Review: Karen Healey, Guardian of the Dead

[labellementeuse]

Karen Healey's brand new shiny novel Guardian of the Dead is the 29th book that I have read this year, and the first I have felt compelled to post about. This may be because I read a very early draft of this novel and because I think karenhealey is aces... but I don't think that's it. I think it's because this is a wonderful book that caters pitch-perfectly to all of my favourite things - but will also be loved by people whose reasons for loving this novel aren't quite so narrow.

Guardian of the Dead (Allen & Unwin, 2010; Little, Brown have it in the States) is a YA novel. It is urban fantasy. And it is set emphatically in New Zealand - in parts of New Zealand, as it happens, which I know very well, as well as in some parts I don't. And it draws on New Zealand and Māori mythology. These things all make it a bullet-proof book for me - in fact, when I was asked recently what my dream book would be to publish, I said 'Oh, Allen & Unwin are already doing it. It's my friend Karen's book.'

This is not a book that apologetically borrows from Western fairies and fantasy traditions (although it does draw from Western myth). It is not set in Europe, or an alternative Europe. It is not set in an alternative New Zealand that just so happens not to have any Māori in it. This is a book that slots right into a small box in my head hitherto containing only Gaelyn Gordon's Stonelight and Mindfire, and the collected works of Margaret Mahy - fantasy that is steeped in New Zealandness, fantasy that could not have been written anywhere else, with a modern sensibility and terrifically drawn women and girls.

Under the cut is my second-favourite passage in the book. It comes relatively late in the piece, right at the beginning of part two, and therefore might be considered to be spoilerific. (My favourite passage is DEFINITELY spoilery and really you need to have read the whole book to get it.) At any rate.

    The moon was nearly full and reassuringly clear in the sky, unclouded by tendrils of fog. I stared up at it as we began to trudge along, clutching the bag in numb fingers, humming along to the music the pub was still pumping into the still air. Then I jolted to a halt.
    'Mark.'
    'Yes?'
    'There's a woman in the moon.'
    I coul see her. She was clutching a scubby tree, the roots dangling from her desperate grip. Enormous dark eyes seemed to meet mine, filled with an immense despair.
    'Yep,' Mark said. 'There is.'
    'But that's--' I shied away from impossible. 'She'd be too big!'
    Iris looked. 'I don't see anything, Ellie,' she said apologetically.
    I walked forward, still staring. When I blinked the woman was gone, replaced by the familiar near-circle of the waxing moon. I blinked again and she reappeared, dark hair falling around her face. 'She's so sad.'
    'She can't get back down,' Mark said. 'She cursed the moon on a cloudy night, and so the offended moon took her away.'
    'I know the story,' I said absently. 'She stubbed her toe.'
    'I know how she felt,' Iris said.
    'Look at the stars,' Mark suggested.
    I did. They were only stars, at first, a misty swirl across the dark sky. It took a moment to make out the shapes betwen them, the curves suggested by their shadows, but when I saw the true picture I stopped walking altogether.
    The sky was the body of a man, so large he defied comprehension, massive arms stretching yearningly towards the earth. He was clothed in a cloak woven of light. The stars were a gift, created by a son for his sorrowing father.

So yeah, I think that's pretty fabulous. I urge you to read this book. Wellingtonians, I know it's at Whitcoulls Lambton Quay and the Children's Bookshop, not sure about Unity &c.

Comments

[shoeless-girl.livejournal.com]

Oh man, sounds great. *adds to enormous list of books to read*

[aimeesworld.livejournal.com]

I'm just up to part 2 and it is excellent.

It isn't at Unity yet, just in case Wellingtonians are wanting to buy independent and don't want to go to Kilburnie.

(When I went out to the children's bookshop today, the woman at the counter asked me if I was doing the publishing course because apparently Cara has been plugging it to you all)

[kitsuchi.livejournal.com]

I haven't even! I think she was just impressed when my Mum bought two copies for the school library...

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*g* It's totally because I was in yesterday morning and she was like blah blah there's been some buzz about this book, I said yay cos it's by a friend of mine, she said yeah someone else on the staff is doing it as her staff pick, and I said oh yeah, Cara right? and she said yeah, and I said yeah I'm doing publishing with her. :P

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Haha! That's totally because I was in before you yesterday and mentioned Cara and also how excited I was to read the book. *crosses fingers for the book getting lots of buzz*!

[aimeesworld.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, that's awesome.

Yes, fingers crossed. Lambton Quay Whitcoulls had it in the window and a big display in the children's section, which is certainly promising!