The Butterfly Cabinet

Title: The Butterfly Cabinet

Author: Bertie McGill

Publisher: Free Press (July 2011)

Genre(s): Historical Fiction

Length: 240 pages

Synopsis: Based on the true story of a child’s death, a family secret decades old is slowly revealed from the perspective of two very different women.  Half the story comes from the prison diary of Harriet Ormond, convicted of murdering her own daughter, and half from the child’s nanny, Maddie.  It is only in the intermingling of these two perspectives that a truth no one ever guessed at comes to light, seventy years too late.

My Rating: 4 Stars

My Opinion:

Nothing is what it seems in this novel.  A child found dead, strangled on the restraints used for punishment.  A mother convicted, imprisoned, and broken.  A servant who cared deeply for the children she tended.  It’s a façade as smooth and seamless as the wings of the butterflies Harriet Ormond keeps in neatly pinned rows in the drawers of her butterfly cabinet.  Her “pieces of sky,” she calls them.  It is an apt collection for a woman most at home under the open sky and a window into her suffering during the year she is imprisoned for her daughter’s death.  Harriet is painted as a harsh woman, cruel and unfeeling, and in her diary, her own words are not self-pitying.  They are, however, revealing.  Another side of Harriet comes to light between the lines of her prison diary, a side at which even her family did not guess.  Her counterpart, the woman everyone knows as Nanny Maddie, has her own secrets.  She’s kept them nearly for seventy years, and haunted by things left unsaid, her story at last is told.  There are no villains in this novel, and though readers will find themselves trying to fit characters into that mold, no one is easy to hate or to love.  The book does take a bit to hit its stride; the back-and-forth through time and space takes some adjustment on the part of the reader, and there are quite a few minor characters to keep track of.  Once the voices of these two women are established, however, their stories grow only more heart-wrenching with every turn of the page. 

The Curewife

Title: The Curewife

Author: Claire-Marie Watson

Publisher: Polygon (September 2003)

Genre(s): Historical Fiction

Length: 224 pages

Synopsis:  Part witch, part wise-woman, Grissel Jaffray is the last in a long line of curewives stretching back through the history of Scotland.  The story is told through the fictional diary of this very real woman as she marries and moves from her native Aberdeen to Dundee, taking with her the knowledge of herbal healing and spells she learned from her foremothers.  Grissel is a keenly intelligent woman; her powers of observation serve her well as the world around her erupts in political turmoil and intrigue.  Her city is torn apart by war and famine, and Grissel manages to keep her family one step ahead.  Ultimately, though, the very knowledge that keeps her there may cost her dearly.  

My Rating: 4 Stars

My Opinion: 

This book is genius.  The voice is utterly authentic, tricky historical spellings, vernacular and all.  The haphazard spacing between diary entries moves the reader forward from event to event without any loss of pace or continuity and lends to the realistic feel of the whole book.  Grissel is a compelling character, neither wholly trustworthy nor entirely dishonorable, but very human.  She loves her family fiercely and without reserve, but is nonetheless manipulative, egotistical, and confident to a fault.  In the end, the only reason I give this book four out of five stars is because I wanted more from it.  Watson tempts her readers with hints of a vast story lurking behind Grissel’s words, but refuses to open the window wide enough to see.  Of course, without an in depth knowledge of Scottish history, I was often at a loss as to exactly what was happening in a historical context, but in truth it doesn’t matter.  The reader views these happenings as Grissel does, not as historically important, but as momentarily devastating.  In fact, no event in the book is “historical” at all.  To Grissel, this is her modern world, and that attitude allows readers to step in beside her and have a look around.  If only Grissel would allow a bit more room for us as we follow her through her world, this book would have easily rated five stars from me.

Retribution Falls

Title: Retribution Falls

Author: Chris Wooding

Publisher: Spectra (April 2011)

Genre(s): Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Adventure

Length: 480 pages

Synopsis: Led by a feckless captain, the crew of the airship Ketty Jay has led an aimless existence; smuggling and petty crime are their daily fare, drowned in liberal amounts of alcohol to lessen the weight of past troubles.  They are a diverse lot with only one thing in common— they have nowhere else to go.  When powers beyond their imagining step in to frame the crew for an appalling crime, captain and crew realize they have a choice.  They can run and hide as they have been doing all their lives, hoping their pasts never catch up, or they can turn and make a stand together, though all odds are against them.

My Rating: 4 Stars

My Opinion:

Chris Wooding’s steampunk adventure is a fun little book.  For fans of steampunk, it’s got something for everyone: clockwork, airships, magic, monsters.  Wooding has a flair for description and unexpected twists of plot that read almost cinematically.  He brings his readers along for the crew’s elation when a harebrained plan turns out unexpectedly well and tosses a bucket of ice water over them as fortunes take a sudden turn for the worse.  The forward momentum never lags even when his characters are lost and confused and uncertain where to turn.  That being said, the book is not perfect.  Occasional lapses in tone are distracting; for characters that deal in innuendo and subterfuge, there are a few graphic details that seem out of place in their description, though not in their nature.  The cast of characters, though it functions well as an ensemble, leaves a bit to be desired in the way of individuals.  A few are compelling and well rounded, dealing out backstories that make readers ache with compassion.  The rest fall flat, contributing occasional one liners or professional expertise as needed.  In his attempts to differentiate these supporting characters from one another, Wooding ends up repeating their distinguishing features over and over until one-dimensionality is inevitable.  For the most part, though, this doesn’t detract from the novel’s plot-driven dash from start to finish.  Wooding’s created a vibrantly imagined reality with room for exploration.  Though it borrows heavily from fantasy and steampunk conventions (the parallels with Joss Whedon’s television series Firefly are occasionally a little close for comfort), I am curious to see what other stories it may hold.