Yet again, Juliet Marillier has created another beautiful story set in the pagan world she first created in Daughter of the Forest. This novel, which follows one summer that Sibeal, the young seer with enormous talent we met in the last book, spends on her cousin, Johnny’s island, prior to taking her final vows. When a ship is destroyed off the coast and the strange survivors washed ashore, all Sibeal’s beliefs and abilities are put to the test in a way not even her gifts could have foretold.
This 
is a languidly-paced tale, that unfolds gently. Told from two points of view: Sibeal’s and one of the survivor’s, Felix, it is a story of awakening – spiritual, emotional and physical. Deeply moving and at all times gripping, Marillier keeps her readers in the moment and allows us privileged and insightful access to the principal characters. We feel what they do, understand their motivations and self-doubts and, in doing so, relate to them in a way that is very personal and assures we remain with them till the final moments. But the story also allows opportunities for reflection. I found myself pausing, and considering a character’s words or actions in a way I don’t very often. I think this is something to do with the knowledge of druids and pagan times Marillier pours into her stories. An awareness of the inner life that resonates from the story. The historical accuracy and faithful recreation of druidic practices and beliefs, never mind those of healers and warriors as well as those with other roles in the tight-knit community, is fascinating and adds layers to the story and the characters as well as situating the tale firmly in a time all too-soon forgotten.
When Sibeal and Felix undertake a dangerous mission, we’re plunged into an alternative and wonderful belief system that is teering on the brink of extinction. Will Sibeal and Felix be in time to save it or is their journey doomed to fail? And what is it that one of the survivor’s is hiding? Can they unearth the truth before it’s too late?
Many of the characters we’ve come to know and love reappear and we discover more of their lives and ambitions and walk with them as their futures unfold.
There is something so deeply satisfying about a Marillier book. After reading her, I feel a sense of peace that not many books provide. It’s as if, like Sibeal, you want to find a dark pool, or peaceful space and just contemplate quietly for a while. Reach into your self, your past , in an effort to understand the future.
I have no doubt that there will be another in this series soon and I will look forward to it with the same eagerness as I have the others.
ers long after you’ve finished it.
magination and I was despairing of ever reading a gritty vampire book again – except for my annual re-reads of Stoker, that was.
g this book (which I basically devoured in one sitting), I can understand why and am quickly rectifying what has been a huge oversight in my fantasy canon. Marillier’s work is beautiful – her use of language, the pace of the narrative, the character development and her creation of a time and place all too quickly forgotten is wonderfully done. You feel the life in the verdant forest, you smell the fresh morning air, the sun-kissed greenery, you see and sense the cool waters that flow through the land and lie, mysterious and inviting in a body of water that comes to represent the doorway between two very different modes of being. You feel the taint of corruption and the eerie presence of the Fae and the way they watch and influence the world of humans. The manner in which she uses an old folk tale to explore a complex family relationship and the terrible trials a wicked step-mother forces the siblings to endure, is beautifully and originally rendered. You’re constantly hovering on the brink of great love, loss and other disasters and triumphs and become emotionally entwined in a tale you don’t want to end. I don’t want to spoil the story by giving away too much except to say, this is a gorgeous book which I am so glad I read. Needlesstosay, i picked up the sequels and devoured them as well! The first book in a delightful and seductive series. I wish I’d listened to my friends earlier. The only benefit being, I haven’t had to wait for the subsequent books!
t Bride is another fantastic read. Her imagination and flair for writing page-turners just gets better and better. I particularly liked this book as it draws together characters and plots from not only her major Axis series, but two of her stand-alone novels, Threshold (probably my absolute favourite) and Beyond the Hanging Wall which are fabulous in themselves. It’s wonderful to be able to explore the richness and variety of the characters and lands from those books again and to follow what happens when they encounter the Sunsoar family.
awaken and march. The Skraelings begin their movement south, the evil beneath the mountain walks, while the Icarii are about to be introduced to their long-lost kindred – a kindred who are more powerful and canny than they yet realise. But who is friend and who is foe? And what’s going to happen to Ishbel and Maximillian? When the gods themselves don’t know, how can the reader tell?
ters have fallen, gods have revealed their feet of clay, friends have proven to be enemies and vice-a-versa. Like the Yeats poem, The Second Coming, the beast slouches towards Bethlehem – only in this case, it’s the one place believed to be impenetrable. Even the Twisted Citadel (the most wonderful metaphor for the unconscious) has fallen foul of plots… or has it? And what of Axis, Ishbel and Max? Can they rise and triumph as the world faces its darkest hour?
Children’s Beauty Pageants: The Ugly Truth
Mar 30, 2011
THE US children’s beauty contest, the Universal Royalty Beauty Pageant, is coming to Melbourne in July and, according to reports, some mothers are very keen to involve their kids.
The fee of about $300 to enter covers a compulsory beauty competition, modelling and make-up workshops.
Optional extras include spray tans and dressing like a celebrity for $50.
Entrants are told the “positive, fun-filled atmosphere” encourages “self-confidence, education” and “striving to be your best”.
What’s missing from the marketing material are the warnings and condemnation of child psychologists, who claim that these type of competitions not only transform children into “paedophilic fantasies”, as Dr Ruth Schmidt Neven states, but teach kids the wrong lessons about their bodies, appearance and how they’re valued.
Based on the popular American show, Tiaras and Toddlers in which very young children are waxed, spray-tanned, styled in a range of costumes and paraded before an adult audience Australians can take home prizes from a laptop computer to a sparkly crown and teddy bear.
When asked why she would consider entering her children, mother of four Vicki D’Atri said it was “confidence building” and that it was akin to sport. “You can get into it in a relaxed way or go full throttle, depends how you want it.”
Claiming, let alone believing, an arena where very young children are primped like mini-adults and pitted against each other in a bid to decide who’s the prettiest is good for confidence or self-esteem, is to dwell in a fool’s paradise.
Worse, it’s denying the fact that the person to derive the most satisfaction out of the entire debacle is the parent.
Attiring their children like adults and rewarding them, or not, for how they appear, is to indulge in the worst kind of parental narcissism.
Living vicariously through their kids and treating them like fashion accessories or trophies is not a healthy way to act for anyone.
For years, experts have stated how damaging it can be to introduce children at such an early age to this kind of subjective and superficial evaluation.
Instead of listening, these “stage mums” and it is, I am sad to say, mostly mothers ignore advice and enter their children, spouting the positive and deluded mantra that it’s somehow good for the child’s wellbeing.
It’s ironic that something termed “beauty” does little more than reveal the ugly side of parenting.
When little beauty pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in her basement on Christmas Day in 1996, Richard Goldstein wrote in US magazine Village Voice “that only in a nation of promiscuous puritans could it be a good move to equip a six-year-old with bedroom eyes”.
Only now, we’re set to do it here in Australia as well.
Melbourne organisers are bringing out five-year-old American pageant “star” Eden Wood for local contestants and parents to ogle over and for, presumably, aspirational purposes, and Sydney is also holding a pageant in April.
The organisers state on their website that these pageants are for children who love being the centre of attention or who lack self-confidence.
Funny, how a pageant can resolve diametrically opposed behaviours. I’m surprised they didn’t throw in a line about world peace as well.
The Academy Award-winning movie Little Miss Sunshine satirises the whole mindset behind the kiddie pageant industry when Abigail Breslin’s character, Olive, travels across country to enter a contest and performs a striptease to Super Freak. Sadly, the irony is lost on too many people.
Already, the Facebook page “Australians Against Child Beauty Pageants” has been set up and is well supported.
Comments range from describing these pageants as child abuse to claiming they simply groom children for the cosmetic industry.
Smearing make-up on and donning adult clothes has always been a favourite childhood pastime. What has changed is that this natural developmental and imaginative milestone has been high-jacked and moved from the private sphere into public ones so others can profit.
What they’re cashing in on is parental insecurities, egos, competitiveness and desire to have their child publicly endorsed as prettier (better than) the next.
In doing so, they are potentially preparing kids for a lifetime of issues based on an early lesson that how you look and what you wear is more important than who you are and what you do.
Child beauty pageants are a toxic cocktail of the worst aspects of competitive parenting and adults living through children.
Call it what you want, claim what you will, they’re not for the kids.
These pageants are nothing but an excuse for pathetic parents to parade their children for social currency and to raise their own sad profiles.
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