It’s common enough for a book of dragons to center on a young wizard harnessing his power, or a knightly lad (usually a farmhand) learning to vanquish evil. The Merlins and Arthurs, if you will. Too rarely do we get to glimpse the other side of the coin. The Madam Mims and Morgan le Fays certainly had their own humble beginnings, but those stories are seldom told. Those climbs to power are … somehow neglected.
But within the pages of The Tatterwing Chronicles you’ll find such a story. A story of a young girl taking her first steps to becoming a notorious witch known as Tatterwing. A story of her rise to power, her flirtation with the darkness, and her tendency to ride the line between hero and villain as the odds stack against her.
Book one finds young Medo as a child of thirteen living deep in the bowels of the swamp, before she’s seen the outside world. Before anyone has heard her name.
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I think this is what would happen if PoisonPoison by Chris Wooding had a love-child with The Edge Chronicles who grew up to be influenced by Disney’s darker period – think Sword in the Stone and Black Cauldron. It is strange and dark and freakin’ gorgeous; perfect for anyone looking for a darker than your average YA read without it being inappropriately so.
Plus it’s illustrated in the most fantastical creepy fairy tale style, reminding me again of Chris Riddell and Tony DiTerlizzi’s Spiderwick Chronicles.
It follows an unusual protagonist: Medo is your usual middle grade/young adult headstrong teenager, but the determined kind, not the snarky “feisty” sort. She’s quiet, cunning, and destined for greater things than living amongst her swamp-dwelling people turning errant knights into toads and the like. Her discovery of a book of Black Magic sees her exiled for reasons she cannot comprehend, thrusting her into the dangers of an outside world she knows nothing about. An outside world where a dragon hunts her, a boy is on a quest to find a magic sword, and people are never quite as they appear.
I cannot praise this enough for having such a sensible main character. Medo’s balancing act between what’s right and wrong, and knowing what to feel when everyone’s against you, is such a strong central theme and never did I feel like things went too far. Her questioning how evil Black Magic is when used for good reasons makes her a far more interesting character to follow. She’s balanced out well by the good natured orphan boy Owyn, the boy who dreams of a treasure that will save him, and the comic relief that is Marlin the conman Magician (who, funnily enough, also dreams of treasure). I loved the warmth of the relationship that grew between them, even if they bicker sometimes. Plus Medo has a squirrel helper with a secret of his own – you cannot beat a good animal sidekick, and there’s no romance storyline as such, just genuinely heart-warming friendships.
But the world is dark and full of terrors. The dragon rears her creepy head fairly often, and isn’t your usual villain. Her cronies known as the Named are perfectly creepy enough to keep the threat level high when she’s not around.
Now my nitpicks would be that while there is an amazingly detailed backstory to the kingdom, it’s delivery could feel a tad confusing at times. I had to stop, re-read and make sense of it, possibly because it’s delivered over the course of two close together conversations that cover both the world and the character backstories, so I might have gotten things mixed up. I also found some of the more action-based sequences hard to follow, but it’s easy enough to just shrug and go along with it.
For anyone wanting a fast-paced story, this probably isn’t the one for you. It’s a slow simmering plot of buried secrets, betrayals and discoveries. I’m a fast reader and was surprised by how long it took me to get through it – not that I could resent the time. Any qualms I’d had seeing reviews of older editions being typo-riddled can generally be put to rest, as there were very few.
I am so happy that the ending is one of those Happy For Now/To Be Continued affairs. It wraps up the events perfectly but still leaves the promise of more. I fully intend to go on with the next book because who can resist the lure of a morally ambiguous fairy tale hero whose companionships make you feel warm and fuzzy inside? 4.5 stars.