mythic fiction. But it’s a hard choice.
What I particularly like about this book is threefold: the evocation of place and that place’s history, the approach to “Yikes! Odd stuff happening!”, and the fact that it presents no easy answers. The writing is descriptive, and evocative. The challenges faced have no easy answers. And there are a lot of questions and discussion about what matters most - and when it’s time to let old gripes and grudges go.
It was, in short, a great book to be reading just before I got my 3rd degree.