THE COURTING OF BRISTOL KEATS by Mary E. Pearson (BOOK REVIEW)
After losing both their parents, Bristol Keats and her sisters struggle to stay afloat in their small, quiet town of Bowskeep. When Bristol begins to receive letters from an ‘aunt’ she has never heard of, who promises to help, Bristol reluctantly agrees to meet her – and discovers that everything she thought she knew about her family is a lie. Her father might even still be alive. Not killed but kidnapped by terrifying creatures and taken to another realm – the one he is from.
Desperate to save her father and find the truth, Bristol journeys to a land of gods, fae and monsters. Pulled into a dangerous world of magic and intrigue, she makes a deadly bargain with the fae king, Tyghan. But what she does not know is that he is the one who drove her parents to live a life on the run. And he is just as determined as she is to find her father – dead or alive . . .
Honest admission, up-front: I’m not a fan of ACOTAR. I tried to read it multiple times, but just couldn’t get on with it. Sorry.
I’m a Shakespeare fan (despite having survived my English degree), so when I think ‘fairy’, I think of the traditional Olde Worlde versions. A Midsummer Night’s Dream and suchlike.
My favourite modern depictions of the lands of faery are Mark Chadbourn’s Age of Misrule books, and Seana Kelly’s Slaughtered Lamb series. I’m British. Faeries (however you spell them) are not nice, pretty Ren Faire creatures. Remember the beginning of Labyrinth, where Sarah gets bitten? Yep, that.So I admit to being a little leery of The Courting of Bristol Keats. It’s a beautiful book, with an enticing setup, but was this just going to be another in the Maas-style?
First off, this did indeed ‘court’ me from the first. Bristol herself is an strong, interesting heroine, and her sisters are great – I was actually a little sad that they didn’t all get to go on adventures together!
The setup in what is very loosely this world was solid, managing to make small-town America seem somehow otherworldly and remote, with its own everyday battles of bills and stress. The girls do their best despite being orphaned and struggling with grief, and the townsfolk seem sympathetic.
Until Bristol is pulled into the world of Elphame by a High and Mighty Fairy King. And off we go!
The realistic characterisation combined with the multiple perspectives here to keep me turning the pages, as the reader is required to pay attention – nothing is what it seems (appropriately enough) and I was quickly keen to see how things would resolve as the reality of this Otherworld is revealed. I confess to becoming quite attached to some minor characters, such as Bristol’s sisters and some of the fairy knights. Everyone is an individual, and that’s great to see with such a large cast.
My main frustration was that we see so much that it’s difficult not to yell at Bristol sometimes, because she (and others) seem to miss what’s obvious to us. It’s the old dramatic tension trope of If Characters Only Talked to Each Other More. But so it is with enemies-to-lovers romance – the ultimate in Will-They-Won’t-They being clear from the start, after all.
I actually appreciated that the romance aspect of this tale wasn’t a main priority until quite a way in. Bristol is allowed to find her feet, to get to know everyone as they do her, and it never seemed rushed. I suspect some may feel this is a particularly slow burn, but I liked that, as it allows the world-building to build up steadily.
I must mention one thing about the book, though. I’m a professional Pagan, and have studied the old Celtic tales of the British Isles; therefore it was intriguing to see the names of those deities being used here. Ceridwen, Danu, and so on… except the only thing to be used is those names. There’s little connection to the myths they came from, except in occasional mentions of vague ‘God of This-or-That’, or Ceridwen’s Cauldron being tweaked to suit the needs of the plot.
I was a little disappointed that nothing more was really done with these rich cultural touchstones, and wondered if the author might not have been better making up her own world and pantheon? As it is, it seemed a little Percy Jackson in places. This book is marketed as ‘adult’ fantasy, but it often seemed very Young Adult to me.
Overall, Bristol Keats is good fun and definitely better than a lot of its contemporaries in the Modern Fantasy Fairytale subgenre. This chunky tome would make an excellent companion on a cold winter night!
With thanks to the publishers for the advance copy.
The Courting of Bristol Keats is available now, you can order your copy on Bookshop.org
[…] post THE COURTING OF BRISTOL KEATS by Mary E. Pearson (BOOK REVIEW) appeared first on […]