'Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations. The Briar family of witches run the town of Silverton, caring for its inhabitants with their skills and magic. In the usual scheme of things, they would be burnt for their sorcery, but the church has given them dispensation in return for their protection of the borders of the Darklands, where the much feared Leech Lords hold sway.
'Ellie is being trained as a steward, administering for the town, and warding off the insistent interest of the church. When her grandmother dies suddenly, Ellie's cousin Audra rises to the position of Briar Witch, propelling Ellie into her new role. As she navigates fresh challenges, an unexpected new ability to see and speak to the dead leads her to uncover sinister family secrets, stories of burnings, lost grimoires and evil spells. Reeling from one revelation to the next, she seeks answers from the long dead and is forced to decide who to trust, as a devastating plot threatens to destroy everything the Briar witches have sacrificed so much to build.'
Having discovered Angela Slatter's Sourdough universe a few years ago (well into its existence) I quickly fell in love with the setting. Slatter has created some of my favourite dark fantasy novels of the last few years, and as such I was excited to dive back into that setting with her latest novel, The Briar Book of the Dead.
The story takes readers to the town of Silverton, where a family of witches, the Briars, watch over the town and help those that live there, despite their kind being hated by the church. The main reason why the Briars are allowed to continue existing is that Silverton is close to the border with the Darklands, an evil place inhabited by the evil Leechlords, and the Briars keep the border protected. Ellie Briar is one of the granddaughters of the two head witches of the family, but was born without any magic, something that sets her apart from the other women in her family. Because of her lack of magic Ellie struggles to be taken seriously, and is sometimes looked down on. However, when her grandmother dies, Ellie finds herself thrust into a new position, one that leads her to discover some shocking secrets of her family that have been carefully buried.
Compared to the last two books from Slatter, All the Murmuring Bones and The Path of Thorns, The Briar Book of the Dead felt like a much slower burn of a read. At least towards the beginning of the book. Things start kind of slowly, and it takes a good way into the main bulk of the book before the plot begins in full. However, this doesn't mean that the start of the book is bad by any means, as readers get to spend a lot of time with Ellie, seeing what her life if like, her relationships, and the town of Silverton itself. It helps to build this small corner of this world, and adds to the overall richness of the narrative, even if it does feel a bit like you're waiting around for things to start to begin with.
Once things begin in earnest, however, the book becomes very hard to put down. By that point you've become quite invested in Ellie and her story, and as such when the main plot ramps up you find yourself unable to stop reading. You've come to really care for Ellie and want to see her come out okay by the end. This is one of the things that I love about Slatter's books, she's able to writer incredibly engaging and realistic female protagonists that you keep wanting to read more of.
But, this is a book set within the Sourdough universe, and so despite the wonderful protagonist it's a book filled with dark subject matter, some that might test readers at times, especially when dealing with topics like miscarriage, suicide, and psychosis. Slatter doesn't shy away from making her world a cruel one, but never revels in that cruelty like some writers. Instead, it makes for a layered reading experience that will mean different things to different readers.
Overall, I had a wonderful time with The Briar Book of the Dead, and much like the other books in this world I'd happily recommend it to fans of the genre.
No comments:
Post a Comment