Comment

Thorn Jack

a Night and Nothing Novel
Sep 09, 2016goddessbeth rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I had this on my wishlist (thanks, Jamie!) because it's a retelling of Tam Lin, one of my favorite Scottish folk tales/ballads/stories. And it's a cleverly done one- in fact, I wouldn't call it a retelling so much as a story on its own that touches on Tam Lin toward the end. And I loved it. I love dark fairytales (clearly- I love Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, Juliet Marillier, and Laini Taylor), and this one was spot-on. It's got beautiful writing with an air of sinister mystery. It's also got romance, not the fluffy kind, a good family dynamic, an old New England town that I would absolutely live in, and some pretty great things to say about friendship. The characters are well developed and the pace is consistent throughout the book. And honestly, one of my favorite things about it is the main character, Finn, reacts like a normal person to all the crazy stuff happening around her. She questions her sanity, she can't quite accept the supernatural as supernatural, and she may have narcolepsy (or it may be something more vicious- we never really know). She doesn't blithely stride through this dark underworld, she grapples with it. And her heroic qualities include her persistence and her unwillingness to become jaded. I highly recommend this book to fellow fans of dark fairytales, especially if you're charmed by somewhat-creepy old towns, believably flawed characters, and a host of fey references that you may or may not get as you go along.