Have you ever had the feeling that you've lived another life? Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar, even though you've never been there before, or felt that you know someone well, even though you are meeting them for the first time? It happens. 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.
Beautifully imagined, intricately and cleverly structured, this is a heart-wrenching and breathtaking love story with the hallmark Sedgwick gothic touches of atmosphere, blood-spilling and sacrifice.
This is my first Marcus Sedwick and it will not be the last. This is told as stories over time, stories set on an island, called Blessed, off Scandanavia. Eric Seven is sent to investigate rumours of longevity among the inhabitabitants and meets Merle, who he feels an affinity for. It's a story of sacrafice and love and facing your destiny in an interesting way and it didn't feel like a children's story or a young adult story, it felt like an adult story.
Inspired by the Midvinterblot painting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midvinterblot by Carl Larsson, it includes a cameo by him in the story. Next time I am in Sweden I will have to see the painting in person. I have been to Upsala and to Gamla Upsala and I am still sorry I missed the May Eve bonfire there. The Swedes have a thin layer of Christianity over an undercurrent of paganism, making this story ring quite true.
The story is about sacrafice and about blood but it's sacrafice for greater good in most instances and as the stories wove their way it was a compelling read. I had to put it aside after each story to think about them and about some of the implications.
Marcus Sedwick is worth watching.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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12 April, 2013:
Finished reading
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12 April, 2013:
Reviewed