“She could smell him, something burnt and musky and sweet, like a fire that had gone out. His nails were longer than hers and blackened as if he had been digging in soot. No, she thought. It’s the dark. He tears at it with his claws. No matter how incredibly, carefully goth you get yourself up to be, someone out there is always gothier.” 

“Why do supernatural beings have to be like this? Hive any high school art teacher enough power, and they’d probably dress exactly like Malo Mogge. Make you go to their weird underwater art project opening.”

Kelly Link is indisputably one of the modern masters of the short story. Link’s five published short story collections, and stories published in genre and non-genre magazines, are wonderful works that defy categorisation, drawing equally from the world of fairy tales and our own recognisable world to create exquisitely crafted character pieces that use the Weird to explore our own dislocation from ourselves in everyday life. Like many of her fans, I had been hotly anticipating The Book Of Love, Link’s first foray into the novel. I am happy to report that Link’s magic effortlessly makes the jump into longform. The Book Of Love is suffused with Link’s customary magic, mixing the mundane with the fairy tale and introducing a cast of characters so well drawn they immediately feel like old friends. At over 600 pages, the novel never outstays its welcome. Link takes to the challenges of the novel with such brio it’s hard to imagine this is her first time, keeping the precision of her short stories where every word counts whilst luxuriating in the freedom to spread out afforded by the medium. The Book Of Love is wondrous, charming and magical, everything I expect from a Kelly Link story and everything I want from a Fantasy novel.

Laura Hand, Daniel Knowe and Mo Gorch have been dead for a year, having disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Lost in a shadowy nightmare realm, they are brought back to life by their music teacher Mr Anabin. He reveals to them that they have been trapped in the realm of Bogomil, Mr Anabin’s counterpart who guards the other side of the portal they passed through. Rescued with them is Bowie, a much older spirit who has difficulty remembering who he is who takes on the name and form of the rock star from a poster on Mr Anabin’s wall. Mr Anabin and Bogomil set the conditions for the four’s return to the world of the living: two will remain, two will have to return to Bogomil’s realm. In order to stay, they must learn how to use their newfound magic and discover the mysterious circumstances of their death. Soon they discover that their sleepy town of Lovesend has attracted the attention of Malo Mogge, an ancient eldritch being who is looking for her key that will allow her to return to her terrifying full power. And if that wasn’t enough, Laura, Daniel and Mo face the same problems that any young adult returning home after leaving school might face. Laura’s sister Susannah, who was in a band with Laura and Daniel, and an on-off relationship with Daniel, is dealing with her complicated feelings of loss and resentment, and Laura’s single mother Ruth has been struggling. Daniel’s household has sunk into chaos without him there to look after his younger siblings. And Mo’s famous romance-writing grandmother Maryanne Gorch, known to her fans through her pseudonym Caitlynn Hightower, has died of natural causes whilst Mo has been dead. Meanwhile Malo Mogge’s assistant Thomas recognises Bowie from his previous life and wants to kill him. Laura, Daniel and Mo must overcome their personal issues and work together to figure out the mystery behind Malo Mogge before she finds her key, assumes full power and turns reality into a living nightmare.

The Book Of Love works so well because Link is such a great writer of character. From the moment they appear on the page, Susannah, Laura, Daniel and Mo feel like real people, and their reactions to the weirdness that keeps happening around them and to their personal issues feels so realistic that it pulls the reader along however strange or fantastical the story gets. Laura is the sensible and responsible sibling, an aspiring rock star, used to cleaning up Susannah’s mess and frustrated at her sister’s flakiness, eager to grow into her own space and explore her lesbian sexuality which she hasn’t had the chance to come to grips with cause she’s too busy being the responsible one. Susannah is the chaotic id to Laura’s superego, who responds to the difficulties of being the younger sibling to the high achieving Laura by going off the rails. She misses Laura and Daniel and Mo terribly when they disappear, and has to unpack her resentment about being left out – Mr Anabin’s cover story is that the three of them have been in Ireland on a music exchange course – with the very real trauma she still feels from having lost her sister, her love and her friend. Despite Laura, Daniel and Mo deciding to hide the truth from her for her own safety, Susannah has been haunted by dreams of Bogomil and his realm for her entire life, and is as much a part of the supernatural goings on as the other three. Daniel struggles with his feelings for Susannah and the responsibilities placed on him by his family and his loyalty to Laura’s band. A person with a strong moral core, he believes Mr Anabin and Bogomil’s magic is inherently corrupt and refuses to use it. And Mo, a year younger than the others, is a gay black man in the largely white and straight suburbs of Lovesend, living under the legacy of his rich famous grandmother whilst composing his own music and dealing with the terrible knowledge that his grandmother died while he was gone. Link expertly captures the excitement and fear that comes with the teenage years when you’ve just finished school, finding out that the world is a much bigger and more marvellous and strange place than you ever realised. This human core anchors the story, making it both heartfelt and emotionally believable.

Link’s writing is as gorgeous and as eloquent as we’ve come to expect from her stories. The Book Of Love is a story that takes its time, meandering through multiple viewpoints, taking care to explore the inner lives of even its most minor characters. This makes its fantastical elements all the more magical. Link’s story is built on the dream logic of fairytales, tapping into that childlike sense of wonder and terror. Mr Anabin and Bogomil and especially Malo Mogge are genuinely uncanny and frightening presences, their powers and the magic that becomes a part of Laura, Daniel and Mo equally enticing and chilling. The novel has many moving parts, but Link manages to pull them all together in a way that makes sense and is emotionally satisfying. The biggest compliment I can pay The Book Of Love is that it is every bit as satisfying and as singular as Link’s wonderful short stories. On the strength of this, I hope that Link continues to write both short fiction and novels for a long time to come. 

The Book of Love is available now, order your copy on Bookshop.org