Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Midwinterblood

by Marcus Sedgwick

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.

Reviewed by leahrosereads on

4 of 5 stars

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4 Stars

^^I took off .5 Star because of the second story and .5 Star because I didn't get completely interested into the story until around page 60.^^


Midwinterblood started a little slow for me. I didn’t realize that I’d be seeing multiple stories within one novel, but once I realized that, I ended up understanding the novel a little bit better and enjoying it more fully.


The story follows two characters, Eric (spelled differently in different stories) and Merle as they meet up in different lives, but never for long. At it’s basics, ultimately Midwinterblood is a tragic love story. There's also mystery and a little bit of light horror in there, but this story is centered around the love between Eric and Merle.


So, first, what I liked about the novel:

Loved the two main characters in almost all of the stories.

The times that they meet are spread out over several centuries, and I liked seeing each of the different settings.

I liked the mystery surrounding the Blessed Island.

Writing was relatively well done.

The ending.


What I didn't care for too much:

Second story has two minor characters named Edward and Isabella. Freaking threw off my reading.

There were times that both the main characters made really, really stupid choices.

Umm, it was a love story (so the cover flap said), but there were times that Eric and Merle met up in past lives that wouldn’t allow for them to be lovers. So, at first I thought that was awkward.

However it did end up adding to this story as being more than just a love story, by adding in family and friendships between the two, so yay!(toss this one up in the good section)



Although the ending was upsetting, with both the MC's dying. I really loved this novel as a whole. The stories end up all coming together, and Marcus Sedgwick did a great job at giving the reader an ending to these lovers’ multiple lives. I even think how it ended was necessary.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I’m definitely going to look into other works created by this author.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 20 August, 2014: Finished reading
  • 20 August, 2014: Reviewed