Book Review: "The Onion Girl" by Charles De Lint"

[uberreiniger]

So my other LJ I have pretty much given up on. I will be posting my book reviews here from now on and gradually moving the other reviews over to this one.

Jilly Coppercorn escaped a violent background to become a successful artist with a close-knit group of friends. When a hit-and-run accident nearly kills her and leaves her severely injured, she finds herself finally able to enter the mystical alternate world some of her friends have spoken of. But before she can choose her destiny she must confront old injuries as well as the new, along with a presence from her past that bears a heart full of rage and a serious grudge...

Told from multiple viewpoints, "The Onion Girl" is a good novel that slowly builds to an intense, emotional conclusion. I found it to be slow reading due to pacing issues among the viewpoint characters: some of them are simply more compelling to read than others. I also found the shifts between first and third person perspectives to be jarring but I admit that's a matter of personal taste. De Lint does have an amazing talent for weaving multiple narratives together. The story also weaves in and out of genres, taking equal measures of magical realism, fairy tale, mystery, and gritty personal memoir and weaving them together into a coherent whole. And he does a good job of speaking in multiple characters' voices too, even when they're as diverse as an immortal shapeshifter or a dreamy urban artist. There was one character who self-identifies as "white trash" whose over the top redneck dialect felt a little forced on occasion, but it only felt bothersome on a handful of occasions. I'll chock that up to something that probably just didn't get quite polished in editing.

The greatest strength of "The Onion Girl" is the intense loyalty of Jilly's devoted circle of friends. Unfortunately, the greatest challenge of "The Onion Girl" is... the intense loyalty of Jilly's devoted circle of friends. If you're a first time visitor to De Lint's city of Newford, as I was, be prepared to find the kinship among these characters a bit overwhelming. If you've ever been among a close group of friends with years of history, stories, and inside jokes between them and felt like a complete outsider, that's the feeling you get reading this book. The love and emotional bonds are beautifully depicted, but can make the reader feel almost lonely by their sheer intensity.

Comments

[tempested-bird.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting. I've always liked De Lint's work.

Were you the one who did the review of Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliasotti? I picked that up last year, and was actually surprised by how much I liked it since it's essentially a romance novel. But damn, that an interesting universe.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I'm finally getting around to reading him and am really liking everything so far. I'm enjoying his high fantasy more than the contemporary fantasies like "The Onion Girl," but that's my overall genre preferences rather than any weakness in his writing.

I did review Clockwork Heart and I hope she writes more stories in that universe. I still think the second plot involving the terrorists felt like it was tacked on to pad the book's length, but it doesn't change what a beautiful, exciting novel it was.

[tempested-bird.livejournal.com]

By and large, I tend to prefer contemporary fantasy. I've always liked the whole concept of hidden and crazy worlds in our modern and mundane one. I like some high fantasy, but most of it is just too generically samey for my tastes. De Lint is one of the few from whom I'll read high fantasy.

I really hope she does, too. I really want to see more of that world fleshed out. It's too cool for it to just be a one-shot like that.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I've always liked the whole concept of hidden and crazy worlds in our modern and mundane one.

I do too, but I think I just prefer it to look more like Silent Hill than like Rivendell in Lower Manhattan :)

[tempested-bird.livejournal.com]

I just prefer it to look more like Silent Hill than like Rivendell in Lower Manhattan

Oh, for sho'! That's why I read dark fantasy and horror. =)
Though the high fantasy stuff mixed in with the urban setting is cool if done right, like De Lint's version of Jack The Giant Killer.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I do think De Lint does it right. It feels like his pacing is more even and is faster in his high fantasy work, but that could just be because he uses a more conventional, linear narrative style there.

Have you ever read any Tim Lebbon?

[tempested-bird.livejournal.com]

I have not! Any particular suggestions?

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you asked! :) If you want a very engaging dark urban fantasy/horror then start with Desolation. If you're in the mood for just a sick, eldritch, hallucinatory world then I highly recommend Fallen, which is essentially the novel that Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness would have been had it been written by Lovecraft.

He's got a whole series of novel set in the same world as Fallen but I've yet to read them. One novel that I don't recommend at all is Face which is just a novel full of hollow cliche characters. I don't know where he went wrong there since his other stuff is so good.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Does his website explain the series and connections? I hate starting more series right now, but he sounds interesting... a one-off would be better.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I haven't been to his site in a while, but last time I checked it he actually did have some decent background information on the world. I believe Fallen is chronologically the first book in the setting even though it was written most recently, so starting off with it isn't such a bad way to go.