Poison (review)
2005; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 59; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2005.0097
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
ResumoReviewed by: Poison Elizabeth Bush Wooding, Chris Poison. Orchard, 2005 [288p] ISBN 0-439-75570-0$16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-10 Poison, a recalcitrant, defiant adolescent aching to see more of the world than her marshland home, gets her opportunity through domestic tragedy when her young sister is kidnapped by the phaerie and a changeling is left in her place. Encouraged by an eccentric villager who has long filled her head with fantasy and folklore, Poison hires gruff but kindly trader Bram to accompany her as far as Shieldtown, where she will learn the way into the Phaerie Realm and recover her sister. Her first challenge in the other world goes awry in the home of a bone-crunching witch, and Bram rescues her, the sweet-natured, vacuous captive Peppercorn, and a preternatural cat, and then stays on for what appears at first to be an all too predictable Quest, making all scheduled stops to Heroic Triumph. Ah, but there's a twist: Poison is derailed by the revelation that she and her friends and enemies alike are characters in a grand tale being . . . recorded? . . . created? by a Hierophant whose writing brings all action into being. Her belief in free will shaken to the root, Poison threatens to abandon her efforts, and as the warring factions within the Phaerie Realm begin to realize that a finis to Poison's story guarantees an end to their own, Poison regains the upper hand and moves ahead to claim her role as the literal author of her own destiny. Norma Howe's The Adventures of Blue Avenger (BCCB 3/99) has explored facets of the free-will dilemma in lighthearted fashion, but Wooding casts the debate in far more somber hues, and although the heroine's vindication lends the tale a technical happy ending, the precarious fates of the supporting cast (all ignorant of their dependence on Poison's destiny) should rightly trouble and chill teens who take time to ponder the implications. Copyright © 2005 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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