The Binding by Bridget Collins

The Binding

by Bridget Collins

LOSE YOURSELF IN THE BREAKOUT SENSATION OF THE YEAR

SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019

‘Brilliant’ Joanna Cannon
‘Spellbinding’ Guardian
‘Magic’ Erin Kelly
‘Immersive’ Sunday Times
‘Gorgeous' Stella Duffy
‘Astounding’ Anna Mazzola

Imagine you could erase your grief.
Imagine you could forget your pain.
Imagine you could hide a secret.
Forever.

Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice – but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse.

He will learn to hand-craft beautiful volumes, and within each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s something you want to forget, he can help. If there’s something you need to erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will never remember your secret, however terrible.

In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, row upon row of books – and memories – are meticulously stored and recorded.

Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of them has his name on it.

THE BINDING is an unforgettable, magical novel: a boundary-defying love story and a unique literary event.

Reviewed by kimbacaffeinate on

4 of 5 stars

Share
Books in this historical fantasy aren’t at all like ours. They are beautiful, leatherbound books created by Book Binders. These gifted creators, experience your story as if it is their own. They take all those memories of an event, person or place and bind them in YOUR book. The Binder then protect those books keeping your memories safe. You walk away with no memory of the story or in fact binding.

But, as with any gift some will abuse these powers. Imagine that power and wealth could have a crime erased, keep a witness from remembering. Why one could get away with the most heinous of crimes.

While not all binders are scrupulous some seek to profit. Greed can get you a book filled with the darkest tale. And worse, what if your memories were taken from you? While the person giving the memory must give consent we all know how social ladders work. A maid refusing consent could lose their position etc.

In The Binding, Collins shares a love story between a farmer and the son of a wealthy lord. I was surprised and delighted by the LGBT romance. At first it appears Lucian is interested in Emmett’s beautiful younger sister Alta. There was tension between Emmett and Lucian until the three became fast friends. It was a slow-building, innocent romance that soon became more.

The author pulled me in, with Emmett’s mysterious illness and discovery of his gifts. The story unfolds in both past and present. We follow Emmett and his sister, Alta, as they meet and befriend Lucian Darnay, then to the time Emmet is sent to the binder and eventually to the city to work for a binder.

The world building and writing pulled me in and held me spellbound. I enjoyed how the author showed all aspects of binding with its touch of magical realism. The characters came to life before me as the author revealed twists and turns that brought missing pieces of the story to life. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 12 March, 2019: Finished reading
  • 12 March, 2019: Reviewed